EFFECTS OF PROTECTIVE DUTIES. 59 



CHAPTER XIII. 



i 



EFFECTS OF PROTECTIVE DUTIES. 



OUR attention has been called to the following paragraph in 

 the Chicago Times, of Nov. 18: 



The advocates of the Protection piracy are just now busily engaged in demon- 

 strating that tariff duties do not affect prices. If Uncle Sam puts a duty on any 

 article, the foreigner forthwith drops his price, and his product is offered in our 

 market at the same price as before. If that is so, two things must necessarily fol- 

 low : First. Protection can not protect, and all those worthies who spend their 

 time and money in Washington every winter, trying to induce Congress to raise 

 the duties on their products, are laboring under a great delusion and spending 

 their substance in vain. Second. Foreigners must give us some of their products 

 out and out. The duties on many articles are equal to or greater than the for- 

 eign prices, and if the foreigner reduces his prices to the amount of the duties he 

 must needs reduce them to zero, or a ruinous quantity, and actually pay us some- 

 thing for taking his goods. Such are some of the logical deductions from Protec- 

 tionist doctrines. 



The Times seems to be incapable of stating fairly an opponent's 

 position. Now, the best evidence men can furnish of confidence 

 in the accuracy of their own belief consists in frankly and honestly 

 presenting the. arguments of their opponents. In misrepresenting 

 our views, the Times makes a virtual acknowledgment of the weak- 

 ness of its cause. 



Our proposition is that the general effect of Protective duties is to 

 cheapen prices to consumers, not that "tariff duties do not affect 

 prices." Indeed, in the very next sentence, the Times admits, in 

 its blundering way, that such is not our position, by saying that 

 " if Uncle Sam puts a duty on any article, the foreigner forthwith 

 drops his price, and his product is offered in our market at the same 

 price as before." The Times insists that Protection can not pro- 

 tect, if that be the fact. Fully to illustrate this point, we adopt a 



