sow TO RAISE REVENUE. 723 



general principle, the majority of tlie men who appear before the 

 " Ways and Means " Committee of Congress generally ask for 

 prohibitory duties on the importation cf articles that compete 

 with their own products. To the extent that protection is made 

 absolute, to just that extent the customs revenue will be de- 

 stroyed.* Taxes levied on the importation of commodities that 

 the country does not produce accrue entirely to the benefit of the 

 national Treasury. Taxes levied on the importation of commodi- 

 ties which compete with domestic products are paid by the people, 

 but benefit the Treasury to a very limited extent or not at all. For 

 example, when in 1869 a tax of five cents per pound was imposed 

 on the import of crude or unmanufactured copper, the customs 

 revenue that accrued to the Government in one year (1879) was 

 only five cents; but the taxes levied on the American people 

 through the increase in the price of domestic copper, and effected 

 mainly through the agency of a gigantic monopoly, aggregated 

 millions during the same period. 



One almost insuperable obstacle in the way of formulating and 

 instituting a correct system of revenue which pertains to the Fed- 

 eral Government of the United States, does not find a parallel in 

 the administration of the government of' any other country in 

 which its people are allowed to participate. As a rule, in such 

 other countries political antagonisms, however bitter they may 

 be on the part of legislators, do not embrace or extend to the busi- 

 ness of raising the revenues which are considered essential for the 

 support of the state, although no system of revenue has ever been 

 devised, or probably ever can be, that will not to a greater or less 

 degree be made the subject of popular complaint. In this con- 

 nection the methods adopted as the result of long experience by 

 the British Parliament for raising revenue and authorizing ex- 

 penditure in anticipation of the necessities of each succeeding 

 year, are most pertinent, and substantially as follows: 



The British fiscal year commences on the 1st of April. In the 

 course of the preceding six months the estimates of expenditures 

 for the ensuing year are prepared with great detail by the heads 

 of the different departments of the Government and submitted to 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who corresponds to the United 



* " Mr. Lawrence, of Ohio, who for years has been most earnest in advocating prohibitory 

 duties on wool, when recently confronted with the fact that his policy would lead to the 

 loss of revenue, said : ' Why should you want any ? ' When the laugh that followed had 

 subsided, he explained that he meant why should we want any revenue from wool, adding 

 that there were many other commodities from which revenue could be derived. He did not 

 stop to consider that the producers of those other articles wanted duties that would shut 

 out foreign competition as badly as he desired it in his own interest. Moreover, his was a 

 particularly flagrant case, as he represented a commodity of which the country produces 

 only about half as much as we consume." 



