636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



states of the same, country, should it be regarded as beneficent to 

 the welfare of a country when every country is only a state in 

 the great federation of humanity we call the world ? Do not the 

 elemental principles of existence apply to countries as well as to 

 states ? They certainly do. Then whence the argument that a 

 protective tariff between states of the same country is wrong, 

 while between countries even of the same blood and race it is 

 right and proper, and conducive to national prosperity ? Is it 

 not plain that the device of a protective tariff between countries 

 is a relic of the old barbarous idea of protection, the idea that 

 people belonging to other communities are enemies, and that we 

 must have as little to do with them as possible, except to fight 

 them if they trespass on our rights or threaten to take trade away 

 from us ? It must be so, or men who profess to believe in justice 

 and fraternity and love between all mankind never would be 

 found advocating the detestable and misleading system of or- 

 ganized selfishness built up of burdensome taxes upon the rela- 

 tions that alone can civilize, enlighten, and elevate the whole of 

 humanity and so conduce immeasurably to the welfare of the 

 whole world. 



One of the chief arguments of the orators who favor protection 

 is, that under the tariff system the prosperity of this country has 

 been very great, and as usual they cite an endless array of statis- 

 tics to prove the truth of what they say. But is the assertion 

 reasonable ? Can we who govern our ideas by common sense and 

 not by the dictates of short-sighted expediency agree with the 

 orators when they say that our national prosperity is due to pro- 

 tection ? Do we not find, when we come to consider the matter, 

 that through our boundless resources and unlimited energy in 

 industrial affairs we have prospered in spite of the protective 

 tariff, not because of it ? If the State of Pennsylvania adopted a 

 protective tariff and continued to prosper and heap up wealth 

 within her borders, should we say that it was because of the 

 tariff ? No. We should see at once that her prosperity was due 

 to causes superior to the disadvantages of a tariff system — that is, 

 to the extraordinary capacity of her citizens for industrial affairs 

 and the vast stores of material at their command, enabling them 

 to conquer obstacles under which less powerful communities 

 would languish or utterly perish. If a man sets up a bazaar for 

 the sale of any sort of goods, and charges an admission fee to 

 customers, and yet can sell his goods low enough to induce cus- 

 tomers to pay the admission fee and enter and make purchases, 

 and if this man amasses a great deal of money from his business, 

 we shall not be likely to say that his riches are due to his system 

 of admission fees. We simply conclude that he must have an 

 extraordinary capacity for getting his goods at a low price ; he 



