George B. Curtiss
George Boughton Curtiss (1852-1920) was born in Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York in 1852. He was the son of George and Hilda Curtiss. During Curtiss’s childhood, his family moved to Illinois, where they raised the young George Curtiss on the family farm. It was here that Curtiss received his early education. Later in 1876, Curtiss left Illinois for his native state of New York, and settled in Binghamton. During this time, Curtiss undertook the study of the law, whilst teaching penmanship at Lowell Business College. He would be admitted to the Bar in 1880. Three years later, Curtiss would be elected as the district attorney of Broome County, where he would remain for six years. Curtiss would then form a law partnership with Taylor L. Arms in 1886, under the name Arms and Curtiss, which would later become Curtiss, Arms & Keenan in 1898, and then Curtiss, Keenan & Tuthill in 1908.
Curtiss’s first major economic work Protection and Prosperity was published in 1896. This 847 page treatise is primarily one of economic history, which traces the effects of tariff legislation on the industrial development of England, Europe, and the United States. Despite its focus being chiefly economic history, the eleventh and final chapter of the work is of immense theoretical value. It provides a clear summary of some of the key doctrines of American Protectionist thought, as well as some original contributions.
One of these original contributions concerns the debate over ‘natural’ and ‘artificial selection.’ Although more of an argument from analogy, Social Darwinist thinkers at the time, such as William Graham Sumner, often invoked the theory of natural selection to justify free trade. In response, Curtiss retorted with an argument from “artificial selection”, noting that “when we come to consider the rapid improvements and development of plant and animals, we find that it has been due not to natural selection, but to human selection.” Similar to how farmers utilize artificial selection to perfect certain characteristics found in plants and animals in a shorter amount of time than what would occur naturally, Curtiss notes how the government can perfect and speed up the development of domestic industries through protectionist policies, which discredits the appeals to natural selection extolled by Social Darwinists.
Curtiss’s second major work The Industrial Development of Nations appeared in 1912. This monumental three volume treatise consists of over 1880 pages. Relative to his earlier work, The Industrial Development of Nations represents a greatly extended analysis of the industrial development of nations and their respective trade policies. Both of Curtiss’s major works would be utilized by the Republican Party in their campaigns. In 1899, President McKinley repaid Curtiss’s debts to the Republican cause by appointing him as US District Attorney for the Northern District of New York. He would be later reappointed to the role by President Roosevelt in 1904, and Taft in 1909, before ending his period of service in 1913. At the age of sixty-eight, Curtiss died at his residence in Binghamton, New York, on June 21, 1920.
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