It is true that to the able, experienced and provident manufacturer high protection is rather a curse than a blessing, as it protects the unskillful and reckless against him; and the more prudent and provident he is, the more moderate will he be in his demands.
But it will be a mistake to say that the unskillful and reckless manufacturers are the only class constantly clamoring for higher protection. There are those, also, who are able business men, but whose greed is equal to their ability, who want to get very rich very quickly, and see in high protective duties a facility for making exorbitant profits. They, too, are regularly on hand, clamoring on high patriotic grounds for “increased legislative favors,” and usually know how to get them too.
And there is a third agency working in the same direction. Most of our protective tariffs have been constructed not by the House of Representatives and Senate alone, but also by a third house,—and that sometimes the strongest of the three,—the lobby,—the lobby consisting of the agents of many different interests, each possessing more or less power, and each eager to obtain the greatest possible amount of “legislative favors” for itself. Some of these interests stand in each other's way; but they must all be more or less satisfied, so that the tariff will have the least possible opposition to overcome. The consequence is that almost all of our protective tariffs have been the product of that legislative process called “log-rolling.” You know what it means. “If you help my iron, we will help your glass. If you hurt our white lead, we will hurt your linseed oil. Unless you take care of our wool, we shall smash the whole protective concern,” and so on. Is it surprising that tariff laws born of such confused fights should frequently, by their own operation, defeat the very objects aimed at? Is it a wonder that in such turmoils of conflicting interests the wise saying of Henry
