lly follows the line of greatest profit, and
for this reason any protective tariff legislation which did not augment
the profits of the capitalist would fail to accomplish its purpose. This
was recognized and frankly admitted when the policy was first adopted.
Later, however, when the suffrage was extended and the laboring class
became an important factor in national elections the champions of
protection saw that the system would have to be given a more democratic
interpretation. Thus the Whig platform of 1844 favored a tariff
"discriminating with special reference to the protection of the domestic
labor of the country." This was, however, the only political platform in
which the labor argument was used until 1872, when the Republican party
demanded that "duties upon importations ... should be so adjusted as to
aid in securing remunerative wages to labor, and promote the industries,
prosperity, and growth of the whole country." Protection, since that
time, has been defended, not as a means of augmenting profits, but as a
means of ensuring high wages to American workers. The interests of the
wage-receiving class, however, were far from being the chief concern of
those who were seeking to maintain and develop the policy of protection.
It was to the capitalist rather than the wage-earner that the system of
protection as originally established made a direct appeal, and it was
primarily in the interest of this class that it was maintained even
after the labor argument came to be generally used in its defense. The
capitalist naturally favored a policy that would discourage the
importation of foreign goods and at the same time encourage the
importation of foreign labor. It was to his advantage to keep the labor
market open to all who might wish to compete for employment, since this
would tend to force wages down and thus give him the benefit of high
prices.

Any system of protection established in the interest of labor would have
excluded all immigrants accustomed to a low standard of living. But as a
matter of fact the immigration of cheap foreign labor was actively
encouraged by the employers in whose interest the high tariff on foreign
goods was maintained. The efforts of the wage-earning class to secure
for themselves some of the benefits of protection by organizing to
obtain an advance or prevent a reduction in wages was largely defeated
through the wholesale importation of cheap foreign labor by the large
manufacturing,