chance of success labor has been its favorite field. Here it has applied most successfully its methods. The efficiency in organization and in the exercise of political pressure which the labor unions of to-day show are due in no small degree to what the men learned from their protectionist employers from 1870 to 1890; that is, that solidarity in labor which manufacturers are trying to overcome is a solidarity of which they themselves laid the foundations, hoping to use it for their own purposes!
A no less interesting phase of protective work which is also developed in the articles is the alliance of those who enjoy tariff privileges with those who enjoy transportation privileges, immunity from taxes, land grants, monopoly of franchises, power of unrestricted combination, freedom from governmental regulation. In this alliance the tariff element is undoubtedly by far the strongest.
The leading feature of the second series of articles, however, is the discussion of the results which have come from allowing the protected to make their own tariff schedules. The leaders of both political parties repeatedly pointed out from 1860 to 1887 that high tariffs must result in increased cost of living—in a surplus which would lead us into vicious national extravagances and in a crop of monopolies and tariff-made millionaires. What are the facts—what has the tariff had to do with the present high prices of the necessities of life—with our "billion-dollar Congresses"—with multi-millionaires?
Are Havemeyer and Carnegie Self-Made?
Not only are these economic results discussed; there are chapters on certain intellectual and ethical effects of our dealings with the tariffs which are too often overlooked. Among others is that change in our spirit of self-reliance. Time was when Americans gloried in working out, unaided, their careers. The protective tariff has done an enormous amount to undermine this spirit. The greatest portion of the opulent class of the country have achieved their wealth by the aid of privileges. Our tariffmade millionaires can none of them truly be said to be self-made men. Mr. Havemeyer is a tariff-made millionaire, just as Mr. Rockefeller is a rebate-made millionaire. Mr. Carnegie is a combination of the two—the tariff mainly, but rebates not inconsiderably have given him an enormous advantage over the mass of men. That is, these gentlemen, who are undoubtedly natural money-makers of unusual ability, have obtained their unnatural wealth through discriminations made in their favor. Their success has had its effect. Under the influence of the protective idea the strongly individualistic spirit of this people is changing. This is, of course, logical. Protection and paternalism are as one and inseparable as free trade and individualism.
Is the Bargain a Good One?
Perhaps the most serious side of protection, as it has been worked out in this country, is ethical. As has been said, there has been at no time ignorance or silence in either party on the dangers inherent in a protective system. Throughout this period of twenty-five years there were always men in both parties insisting on the inevitable corruption that would come from an oligarchy organized to preserve privileges, on the deterioration in national selfreliance which would come from protecting people in their private undertakings. To meet these critics the protected have opposed as a justification the material results. Protection may mean monopolistic trusts, they say, but it means also raising the value of our steel and iron production from two hundred and ninety-six million dollars in 1880 to over eight hundred and four millions in 1900. Protection may breed alliances between the privileged, but it means making 1,025,920,000 pounds of tin plate in 1904, where twelve years before we made but 42,000,000 pounds. Protection may require intellectual jugglery, but it produced the beet sugar industry. And they contend the bargain is a good one!
The Cost of Living
It is with these significant and interesting developments of the protective policy that Miss Tarbell will deal in the coming year. The articles will carry on the historical narrative, although they will be separate studies. They will be published at intervals as editorial policy dictates. The first of the new series will be called "The Tariff and the Cost of Living."
