The Manchester Guardian of Tuesday publishes a detailed
report of a most interesting conversation with Mr. Arthur Chamberlain. Dealing with the new fiscal policy, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain addressed himself to the exposure of the various fallacies inherent in the Protectionist position. He pointed out how the doctrine of self-sufficiency, if pushed to its logical conclusion, involved a system of commercial particularism, under which we should have in the end every village producing everything it required within its own borders. Many business men, he went on, were Protectionists because they saw, or thought they saw, that without foreign competition they could force their goods on an unwilling market at a higher price "With Protection many of us would make our fortunes It would make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Give us Protection, and we manufacturers will show you something in the way of rings and trusts and syndicates that you little dream of. The Free-trade policy alone has protected the people of England from the proceedings of trusts and rings." Protection, he continued, would not only change the entire course of business, but revolutionise the atmosphere of the House of Commons. " Lobbying ' would become more im- portant to the manufacturer than the slow processes of the factory."
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