PROTECTION OR FREE TRADE AN EXAMINATION OF THE TARIFF QUESTION,
WITH ESPECIAL REGARD TO THE INTERESTS OF LABOR BY HENRY GEORGE
Author of The Science of Political Economy, Social Problems 1
Progress and Poverty A Perplexed Philosopher, The Condition of
Labor, The Land Question, Property in Land etc. ROBERT SCHALKENBACH
FOUNDATION 11 PARK PLACE NEW YORK 1935 TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE
ILLUSTRIOUS FRENCHMEN OF A CENTURY AGO QUESNAY, TURGOT, MIRABEAU,
CONDORCET, DUPONT AND THEIR FELbOWS WHO IN THE NIGHT OF DESPOTISM
FORESAW THE GLORIES OF THE COMING DAY Prove all things hold fast
that which is good. 19 PREFACE. Ethis book I have endeavored to
determine whether protection or free trade better accords with the
inter ests of labor, and to bring to a common conclusion on this
subject those who really desire to raise wages. I have not only
gone over the ground generally trav ersed, and examined the
arguments commonly used, but, carrying the inquiry further than the
controversial ists on either side have yet ventured to go, I have
sought to discover why protection retains such popular strength in
spite of all exposures of its fallacies to trace the con nection
between the tariff question and those still more important social
questions, now rapidly becoming the burning questions n of our
times and to show to what radical measures the principle of free
trade logically leads. While pointing out the falsity of the belief
that tariffs can protect labor, I have not failed to recognize the
facts which give this belief vitality, and, by an exami nation of
these facts, have shown, not only how little the working-classes
can hope from that mere revenue reform which is miscalled free
trade, but how much theyhave to hope from real free trade. By thus
har monizing the truths which free traders perceive with the facts
that to protectionists make their own theory plau sible, I believe
I have opened ground upon which those separated by seemingly
irreconcilable differences of opinion may unite for that full
application of the free iz PREFACE. trade principle which would
secure both the largest production and the fairest distribution of
wealth. By thus carrying the inquiry beyond the point where Adam
Smith and the writers who have followed him have stopped, I believe
I have stripped the vexed tariff question of its greatest
difficulties, and have cleared the way for the settlement of a
dispute which otherwise might go on interminably. The conclusions
thus reached raise the doctrine of free trade from the emas culated
form in which it has been taught by the English economists to the
fullness in which it was held by the predecessors of Adam Smith,
those illustrious French men, with whom originated the motto
Laissez faire, and who, whatever may have been the confusions of
their terminology or the faults of their method, grasped a central
truth which free traders since their time have ignored. My effort,
in short, has been to make such a candid and thorough examination
of the tariff question, in all its phases, as would aid men to whom
the subject is now a perplexing maze to reach clear and firm
conclusions. In this I trust I have done something to inspire a
movement now faint-hearted with the earnestness and strength of
radical conviction, to prevent the division into hostile camps of
those whom a common purpose ought to unite, to give to efforts for
the emancipation of labor greater definiteness ofpurpose, and to
eradicate that belief in the opposition of national interests which
leads peoples, even of the same blood and tongue, to regard each
other as natural antagonists. To avoid any appearance of culling
absurdities, I have, in referring to the protectionist position,
quoted mainly from the latest writer who seems to be regarded by
American protectionists as an authoritative exponent of their
viewsProfessor Thompson of the University of Pennsylvania.
CONTENTS. CHAPTER FAG I. INTRODUCTORY 1 n. CLEARING GROUND 11 m. OF
METHOD 23 IV...
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