Carl Schurz

“ The admission by the protectionists themselves that a high protective tariff is a failure as a means of raising sufficient revenue, and that it will not produce that stability of conditions which is necessary for the development of solid business prosperity, will greatly aid the popular mind in rightly gauging the economic merits of the protective policy. ”

“ There has been only one period of comparative stability in our history, and that was after the low tariff of 1846, when everybody was so well satisfied that for a series of years the subject of the tariff actually disappeared from our party platforms, the business community having made up its mind that it would prosper best without high protection. And not at last the foremost official champion of protection himself has confessed that high tariff rates and that stability which is required for a prosperous development of the country's business will not go together. ”

“ But those economic merits are of far less importance in the long-run than the effects which the protective system is producing upon our political morals. While economic blunders may temporarily vex and harm us, they can be remedied and the damage repaired. ”

“ Nor can it be denied that many otherwise right-thinking persons, blind to ulterior consequences, justify such relations by finding it perfectly natural that those who are profited by the tariff should contribute money for the success of the high-tariff party, and that in return this party should then do the best it can for the benefit of its supporters. ”

“ The policy of high protection is at present on trial in more senses than one, and various verdicts have already been pronounced by its own friends. The amendments made by the Finance Committee of the Senate to the Dingley bill, and the speech with which Senator Aldrich, the ablest leader in Congress of the protectionists, opened the discussion on the amended bill, have rudely dispelled some of the delusions which formerly were assiduously nursed by the advocates of the protective system. ”