ome very soon when we
should enter into reciprocal relations of trade with all the countries of
the world. This was another way of saying that we must substitute
elasticity for rigidity; that we must substitute trade for closed ports.
McKinley saw what his successors did not see. He saw that we had made for
ourselves a strait-jacket.

When I reflect upon the "protective" policy of this country, and observe
that it is the later aspects and the later uses of that policy which have
built up trusts and monopoly in the United States, I make this contrast in
my thought: Mr. McKinley had already uttered his protest against what he
foresaw; his successor saw what McKinley had only foreseen, but he took no
action. His successor saw those very special privileges, which Mr.
McKinley himself began to suspect, used by the men who had obtained them
to build up a monopoly for themselves, making freedom of enterprise in
this country more and more difficult. I am one of those who have the
utmost confidence that Mr. McKinley would not have sanctioned the later
developments of the policy with which his name stands identified.

What is the present tariff policy of the protectionists? It is not the
ancient protective policy to which I would give all due credit, but an
entirely new doctrine. I ask anybody who is interested in the history of
high "protective" tariffs to compare the latest platforms of the two
"protective" tariff parties with the old doctrine. Men have been struck,
students of this matter, by an entirely new departure. The new doctrine of
the protectionist is that the tariff should represent the difference
between the cost of production in America and the cost of production in
other countries, _plus_ a reasonable profit to those who are engaged in
industry. This is the new part of the protective doctrine: "_plus_ a
reasonable profit." It openly guarantees profit to the men who come and
ask favors of Congress. The old idea of a protective tariff was designed
to keep American industries alive and, therefore, keep American labor
employed. But the favors of protection have become so permanent that this
is what has happened: Men, seeing that they need not fear foreign
competition, have drawn together in great combinations. These combinations
include factories (if it is a combination of factories) of all grades: old
factories and new factories, factories with antiquated machinery and
factories with brand-new machinery; factories tha