s
is raised by the tariff protecting this fraction.

There is, of course, no question that every tariff change affects
certain enterprises and classes of workmen. Enterprisers already
acquainted with and engaged in a business always may hope to gain by
the higher prices immediately following a rise in the tariff rates
on their particular products. Though they are granted no enduring
monopoly by the protection, they for a time enjoy the advantage of
being on the ground, and may reap the first fruits of the favoring
conditions. The enterpriser usually profits when the price of his
product suddenly rises. Usually skilled workmen are affected slowly by
competition when there is any considerable increase of prices in their
special industries. The important question is, Who bears the burden of
the higher prices that result from a tariff? The burden is very soon
distributed. A part of it may be for a short time borne by the retail
merchants, but ultimately nearly the whole of it must be borne by
their customers, the unfortunate, less favored citizens. The weight
falling on each is usually small, often unsuspected, always hard to
measure. The increased benefit is concentrated in a few industries and
accrues to a comparatively few producers. Here is a recipe for riches:
get everybody to give you a penny; it's so little that no one will
miss it, and it will mean a great deal to you. Something like this
happens in the case of many protected industries; every consumer
of the article pays a few cents more, a small group of wage-earners
temporarily gains, and a few enterprises wax wealthy.

Sec. 9. #Tariffs and unemployment#. The claim that a low tariff is bad
for the workers is made with peculiar success in any period when
unemployment is greater than usual. It is vain in reply to show that
again and again equally bad periods of unemployment have occurred when
a high tariff was in force, and that often the most highly protected
industries are most affected. It is vain to suggest that fluctuations
of unemployment are related rather to the rhythm of industrial cycles
and panics, than to any particular level of the tariff, whatever it
be.[9] The fact that at the moment is seen is that here are some men
for the time out of work, and here are some foreign goods coming in.
Of course, what is not seen is that if we stop importing goods we
thereby eventually will stop the exportation of goods of equal value
now being sent in payment and t