PKOTECTION OR FRKICTKADK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7443, 23 December 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

PKOTECTION OR FRKICTKADK

By I-Ikxhv (iEOiiui; tin the Melbourne Argus;, V.—TRADE.

I'rou-r.tion implies prevention. To protf.ct is to preserve or defend. What is it that protection by tariff prevents ? It is trade. To speak more exactly, it is that part of trade which consists in bringing in from other countries commodities that might be produced at home. But trade, from which " Protection" essays

to preserve and defend us, is not, like flood,

earthquake, or tornado, somet hinjr that comes without, human agency. Trade implies

human action. There can be no need of preserving from or defending against- trade, unless tliere are men who want to trade ami try to trade. 'Who, 'hen. are the men whoso effort to trade " Protection" would preserve

us from and defend us against

If I had been asked this question before 1 had come to think over the matter for invself, I would unhesitatingly have answered

that, the men against whom "Protection" defends us are foreign producers who wish to sell their goods in our home markets.

This is the idea that runs through all Protectionist assumptions and arguments —the idea that foreigners arc constantly trying to force their products upon us, and that a protective tariff is a means for defending ourselves against what they want to do.

But whoever will think over the matter for himself will see that no effort of foreigners to sell us commodities could of itself make a tariff necessary. For the desire of one party, however strong it may be, cannot of itself bring- about trade.

To every trade there must be two parties who mutually desire to trade, and whose

actions arc reciprocal. No one can buy unless he can find someone willinsr to sell:

and no one can sell unless there is some other one. willing to buy. If tlu; American people- did not desire to buy foreign gwds, foreign goods could not be sold here even if there Were no tariff.. The efliciont cause of the trade which tariffs aim to prevent is the desire of the American people to buy foreign goods, not the desire of foreign pro-luei-rs to sell them. Thus Protect inn really prevents what the "protected" people themselves want to do. Jt is not from the people of other countries that Protection preserve-; and defends us, but-from ourselves.

Trade is no; invasion. It doe* not. involve aggression on one side and resistance on the other, but mutual consent and gratification. There cannot be. a trade unless the parties to it agree, any more than there can be a quarrel unles.i the parties to it differ." England, we say, forced trade with the oiwi-Ju world upon China, and the L'niled Shfi*-: upon Japan. But in both cases what was done was not to force, the people to trade, b:it to force their Governments to let them. If the people had not wanted to trade, the opening of the ports would have been useless. Civilised nations, however,do not use.their armies and fleets to open one another's ports to trade. What they use their armies and fleets for is, when they quarrel, to close one another's ports. And their effort then is to prevent the carrying in of things even more than the bringing out of things -importing rather than exporting. For a people can be more ouickly injured by preventing them from getting things than by preventing them from sending things away. Trade does not require force. Kreetrade consists simply in letting people buy and sell as they want to buy and sell. Jt is Protection that: requires force, for it consists in preventing people from doing what they want to do. Tariffs are as much applications of force as are blockadingsquadroiiJ, and their object is the

same to prevent trade. The difference between tlie two is (hat blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations seek to prevent't!icir enemies from trading; Protective tariffs arr; n means whereby nations seek to prevent their own people from trading. What Protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.

Can there ho any greater misuse of language than that in which Protectionists indulge when they apply to commerce terms suggesting strife, and talk of one nation invading, deluging, overwhelming-, or inundating another with goods? Goods are good things- things that men are anxious to get. Who would object, to being inundated with all the dress goods his wife and daughters could want; deluged with a horse and buggy; wet-whelmed with clothing, with groceries, with g»orl cigars, fine pictures, or anything else thai has value? And who would take it kindly if anyone else should assume to protect him by driving oft those who ".ranted to ;bring him such things ? In point of fact, not only is it impossible for one nation to sell to another unless thai other wants to buy, but international trade does not consist in sending our goods to be sold. The great mass of the imports of every

civilised country consists of goods that have been ordered by the people of that country, and arc imported at. their risk. This is true even in our own ease, although one of the effects of our tariff is that many goods thatotherwise would be imported by Americans

are scut hern by European manufacturers, because undervaluation is thus made easier.

Unt it i* not the importer who is the cause of importation. AVhetbcr goods arc brought here 1 y AmL-jic.'in importer.-, or sent here by foreig.i exporters, t!.« e.'juso of their coming hcri; is t.hut they are jisUw? for by the American people. Jt is the demand of purchasers at retail that causes ponds to he imported. Thus a Protective tariff is a prevention by a people not of what others want to do to" (hem, but of what they themselves want to do.

When in the common sense of the word we spe.il: of individuals or communities protecting themselves, there is always implied iho existence of some external enemy or danger such as cold, hern, or accident, savage beasts ur noxious vermin, lire or disease, robbers or invaders: something disposed to do what'the protected object to. The only cases in which (lie common meaning of tho word does not imply some external enemy or danger are those of imbeciles, lunatics, drunkards, and young children. The protection of these against their own irrational acts, implies, however, some protector of superior intelligence. But, in the special sense in which t he word is used to denotea scheme of national policy. Protection means the defence of a nation by itself, from itself. That even nations which impose Protective tariffs slill want to do what Protective tariffs are designed to prevent is seen in the tendency of importation to continue in spite of tariffs, in the disposition of citizens to evade their tariff whenever they can, and in the fact thai the very same individuals who demand the imposition of tariffs to prevent the importation of foreign commodities are among Hie individuals whose demand for those commodities is the cause of their importation. Given a people of which every man, woman, and child is a Protectionist, and a tariff unanimously agreed upon, and still thai tariff will be a restriction by themselves upon what that people wimt to do and will stilltry to do. Protectionists are only Protectionists in theory and in politics. When it comes to buying- what they want, Protectionists are Freetraders. I say this not. to taunt Protectionists with inconsistency, but to point out something more significant. " I write," " I breathe." Hot h propositions assert action on the part of the same individual, but aciicn of different kinds. I write by conscious volition: I breathe instinctively, i am only conscious that ] breathe when I think of it. Vet my breathing goes on whether I think of iiornol--when my consciousness is absorbed 'in thought, or is dormant in sleep. Though with all my will power I try to stop breathing, 1 yet, in spite of myself, try to breathe, and will continue that endeavour while life lasts Other vital functions are even further beyond consciousness and will. We live lathe continuous carrying on of multifarious and delicate processes apparent only in their results and utterly irresponsive to mental direction. between the man and I he community Micro is in these respects an analogy which becomes closer as civilisation progresses and social relations grow more complex. That power of t he whole which is lodged in governments is limited in its Held of consciousness and action as much as the conscious will of the individual is limited, and even that consensus of personal beliefs and wishes termed public opinion is but little wider in its range. Tliere is beyond national direction and below national consciousness, a life and relation of parts and performance of functions which are to the social body what the vital processes are to the physical body. Whr.l would happen to the individual if

all the functions of the body were placed

under the control of the consciousness and a man could forget to breath or miscalculate the amount of gastric juice needed by his stomach, ur blunder us to what his kidneys should take from the blood, is what would happen to a nation in which all individual activities were directed by government. And though a people- collectively may institute a tariff to prevent trade, their individual wants and desires will still force them to try to trade, jus! as when a man ties a ligature round his arm hi- blood will still try to circulate. For Ihe effort of each io satisfy his desires with the least exertion, which is the motive of trade, is as instinctive mid persistent as are the instigations which the vital organs of the body obey. It is not the importer and the exporter who are the cause of trade, but the daily and hourly demands of those who never think uf importing or exporting, and to whom trade carries that which they demand, jusi ,is tin; blood carries to each fibre of the body that for which it calls. It is as natural for men to trade as it is for blood to circulate. Man is by nature a trading animal, impelled to t rade by persistent, de-ires, placed in a world when! everything shows that he was intended to trade, and finding in trade the possibility of social advance. Without trade man would be a savage. Where each family raises its own food, builds its own house, makes its own clothes, and manufactures its own tools, no one can have snore than the barest nece.-.-aries of

.ife, and every local failure of crops must

bring famine. A people living in this way will be independent, but their independence will resemble that of the beasts. They will be poor, ignorant, and all but. powerless against the forces of nature and the \ieissitudes. of the seasons. This social condition, to which the Protective theory would logically lead, is thelowest in which man is ever found-tin: condition from which he has toiled upwards. He has progressed only as he has learned to satisfy iiis wants by exchanging with his fellows and has freed and extended trade. The difference between naked savage,- po-se-sed only of the. rudiments of the arts and cnuvring in ignorance and weakness before the force.- of nature, find the wealth, the knowledge, and the power of our highest civilisation, in due to the exchange of the iudepen-

I'jiica which is the aim of tlie Pioteeiive

system for that independence which comes with trade. -Men cannot apply themselves to the production of but one uf the many things human wants demand unless they can ■exchange their products for the product.- of others. And thus i; is only n-s iho growth of trade permits the division of labour that beyond the merest rudiments, skili can hi; developed, knowledge acquired, and invention made; anil that productive power can so gain upon the requirements for maintaining life that leisure becomes possible and capital can be accumulated,

If to prevent trade were to stimulate industry and promote prosperity, then the localities where he was most isolated would show the first advances of man. Tin.natural protection to home industry afforded by rugged mountain chains, by burning deserts, ur by seas two wide and tempestuous for the frail bark of the early mariner,would have given us tin.1 lirst glimmerings of civilisation and shown its most rapid growth. But, in fact, it is where trade could best hv. carried on that we find wealth lirsi accumulating and civilisation beginning. It is on accessible harbour.-', by navigable river.-, and much-travelled highways that we liud cities arising and the arts and' sciences developing. And as trade Ueeonw free and extensive as road.- sire made and navigation iaiprove;! as pirates and robln-rs are extirpated, and treaties of peace put an end to ehronii: war-fan.'-so doe- wealth augment and civilisation grow. All our great labour-saving inventions, from that of money to that of the steam-engine, spring from trade and promote its extension. Trade has ever been the extinguisher of war', the cradicalor of picjndiec, tho diffus'.-r of knowledge. li i- h\ trade that useful seeds and animals, useful arts and invention:-, have btvn carried over the world, .-mil thai men in one place hasv been enabled not only to obtain the produels, but to profit by the observations, discoveries, and inventions of men in other places. In a world created on Protective principles, all habitable parts would have the same soil and climate, and be lilted for the same productions, so that the inhabitants of each locality world be able to produce at home all they required. Its seas and rivers would not lend themselves to navigation, and every little section intended for.the habitation of a separate community would be enclosed bv mountains that would save the necessity of maintaining tariffs. If we found ourselves in such a world, we might infer it to be the intent of nature that men should develop their own industries independently of each other. But tjie world in which we do find ourselves is not merely adapted to intercommunication, but. what it yields to man is so distributed as to compel the people of different localities to trade with each other to fully satisfy their desires. The diversities of soil and climate, the distribution of water, wood, and mineral deposits, the currents of sea and air,produce infinite differences in the adaptation of different parts to different productions. Jt is not merely that one /.one yields.sugar and coffee, tho banana and the pineapple, and another wheat and barley, tho apple and the polato: that-one supplies furs and another cotton ; and here arc hill sides adapted to pasture and there valleys adapted to the plough ; here granite and there clay; in one place iron and coal, and in another copper and lead; hut that there arc differences so delicate thai, though experience tells us they exist, we cannot say to what they arc due. Wine of a certain quality is produced in one place which cm -

tings I'roro the same vine will not yield in another place, though soil and climate seem alike, tome localities, without assignable reason, become renowned for productions of one kind and some for product ions of another kind; and experience often shows that plants thrive differently in dilferent parts of I lie same field. These endless diversities in tin; adaptation of different parts of the earth's surface to the production of I lie different things required by man show I hat nature lias not intended man to rU-prnd for the supply of his wants upon his own production,but. to exchange with his fellows, just as I he placing of 1 lie meat before olio guesl at lablp, the vegetables before another, and the bread before another vl'iO'.y.s the intent of the host that they should help eitoli .o!h:.T.

Other natural facts have similar bearing'. It has long been known that to obtain the

best crops the farmer should not sow with seed grown in his own fields, but with seed brought from afar. The strain of domestic animals seems always improved br imported stock, even poultry breeder? finding it host to sell the male birds they raise, and supply their places with others brought from

long "distances. Whether nr not the same law holds true with regard to the physical part of man, it is certain thai ihe. admixture ■of peoples docs produce stimulating mental effects. Prejudices are v.nrn down, wits arc sharpened, languages enriched, habits and customs brought to the test of comparison, and new ideas enkindled. The must progressive, peoples, if not always of mixed blood, have always been the peoples who came most in contact with and learned most from others. " llomekeeping youths have ever homely wits" is true of nations. Ami further than this, it is cbaracterisiic of all thfi inventions and discoveries that arc so rapidly increasing onr power over nature that they require the greater division of labour-,.ami extend trade. Tims every step in advance destroys the independence and increases the interdependence of men. The appointed condition of human progress is evidently tlial men shall com"- into closer relations, and become more and more dependent upon each other. Is is too much to say that the restrictions which Protectionism urges us to impose upon ourselves as a means of promoting national prosperity arc about as well calculated lo promote national prosperity as ligatures thai would impede the circulation of the blood would bo to promote bodily health and comfort .' Protection calls upon us lopayoflicials and encourage spies and informers, and provoke fraud and perjury, and for what.' Why, to preserve- ourselves from,and protect ourselves against, .something which oll'ends no moral law, something to which we arc instinctively impelled, something without which we could never have emerged from barbarism, and something which physical nature and social laws alike prove to be in conformity with the creative intent. It is true that Protectionists do not condemn all trade-, and though sonic of them have wished for an ocean of tire to bar our

foreign products, others, more reasonable if

less logical, would permit a country to import things- it cannot produce. The inicrliatiiinal trade which they concede to lie harmless amounts not ma tenth, and perhaps

tioi to a twentieth, of the international

trade of the world, and, so far as. our own country is concerned, it would be hard to name anything which we could not. produce

at home, save, perhaps a few productions of

the torrid zone, and even these, if properly protected, might be produced at home with the aid oi a little artificial heat, to the incidental encouragement of the glass and coal industries, lint so far as the

correctness of the theory goes, it does not

matter whet her t he trade which " Protection" would permit as compared with that it would prevent be mote or less. What " Pro-

■cction " calls on us to preserve ourselves from.

and guard ourselves against, i.s trade. And whethcrtradc be'betweeu citizens of the same nation or citizens of diliercnt nations, and whether we pot by it things that, we could produce for ourselves or things that wo could not produce for ourselves, trade is essentially the same —is prompted by tin.l same motives and is productive of the same results. If I ttade with a Canadian, a Mexican, or an Englishman, it is for the snme. reason that 1 trade with an American—that 1 wmdd rather have the thing he gives me than the thing- I,give. him. Why should I object to

trade with a foreigner any more than with a

fellow citizen when my object in tradings my a'lvantage, not his ' And. is it not in Ihe one case, unite as much as the other, an injury to nielhnt my trade should be prevented .' What di(Terence does it make whether it would be possible or impossible fur me to make for myself lite, thing for which I trade.' If Ido

not want tin-thing- 1 amtogm nnm ■tlnin the

thing' I am to give. I would not warn tu make the-trade. Here is a lurmer who proposes

to exchange with bis neighbour a horse he does not want for :i omple uf cows he does want. Would it beuejit these fanners to prevent tins Hade on the ground that one

might breed his own horses and the other raise his own cows .' Vet, if one farmer lived on the American and the oilier lived on the Canadian side of the line, this is just what both the American and Canadian Governments would <lu.- And this is called " Protection.''

It is only one. of iho. benefits of tnule that enables people to obtain what the natural conditions uf their own localities would not enable them to produce. This is, however, s>] obvious ;i bene.fit that Protectionists cannot altogether ignore it, and a f.'ivourite doctrine with American Protectionists is th;i; trade ought to follow lines of longitude, instead of iinos of latitude, because the trix'iit differences of cHimile, and consequently of natural product ions, are between north nnd south. The must desirable reconstruction of the world on this theory would be its division into " countries " consist ing of narrow strips runningl from the equator to the poles, with high tn rill's on either side and at the equatorial end, for the polar ice would servo the purpose at the other, lint in the meantime., despite this notion thiit trade ought to be between north .'imi south rntherlhan between east and west, the fuc!: is that the great commerce of the world is nnd always bus been between east and west. And I In; reason is clear. It is peoples whose habits and needs mos^ resemble each other who will call most largely lor each other's productions, and the course of migration ami ot :tssimilatit!ir inIbiences has been rather between east and west thiiii between north anil south.

DilTeruiic; in latitude is but one clement of dilfercnoo in climate, and diit'orence in climate i:; but one element uf the endless divurr-iiy which i» uiily in some r-.-sjn:cts less marked beuveen oast and West than between north and sutitli. In no one place will nature yield to labour all that man lind.s useful. Adaptation to one class of production involves non-adaptation toothers. Trade, by permittinir us to obtain each of the things we need from the locality best, adapted lor its production, enables us to utilise the highest powers of nature in the production of them all, and thus to increase enormously the sum of the various things which a given quantity of labour e\])c.nded in any loealil} can secure. But. what is even more important, trade also enables us in utiji.-e The highest, power.of the human factor in production. All men cannot do all things equally well. Then- are dill'erences in phy.-ieal and mental powers which give different degrees of aptitude fur different parts uf the work necessary to supply human lu.vds. And far more, important, still are tin- difference's ibat arises fr..i,i the d'ivclopmeiu of special skill. B\ devoting himself t,, «,ue l.iaucli o, production a man can acquire s! v -j|l which enable- him, with the same labour, lo produce etiuniiousiy more than urn- who In:-, nul mmh- that branch his •.penalty. Twenty boys may have equal aptitude, tor anyone oT'l'O tr'aile.-., lint if every buy tries tu bain Ihe 2l» trades, none of tiiem can heconc.1 good workmen in any one: whereas, if each ib-uites hin^-.'ll tuone trade, all may become good workmen, lln-u----will not only be a saving of the time and ell'on required for learning, b:il each, moreover, can in a single- vocation work to niiie'i better advantage, ai,d limy acquire and use tools which ii would In- impossible to obtain and einplov did each attempt the wiiole 20

Anil as there are differences between individuals which lit thorn loi- different branches of production, so, but in a much greater degree, are then: such differences between eummuiiitie.s. Not to speak again of tile differences due tu situation ;iml natural facilities, some thin <,'•-> e;m be prod,uw(l with gre.-iter relmivc: advantage, where population is sparse, ol hers where it is dense, and difl'er-c-nri-s in industrial devolupint m, in habits, customs, and ri.lnl.ed occupations pro.lucci differences in relativuadnptntioi]. The same gains, moreover, which altenil (he division of labour between individuals attend alsu the division of labour between Cuaimunities, ar.d lead to thai localisation of industry which causes different places to becunie noted for different industries. Wherever Ihe production of some .special thiiiy becomes the leading industry, skill is more easily acquired, and is carried to' a higher pilch, supplies are most- readily produced, auxiliary and correlative occupations grow un. and a larger scale of production leads' to the employment of more eflicient- met hods, Thus in thu natural development of society trade brings about similar differentiations of industry between communities as between individuals, and with similar benefits.

Jlen of different nations traflc with each oilier for the same reason that men of the same nation do —because they lind ir prolitable; because they thus obtain what they want with less labour than they otherwise could. Goods will not be imported into any country unless they can be obtained inoro easily by producing something-else ami exchanging it for them than by producing them directly; and hence, to restrict importation must be to lessen productive power and reduce the fund from which all revenues are drawn.

Anyone can see what would bo the result of forbidding each individual to obtain from another any commodity or service which he himself was naturally litted lo produce, or perform. Wuch a regulation, were any Governmenl mad enough to adopt it. ami powerful enough to maintain ii, would paruly.-e the. forces that make civilisation possible and soon convert the most ponulous' and wealthy country into a howling wildtrni.'.ss, wliere ltea]is of ruins marketl tlio sites of eities and population had dwindled to a handful of scattered savages, hardly higher tji their modes of life than tin- wild beasts with whom rhey oriiiterulwl, The

restrictions -which Protection would impose upon foreign trade differ only in degree, not in kind, from such restrictions as these. They would not reduce a nation to barbarism, because they do not affect nil trade, and rather hamper than prohibit the trade "they do affect: bill they must prevonl the. people that adopl them from obtaining the abundance they might otherwise, enjoy. If the end of labour be, noi the expenditure ■if effort, bul the obtaining of results, then wholher any particular tiling ought to be obtained in a country by homo production, ui' bv importation, depends sole.lv upon which mode of obtaining it will give- the largest result to the least labour. This is a question involving such complex considerations that what nnycoimtryought loobtain in this way or in that cannot be settled by any Congress of Parliament. It can safely be loft .pidy to those yiuro instincts which arc to society what the vital instincts arc to the body, and which always impel men to take the easiest way open to them to reach their ends.

When not caused by artilicial obstacles, any tendency in ttade to take a certain course is proof that, it ought to lake that course, and restrictions arc harmful because ihey restrict, and in proportion as they resstrict. To assert that the way for men to become healthy and strong is for them to force info llieir .stomachs what nature, tries to reject, to regulate the play of their lungs, or to tie ligatures round their limbs to control the circulation of their blood, would be not a whit more absurd lhan lo assert that tin; way for nations to become rich is for them to interfere with and reslriet their natural tendencv to trade.

I.ui this, however, be remembered. The maxim of freedom is not, as some would have it, " Let things alone," but "Make clear tinl wavs and let things alone.'1