Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/45

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DEFENCE AND OPULENCE
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and official records proved the contrary, to persuade the mass of busy workers that tariffs were needed to cure unemployment, and that if they did pay more for their food they would get it back in other ways, proved too difficult a task.

The trouble in this earlier Protectionist campaign was that the trade interests operating it found the sentimental Imperialism, patriotism, and militarism deficient in volume and intensity to serve their purpose. They were forced into argument, and therefore beaten. Our New Protectionists, having a far greater and more various fund of sentiment and passion at their disposal, hope to avoid close economic controversy, or at any rate to reduce it to a wholly subordinate place in their campaign for tariffs. They have learnt this lesson. They will no longer find it necessary to prove that Protection raises wages, enlarges and secures employment, conserves and develops the natural resources of the country, directs foreign trade into more profitable

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