PREFACE. 



My object in writing the articles contained in these pages has been to convince 

 the public generally, and farmers particularly, that the policy of Protection to 

 home industry is promotive of their interests and conducive to their welfare. 

 Our present tariff system has been so wickedly misrepresented, and even willfully 

 lied about, that it is high time the other side should be heard on its merits, and 

 that the people should investigate for themselves. 



The principal propositions which I think have been conclusively established 

 in the following pages are these: That farmers have obtained much better prices 

 for their produce, and have been able to export it in larger quantities, under Protec- 

 tion than under partial Free Trade. That the Protective policy operates to bring 

 the manufacturer to the side of the farmer, thus dispensing with useless transporta- 

 tion between the two, and with superfluous middlemen. That the same policy 

 constantly tends, with accelerating force, to enhance the value of land, of labor, 

 and of raw materials, including the produce of the soil, while diminishing the 

 value of manufactured articles the more, too, as these take on higher forms of 

 reproduction. That the foreign market is secondary in importance, the market 

 at home being the one in which the great mass of domestic products must be sold 

 and consumed. That foreigners either partly or wholly pay a very considerable 

 amount of the duties levied on imports, and thus are forced to contribute to the 

 support of our Government as an offset to the privilege of our markets, diminish- 

 ing the taxes that otherwise would have to be paid by our own people. That 

 railroad construction and transportation have been cheapened by the tariff on 

 rails. That the "sell dear, buy cheap" maxim is merely a delusive form of 

 words. That an increasing proportion of manufactures enters into our domestic 

 exports under the Protective system. That Protection is highly beneficial to the 

 manufacturer, as well as to the public, notwithstanding that it operates to reduce 

 the prices of his products. And that the price of everything the farmer has to 

 buy has been cheapened by Protection. 



For these -propositions, and for the facts, figures, and arguments adduced in 

 their behalf, I ask, in the interest of truth and of patriotism, the earnest atten- 

 tion of the reader. 



D. H. MASON. 



Chicago, November, 1875. 



