Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/106
requisites or of any necessity of life in the event of war, it is manifestly the duty of our State to take whatever means are necessary to meet such "aggression." For instance, if it were necessary to secure ourselves against the sudden withdrawal in war-time of the supply of some vitally important goods in which we were in danger of complete dependency upon an enemy, it would be quite legitimate to prohibit the entrance of such goods, provided that we were able to establish a domestic substitute under conditions which were not those of an ordinary "protected" trade. There are various ways in which this could be done. If importation was prohibited, the excessive profits which "protected" private businesses might make could be checked either by Excise duties or by a special profit tax, or by some such regulation of prices to consumers as is attached to the working of gas companies and other semi-public monopolies. Or, simpler and better still, such industries could be established and worked as public monopolies. This would