with that already sure of profits by reason of the government aid. Hence
this line will have a monopoly of the trade; and unless some proper
restrictions as to rates accompany the subsidy, the monopoly may lay an
extortionate tax on the public who patronize it.

The relation of the tariff to monopolies is one which deserves the
careful attention of every thinking man. Let us, in discussing this
question, lay aside all prejudice and preconceived ideas for or against
the protective tariff system and consider candidly what are the actual
facts of the case. It is evident, in the first place, that the purpose
of the tariff tax which the government levies on goods imported from
abroad is to _keep out foreign competition from our markets_. The
imported goods cost more by the amount of the tariff than they otherwise
would; and the American producer, if he makes equally desirable goods
and does not raise his selling price above that at which imported goods
can be bought, is secure against foreign competition. But we have
already learned that monopoly is simply the absence of competition; and
inasmuch as the tariff checks or shuts out foreign competition, it has a
_tendency_ toward the establishment of monopoly. But this tendency may
not result in the establishment of any monopoly. There is a tariff on
potatoes, but there is no monopoly in their production. Evidently the
tariff cannot create a monopoly; it only makes its establishment more
easy by narrowing the field of competition to the producers of this
single country. If we turn back over the list of monopolies we have
studied, to find those which the tariff has any effect in aiding to
establish, we shall find none till we reach the first two chapters. The
monopolies in mineral products and manufactured goods, known generally
by the name of trusts, it is self-evident are largely dependent upon the
tariff. If they raise their price above a certain point, people will buy
goods of foreign production instead. This point--the price at which
foreign goods can be profitably sold--depends on the rate of the tariff,
on the cost of production in foreign countries, and the cost of their
carriage here.

Of the various trusts, it is evident that only those would be effected
by the removal or reduction of the tariff whose products are now covered
by it. Thus the Standard Oil Trust and the Cotton-Seed Oil Trust would
not be injured by any reduction in the tariff. As a matter of fact,
howev