… is from page 193 of the Irish-born Democratic U.S. Congressman from New York William Bourke Cockran‘s speech to the National Liberal Club of England, delivered on July 15th, 1903, as this speech appears in In the Name of Liberty: Selected Addresses by William Bourke Cockran, Robert McElroy, ed. (1925):
The essential difference between Free Trade and an industrial system based on Protection is, that under a system of Free Trade the excellence of the product is the only means by which it can secure a market; while under Protection an inferior article can dominate the market through the aid of legislation. The necessary effect of Free Trade is, therefore, to encourage efficiency in production, while the necessary effect of Protection is to encourage skill in corruption.