310 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



as well as against the public and so tend to keep down wages 

 while increasing profits to employers. 



10. That, as a matter of fact, industries which can live only 

 by protection are always in a precarious position, on account 

 of the fluctuations in popular sentiment. At any time the 

 protection may be abandoned, and the industry consequently 

 crippled, people thrown out of employment, expensive plants 

 rendered useless, and losses incurred which will far more than 

 absorb whatever profit has been made during the period of 

 fictitious prosperity. 



11. That the largest amount of products will be secured at 

 the least expense if all portions of the earth are devoted to 

 whatever they are most fit for, and that this will always be 

 the case, in the long run, when there are no artificial barriers 

 erected. 



From the above resum^ of the arguments on the two sides 

 of the question, the reader may determine which side he will 

 espouse. 



I have not introduced into the argument on either side of 

 the tariff controversy the question of the "balance of trade" 

 — that is, the question whether we do or should try to sell 

 more, in the aggregate, to foreign nations than in the aggre- 

 gate we buy of them, for the reason that I do not think it 

 belongs there. Protectionists, however, sometimes insist that 

 a protective policy always assures to any nation the power 

 of obtaining for itself a favorable balance of trade, while free- 

 traders claim that if this power, if it exists, which they deny, 

 were regularly employed, it would be often at a cost which 

 no nation could endure. As I doubt whether either can 

 prove the other wrong it will be most profitable not to go 

 very far into the subject. It may, however, be well to con- 

 sider it briefly. 



The discussion in regard to the balance of trade in inter- 

 national transactions began more than a century and a half 

 since, but most early discussion is so complicated with refer- 

 ence to ancient ideas in regard to a supposed necessity of 

 regulating the international movements of the precious 

 metals, as to be almost worthless as an aid to a consideration 



