e to be found in
Socialist writings. However, frequently the demand is made that Tariff
Reform and Socialism must go hand in hand, and doubt is expressed
whether the Tariff Reform agitation is carried on for the benefit of
the manufacturer or for that of the workers. "Mr. Chamberlain is not a
Socialist. His Government will not be a Socialist Government. His plan
would protect only the rich. This fiscal fight is a fight between
capitalists as to who shall make the profits. It is not a fight for
the benefit of the 'nation.' That is what they tell you. The
capitalist who loses his trade through foreign competition is a Tariff
Reformer. He wants Protection. The capitalist who depends on cheap
foreign imports for raw material is a Free Trader. He does not want
his prices raised."[812] "Preferential trade is the proposal of
individual capitalists who desire to make profits out of our Imperial
connections."[813]

The Fabian organ looks at Free Trade and Protection merely as a
business proposition. "We care nothing for abstract Cobdenite
economics, and are quite willing to welcome Tariff Reform if its
advocates show us that it can be used as a lever for raising the
standards of life and labour. The Labour party is therefore eminently
wise in seeing how far it can be used for their advantage.
Protectionism of the Australian Labour party is the right kind of
Protectionism--Labour-Protectionism: a very different thing from the
Capital-Protectionism which is (with a few exceptions) the
characteristic mark of Tariff Reformers in this country."[814]

Some revolutionary Socialists are in favour of Free Trade because they
hope that it will bring on a revolution in Great Britain. Their great
leader, Karl Marx, taught sixty years ago, when Free Trade was being
introduced: "The Protective system is nothing but a means of
establishing manufacture upon a large scale in any given country.
Besides this, the Protective system helps to develop free competition
within a nation. Generally speaking, the Protective system in these
days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively.
It breaks up old nationalities and carries the antagonism of
proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the
Free Trade system hastens the social revolution. In this revolutionary
sense alone I am in favour of Free Trade."[815] Those Socialist
revolutionaries who wish to increase the misery of the people, hoping
that unbearable po