Justice VS. Restrictions on Trade; F. Bastiat

By law, the foreign pine may not warm his cabin; his children may not taste the Spanish com; the wool of Navarre may not warm their cold bodies. We are told that national interest (general utility) demands this. If this is so, then it must be admitted that national interest is in conflict with justice. The government has absolute control over the lives of consumers and uses these consumers in the name of Translated by Dean Russell from Selected Warks of Frederic Bastiat, Volume 1. Paris: Guillaumin, 1863. pp. 87-88. [439 ] national industry. This is an encroachment upon their liberty. The law forbids the people to exchange their goods and services for the goods and .services of their neighbors on the other side of the frontier. Since the willing exchange of goods and services is not immoral, then the law commits an act of injustice. The writers of the "protectionist school" claim that this is necessary to protect national industry and public pros perity. Thus the advocates of tariffs and other restric tions against trade are faced with this sad conclusion: Justice and the public interest are incompatible.

[ 440] INDEX A Agriculture Bolivian, 287 British, 64 cotton, 92 outlook for, 376 Algeria, French in, 281 American Economic System, 237 AFL-CIO,68 Antitrust laws, 409 Authoritarianism, 41; see also, Gov ernment Automation and unions, 428 Awe, importance of, 41 B Bargeron, Carlisle, 94 Bastiat, Frederic candlemaker's petition, 135 competition and prices, 386 Frenchmen in Algeria, 281 justice and trade, 439 labor profits, 335 Robinson Crusoe and free trade, 38, 335 Beck, Dave, 104 Belgian iron mines, 386 Benson, Ezra Taft, 94 Bergson, Henri, 9 Bevin, Ernest, 84 Bien, Bettina education examined, 224 Bohm-Bawerk, Eugen, 437n Bolivia, foreign aid to, 287 Boycott, 105 Brandeis, Louis, 320 Brown, W. J. imprisoned ideas, 18 Browning, Robert, 361 Brutzkus, Boris, 81n Burgess, Duke pressure groups, 165 C Candlemakers, 135 Capitalism automation and, 428 basis of, 174 culture and, 337 economy of, 25 opposition to, 166 profit sharing and, 362 see also, Free market; Liberty Chaldees, Ur of, 201 Chess playing, 354 Civilization decline of, 242 industrial, 114, 428 Clark, George M.