we | point in regard to
have less work and smaller profits. | which the protective
| system is
3. On account of the protective tariff, clothes | advantageous to
are expensive, and people make them wear longer, | our trade.
which results in a loss of work, and compels us to |
offer our services at greatly reduced rates. |

Here is another report:

EFFECTS OF PROTECTION--REPORT OF THE BLACKSMITHS.

_Disadvantages._ | _Advantages._
|
1. The protective system imposes a tax (which does |
not get into the Treasury) every time we eat, drink, |
warm, or clothe ourselves. |
|
2. It imposes a similar tax upon our neighbors, and |
hence, having less money, most of them use wooden |
pegs, instead of buying nails, which deprives us of |
labor. |
|
3. It keeps the price of iron so high that it can | None.
no longer be used in the country for plows, or gates,|
or house fixtures, and our trade, which might give |
work to so many who have none, does not even give |
ourselves enough to do. |
|
4. The deficit occasioned in the Treasury by those |
goods _which do not enter_ is made up by taxes |
on our salt. |

The other reports, with which I will not trouble the reader, told the
same story. Gardeners, carpenters, shoemakers, boatmen, all complained
of the same grievances.

I am sorry there were no day laborers in our association. Their report
would certainly have been exceedingly instructive. But, unfortunately,
the poor laborers of our province, all _protected_ as they are, have not
a cent, and, after having taken care of their cattle, cannot go
themselves to the _Mutual Aid Society_. The pretended favors of
protection do not prevent them from being the pariahs of modern society.

What I would especially remark is the good sense with which our
villagers have perceived not only the direct evil results of protection,
but also the indirect evil which, affecting their patrons, reacts upon
themselves.

This is a fact, it seems to me