Part 2 (2/2)

Is it not certain that at the tioods, iron, coal, sugar, etc, will be greater than at the first?

So true is this, that the sole object of our protective tariffs is to prevent such articles fro us, to diminish the supply, to prevent low prices, or which is the saoods

Now I ask, are the people under the action of these laws better fed because there is _less_ bread, _less_ ar in the country? Are they better dressed because there are _fewer_ goods? Better warmed because there is _less_ coal? Or do they prosper better in their labor because iron, copper, tools and machinery are scarce?

But, it is answered, if we are inundated with foreign goods and produce, our coin will leave the country

Well, and what old, nor warm himself with silver What difference does it make whether there be more or less coin in the country, provided there be more bread in the cupboard,in the press, and more wood in the cellar?

To Restrictive Laws, I offer this dilemma:

Either you allow that you produce scarcity, or you do not allow it

If you allow it, you confess at once that your end is to injure the people as much as possible If you do not allow it, then you deny your power to diminish the supply, to raise the price, and consequently you deny having favored the producer

You are either injurious or inefficient You can never be useful

II

OBSTACLE--CAUSE

The obstacle mistaken for the cause--scarcity mistaken for abundance

The sophism is the same It is well to study it under every aspect

Man naturally is in a state of entire destitution

Between this state and the satisfying of his wants, there exists a multitude of _obstacles_ which it is the object of labor to sur to seek how and why he could have been led to look even upon these obstacles to his happiness as the cause of it

I wish to take a journey of some hundred miles But, between the point of my departure and my destination, there are interposed, mountains, rivers, swamps, forests, robbers--in a word, _obstacles_; and to conquer these obstacles, it is necessary that I should bestowthe, if others do it for me, I must pay them the value of their exertions It is evident that I should have been better off had these obstacles never existed

Through the journey of life, in the long series of days from the cradle to the toress

Hunger, thirst, sickness, heat, cold, are sohis road In a state of isolation, he would be obliged to co, weaving, architecture, etc, and it is very evident that it would be better for hiree, or even not at all In a state of society he is not obliged, personally, to struggle with each of these obstacles, but others do it for him; and he, in return, must remove soain it is evident, that, considering mankind as a whole, it would be better for society that these obstacles should be as weak and as few as possible

But if we examine closely and in detail the phenomena of society, and the private interests of e of produce, we perceive, without difficulty, how it has happened that wants have been confounded with riches, and the obstacle with the cause

The separation of occupations, which results froling against all surrounding obstacles to co made not for himself alone, but for the benefit of his felloho, in their turn, render a similar service to him

Now, it hence results, that this man looks upon the obstacle which he has made it his profession to combat for the benefit of others, as the ireater, the ent may be this obstacle, theof it, by those who are relieved by his labors

A physician, for instance, does not busy hi and his instruments; others do it for him, and he, in return, combats the erous and frequent these , the more, even, are they forced, to work in his service Disease, then, which is an obstacle to the happiness of mankind, beco of all producers is, in what concerns themselves, the same As the doctor draws his profits from disease, so does the shi+p owner froriculturist froer_; the cloth norance_, the jeweler upon _vanity_, the lawyer upon _quarrels_, the notary upon _breach of faith_ Each profession has then an immediate interest in the continuation, even in the extension, of the particular obstacle to which its attention has been directed