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Political economy draws no distinction between elapses. So, if it be said that protection by means of tariff duties has for its purpose the favor of labor, it favors a class, none the less.

True industrial economy aims not to increase but diminish labor. If, with what I can earn in one day, I can buy a yard of cloth from a foreigner, why force me to spend two days' labor for the same?

An injury is done to humanity by a system which forces. men into manufactories. The custom house snatches men, women and children from open air tasks, and chains them in gloomy workshops for twelve to fourteen hours out of twenty-four.

Free-trade applies to whole peoples the principle of the division of labor, assures them all that such principle can bestow, and thereby enhances their welfare.

When each is employed at what he can do best, the individual shares are greatest.

When each is compelled by legislation to do what he must, and what he may not have aptitude for, the aggregate of labor will not be so great, and the individual will be worse off.

So when each country or nation fails to devote its energies to what nature most favors, it will not bring to market the maximum obtained by the minimum of toil, but the results of a diminished productivity.

No man can be so self-sufficient as to confine himself to the manufacture of his food, clothing, furniture, books, etc. The nation is no better off than the man.

Protection obliges me to grow wheat, without reference to soil. But in nature my soil may be sandy, and I could better afford to raise something else in exchange for wheat, which grows better on my neighbor's clay soil.

Commerce is always an exchange of produce against produce. So much exported, so much imported. Therefore the foreigner cannot inundate us with goods. The different countries cannot sell more than they buy.

Industrial progress begets competition. Don't limit it at the confines of a state or nation. The widest competition is the most universal profit. Monopoly means sloth; protection, routine. The manufacturer who is forced to keep hold of the home market will conquer the world.

A railroad uniting two countries facilitates exchanges; customs dues impede them.

Free-trade has for its object the diminution of labor. Machinery has the same object. Protection, therefore, should demand the abolition of machinery, in order to be consistent.

Capital turns spontaneously to the most lucrative employment. Protection turns it to the less lucrative, and seeks to make up the difference by a tax on consumers.

The argument that a country should be independent of foreigners in time of war is of no avail in this era of easy and ready transportation. Neutral ships may transport the goods of belligerents. The blockade of a nation is impossible.

The doctrine of free-trade, like that of protection, is oftentimes best sustained by attacking and exploding the theories of the adversary.

Modern politics, especially the politics of a free country like that of the United States, are prolific of arguments and phrases which greatly affect the stereotyped theories of freetrade and protection.

Hence, having passed from the ascertained laws of freetrade, as found in the books, and as built on the experience of foreign countries, on monarchical conditions, and on a

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Born in Edgefield co., S. C., Aug. 11, 1847; joined Confederate Army, 1864; a farmer till 1886; engaged in agitation which led to establishment of Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical College at Fort Hill; farmers' candidate for Governor in 1890; elected in Nov.; re-elected in 1892; term signalized by passage of dispensary law and founding of another college, the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College for Women, at Rock Hill; entered the race for candidate against Senator Butler, and the two canvassed the State together; elected to U. S. Senate in 1895; member of Committees on Mines and Mining, Naval Affairs, Public Lands, Canada Relations, and Forest Preservation.

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Born in Sheffield, England, January 29, 1845, of American parents: educated in common schools of Savannah and Macon, Ga.; entered Confederate army, May, 1861; a prisoner of war, 1864-65; studied law in Americus, Ga., and admitted to bar, 1866; practiced in Ellaville; appointed Solicitor-general in 1872 and again in 1873; moved to Americus in 1873; appointed Judge of Superior Court, 1876, and elected to same, 1878; re-elected Judge, 1880; elected to 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st, 52d, 53d and 54th Congresses; elected Speaker of House in 52d and 53d Congresses; member of the Committees on Ways and Means and Rules

geography, climatology and sociology different from our own, there is opportunity for new laws founded on different natural and commercial conditions. This also gives free play to the doctrines respecting protection.

Bearing this in mind, we are prepared for opinions and assertions which have weight in free discussion, but which are somewhat removed from the seriousness and weight of fortified laws.

These are none the less worthy of consideration, for even if there is no economic law back of them, they may foreshadow truths which experience will ripen into economic axiom. As other nations, less expansive than ours, less liberally endowed by nature, and altogether less advanced in industrial and commercial knowledge and opportunity, have formulated economic laws, which are quoted with favor and accepted as final, so this nation may well assume to ascertain what is best for itself, and to give its conclusions the form of economic axiom.

In this point of view the American political economist becomes an impressive and invaluable economist, and the passionate wisdom of the partisan something which is crude quartz to the view, yet with crystals of gold inside.

As instances, the protectionist is challenged for reply by the declaration that the system of protection is sustained by the co-operation of its beneficiaries, and that they are held together by the "cohesive power of public plunder."

Similarly, by the declaration that the tariff is a tax upon the consumer, and that, especially, when imposed on raw materials. Ten cents a pound upon wool means that the consumer will have to pay that much more for the cloth made of that pound.

So, when a tariff is declared to be vicious in principle

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