Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/731

-1890] The tariff and Protection. 699 accounts for the continuance of the excessive features of the war tariff in time of peace. There was, to be sure, a reaction from the low tariff policy even before the war, and many of the rates of the war tariff were avowedly protective ; but no such customs system could have been built up except under the pressing necessity of enormous revenue ; and, on the easy assumption that high duties meant high revenue, the most extreme demands of the manufacturers were readily granted. It is equally true that there was a strong feeling for Protection at the close of the war; but it would be absurd to say that the extreme emergency measures adopted in a great conflict represented the deliberate commercial policy of any party for the time of peace. It was fully expected that the rates would be rapidly reduced as soon as the proper adjustment could be made ; but the manufacturers had tasted the fruits of monopoly; and with each year's delay the problem became more difficult. Without entering into an account of the different Acts, and the occasional attempts at tariff reform, it may be said in general that the duties repealed or lowered were revenue duties, and that, wherever the pressure of competition was still felt, the duties were maintained and even raised. At no time since the war has the average rate on dutiable goods been less than 40 or more than 50 per cent. In the case of many of the most important articles, however, the duties have been much higher. For many years the idea still prevailed, even among Republican leaders, that the need of Protection would pass with the full establish- ment of home manufactures ; but by 1890 the doctrine that Protection was a permanent necessity had made its appearance. The infant-industry argument could hardly be advanced in support of protecting industries which had been long established; and the argument as to the social advantages of a diversified industry, which Hamilton had expressed so sanely and persuasively, and which formed the basis of a whole social philosophy in the hands of Carey, was not applicable to a nation which had already become one of the greatest industrial powers of the world. This argument, to be sure, was extended to the point of insisting that nothing should be purchased abroad that could be made at home ; but the chief argument of the later period has been the necessity of perma- nently maintaining tariffs sufficient to balance the higher wages paid by American employers. A strong appeal was thus made to the wage- earning class, who were convinced that a reduction of duties would be followed by a reduction of wages. This argument was equally applicable to all lines of industry, and was carried out logically in the tariff. Duties were put on farm and dairy products to protect the residents on the Canadian border ; and those on raw materials gave a convenient pretext for giving additional protection to manufactures by excessive "com- pensating duties." It would be an error to attribute even the extreme features of the American tariff entirely to the sinister influence of private interests on CH. XXII.