7. We have space but for a very brief outline of this important question.
It is one which has for a long time agitated the public mind, and one
on which honest and highly intelligent men widely differ. A _protective
tariff_ so called, is a system of duties levied by the government of a
country on certain commodities produced in other countries to prevent
their coming into unequal competition with similar commodities of
domestic production in such a way as to cripple or destroy the industries
implied in the latter.
_Free trade_ is opposed to all those duties, the design of which is to
afford any advantage to domestic industry. It implies the same freedom
between producers in different nations as between those in the same
community.
The main arguments in favor of protection are as follows:
(1) It is the only sure defense of new and feeble industries against
the unequal competition of those long established in other or older
communities. Freedom of competition is admitted as desirable, but it is
denied that this exists under the conditions referred to. A community
which has long experience, skilled labor, and accumulated capital,
possesses great advantages in the contest with a nation destitute of them.
(2) It is urged that a restrictive system gives a steady and uniform
market at an expense less than the benefit accruing.
(3) It is also supposed to be essential to societary completeness; that
is, to such a diversification of industry as will most profitably meet
the diversity of ability and aptitude in the community.
(4) It is thought to be necessary to the highest prosperity of the
unprotected interests. Among these agriculture is the most prominent.
It is for its advantage that the tax of transportation be saved by
having manufacturing communities in the midst of agricultural areas.
Also, a community compelled to confine itself to agriculture mainly,
must virtually transport its soil, the land constantly diminishing in
fertility.
The advocates of free trade, on the other hand, present the following
arguments in its favor, and objections against protection:
(1) Free trade is said to be the method of nature.
(2) It is objected that protection violates the right of every man to do
what he will with his own.
(3) It is said to be of the nature of a tax on all the other industries
for the support of those protected.
(4) It is objected that the restrictive system causes a diminution of
exports from the protected country, on the principle that if the latter
does not buy of the former, then the former can not pay for the goods of
the latter.
(5) Another argument is that “infant industries” under protection never
come to maturity.
(6) Finally, the case of the United States is cited as an instance of
free trade on a large scale between widely remote sections, with the most
satisfactory results.