THE BEST METHODS OF TAXATION. 743 



wealth among the people, and readily becomes an instrument of 

 oppression. 



The almost absolute dependence of the Federal Government upon 

 the customs duties for revenue through a great part of its existence was 

 a striking fact The simplicity of collection and the comparatively 

 moderate scale of duties, although considered high at the time of 

 imposition, gave this branch of the possible sources of revenue a mag- 

 nified importance. The development of the country was slow, and 

 at times greatly hampered by the tariff policy; but until about 1857 

 no other source of income was needed to meet the expenditures of 

 the Government in a time of peace. 



In recent years this has all changed, and not for the better. The 

 immense development in manufactures and financial ability accom- 

 plished since 1860 has made a tariff for protection an anachronism. 

 The political features of customs legislation have been pushed so far 

 as almost to overshadow the fiscal qualities. The wave of protection- 

 ism that followed the abrogation of the commercial treaties of Europe 

 about 1880 has resulted in tariffs framed with the desire to injure the 

 commerce of other states rather than to meet the needs of a treasury. 

 In the United States this policy has been carried beyond that of Eu- 

 rope, and the tariff now in existence is more protective than any 

 hitherto enforced, short of absolute prohibition of imports. 



In more respects than one the tariff law of 1897 was an extreme 

 application of the protective policy. Each year the United States has 

 demonstrated its ability not only to meet the industrial competition 

 of the world on an equal footing, but to engage with it aggressively 

 and with complete success. It is not necessary to give the figures of 

 exports of manufactures to establish this fact; it is now beyond ques- 

 tion. To frame a measure of extreme protection was, therefore, to 

 overlook the most striking phase of the industrial situation existing in 

 the United States. "With an ability to manufacture cheaply and on 

 a grand scale, and with a capacity to supply the demands of a market 

 larger than any home market, there was no foreign competition to 

 encounter, and the higher rates of duties meant nothing, either for 

 protection or for revenue. In carrying further into action a tariff 

 framed more for protection than for revenue, a twofold error was 

 committed. The provisions were so complicated as to make the ap- 

 plication difficult, and in applying these provisions inquisitorial and 

 vexatious regulations were necessary to assure even a reasonable ful- 

 fillment of the requirements. In former tariff laws a general descrip- 

 tion carried a large class of articles, and a uniform duty, usually ad 

 valorem, was collected. But under the demand for a more scientific 

 tariff, these general classes were broken up into a number of enumerated 

 articles, each one carrying a specific or mixed duty, and an omnium 



