A PROTECTIVE TARIFF AND EXPORTS. 103 



and reimburse themselves from consumers for their losses in break- 

 ing down the American industry. Such is the certain result when 

 there are no customs duties. But if a high Protective tariff 

 should be laid on the import of such articles as we can ourselves 

 produce, then the crushing-out process becomes very expensive, 

 and is almost sure to fail. Consequently, capital is encouraged to 

 invest in manufacturing undertakings ; domestic labor receives em- 

 ployment ; home resources are developed ; industry is rapidly di- 

 versified ; purchasing power is created by the payment of wages ; 

 production and consumption grow apace; commerce becomes 

 active and widespread ; inventive genius is everywhere stimulated ; 

 labor-saving machinery is multiplied in all directions; finished 

 products grow cheaper and cheaper; the sciences and arts flourish; 

 prosperity is universal; and the freedom of man expands and 

 intensifies. If we have not had this full measure of blessing, it is 

 because our tariff policy has been capricious, vacillating and un- 

 reliable, thus creating fluctuations of effect, and leading to conflict 

 and disorder. 



Manufacturers, considered as a class, require a high Protective 

 tariff as a means of securing a market for their products. If a 

 man makes 100 tin pans a week, which he must sell at an average 

 profit of twenty-five cents, in order to carry on his business and 

 live, he would be far better off if he could make and sell 10,000 

 pans a week at a profit of one cent each ; for he would gain, in the 

 former case, only $25 ; in the latter, $100. Not only would he 

 benefit his customers; he would also give increased employment 

 and wages to labor. Every additional mechanic he would employ 

 would require additional food, clothing, etc., to be supplied by 

 somebody else. By such interaction and reaction, all persons 

 willing to labor may ultimately find steady employment and good 

 pay. Then each produces something to be exchanged for some- 

 thing else. The greater the number of commodities produced, 

 the greater, other things being equal, will be the number of ex- 

 changes. Commerce tends, therefore, to grow with the increase 

 of production ; and production tends to increase under a high 

 Protective tariff. 



Under a non-Protective tariff the result is different. Then we 

 surrender to European countries the bulk of our manufacturing in- 



