FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. AN APPEAL FOR ELEMENTARY LECTURES.

EDITORS DAILY CRIMSON. - It is the common experience of undergraduates in our larger colleges, and especially in Harvard, that, as soon as they find themselves outside of their college and among so-called practical men, they are taken to task by these men for the one-sided teaching of the college in the matter of Free Trade and Protection. The "business man" of to-day generally boasts that since his education comes from the world, his opinions on these subjects are far ahead of the mere theories of college professors. The opinions thus obtained, it is fair to say, are usually on the side of a Protective Tariff. Of course these "practical" men do not stop to consider that the theorists, whom they look upon with condescension, get their education, not from the narrow field of business, but from a thorough study of centuries of civilization and national life.

But, however well the undergraduate may understand the relative value of these opinions, his only resource for a sound argument with the "practical" man is a good supply of facts in an available form. To be sure there are many men in this university whose advanced studies in Political Economy and long residence in college give ample means of defence. But there is a much larger class of men who are newly waking up to an interest in these subjects, and, too, there are the freshmen who did not have the chance to attend the Free Trade and Protection lectures last year, all of whom are left with only one way open to the information desired, namely through the library. Now this is a subject which requires, in research, great trouble and a large expenditure of time to the novice, and so on account of pressure of other studies, many men are cut off from this last resource and put at a disadvantage upon ground they feel, in very truth, to be secure.

Besides, the lectures last year did not furnish exactly the kind of material in question, they were often too technical and diffuse for the best instruction of the average layman.

Considering these circumstances, for the benefit of this class of students, could not one of our professors be persuaded to give one or more elementary lectures embracing the main arguments on both sides of the discussion, and considering briefly the position of England and America relative to the question. Such lectures could not fail to be popular, and would give many of the amateur economists in college an opportunity to study the logical grounds upon which Harvard, at least, stands as an advocate of Free Trade.

In conclusion, as this is the accepted position of Harvard in the public press and private mind, ought not every man in college to know, at any cost, the basis of the convictions which his college represents?