Protective Tariffs IV.

Prof. Thompson's last lecture on Protection last evening, was delivered before a very large audience. Indeed, the attendance at all of his four lectures has been such as to speak well for the interest which is taken by the students in this great economic question of the day, the tariff. We now look forward to the lectures which are to be given on Free Trade by an apostle of that school, only hoping that the lecturer may be as able, and as interesting as the gentleman who has so eloquently presented the other side of the question.

Prof. Thompson devoted his time last evening to the answering of arguments commonly urged against the Tariff. It is impossible to have a perfect law. It is not claimed that the Tariff is a cure-all for all industrial evils; its object is to equalize conditions, to promote home production and to improve the condition of all classes. One of the chief objections urged against Protection is that prices are raised. But does any one imagine that iron, for example, would have been as cheap as it is now, had not that industry been fostered and protected? The increased production has made cheap iron possible. Protection cannot create a monopoly, as some people assert. Completion is the great regulator of prices. Even under a prohibitory tariff there could be no monopoly. Competition would lower prices. We have the resources, the capacity, the honesty to enable us to produce things as cheaply as any nation. But even if prices were higher, it would prove nothing against the tariff. A cheap market to sell in will counter balance a cheap one to buy in.

Again it is said that the Tariff stimulates over-production. but it is a very difficult thing to say that we have over-production. This is said to be the cause of hard times, but it is in fact hard times that often causes this overproduction. America has no monopoly of hard times. Free Trade countries suffer as much as we. The Tariff, therefore, cannot be charged with this common evil. If we remove this protection to our industries, we make America the dumping ground for Europe's surplus manufactures. Protection is antagonistic to commerce, we are told. Yet, our imports have increased five fold under the present tariff, and we are sending cotton goods to the English, who are really in need of an honest article. The reason that we do not increase our exports even faster, is because we do not protect our shipping. Every exporting nation should have its own carrying trade. We have no merchant marine, because we have afforded it no protection.

The Tariff yields too much revenue, is the cry now. But we have a debt to pay, and the most profitable thing the nation can do is to pay this debt. And even if we have a surplus revenue, it would not be the best thing to remove the duties. States are complaining of the difficulty of raising means to support their government, the cry even comes from so rich a state as New York. Let this surplus then, be distributed by some fair apportionment among the several states. In closing the lecturer thanked the audience for their kind attention during the four lectures he had given.