CHAPTER II: PROTECTIONIST ARGUMENTS - Yves Guyot, The Comedy of Protection [1906]
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The Comedy of Protection, trans. M.A. Hamilton (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906).
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CHAPTER II
PROTECTIONIST ARGUMENTS
Protection demanded by industries in proportion to their strength—The drain of gold—Each buyer a Free Trader.
American Protectionists rely on the authority of List, who followed Colbert in the use of the infant industries argument, but tariff history in the United States, as everywhere else, proves that the demands of any industrial group for Protection grow with its growth. The American Protectionist is no better acquainted with economic laws than the European politician. On December 15, 1904, Senator MacCumber said: “Our receipts rise at the rate of 2 per cent. on our imports; every 20 cents that comes into the Treasury from imports shows that we have sent a dollar from this country to that from which the goods come.” Mr. MacCumber evidently has the most profound contempt for economics.
At the Arlington Hotel, Washington, one room was given up to an exhibition of Eastern carpets, which pay a 60 per cent. import duty on coming into America. I saw Mr. Nelson W. Aldrich, President of the Finance Committee of the Senate, among the buyers.
“So,” I said, “you are a Free Trader, Senator!”
“Oh no,” he said, “far from it.”
“Oh yes,” I replied, “every buyer is a Free Trader.”
This truth seemed startlingly new to him. The Protectionist turns to you, “Statistical Abstract” in hand, and shows you the progress of the United States as proved by each year’s return, the development of their foreign trade; all this success he modestly puts down to Protection, giving no credit to America’s resources, capacity, and energy.
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