442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



taxed in order to sustain manufactures ; commerce taxed to sus- 

 tain agriculture ; and impositions proposed upon both agriculture 

 and manufactures to sustain commerce by subsidies and bounties ? 



Again quoting President Cleveland, " It is a condition and not 

 a theory which we are called upon to meet." What is that condi- 

 tion ? Here are two parties in Congress each attempting to deal 

 with this great problem, each claiming to be equally in earnest to 

 promote domestic industry, to develop the home market, and to 

 protect the workmen of this country. The representatives of each 

 of these two parties are elected by great bodies of voters who are 

 equally honest and sincere in their efforts, or who have persuaded 

 themselves that they are, and that the future prosperity of the 

 country will depend upon their having their way. In this position 

 we merely find conditions of the same kind that have been met 

 before. In every great emergency each party claims to be the 

 savior of the country; but the country saves itself in spite of 

 parties, as it did in the civil war. Its material progress continues 

 on its stupendous way in spite of the little petty obstructions which 

 are interposed by those who believe they can manage all the affairs 

 of the people better than they can manage them for themselves. 



Between these two parties, if this is to be a party question, 

 each one of us must make a choice when we vote or when we 

 select the party with which we must act. Both these parties claim 

 to protect domestic industry in the measures which they propose ; 

 but their proposed measures differ fundamentally. On the Re- 

 publican side the policy is to tax every foreign product, crude, 

 partly manufactured, or finished, of which a similar product has 

 been or can be established in this country, without regard to the 

 effect of such a tax on other branches of industry. Their avowed 

 purpose is to impose taxes " for protection with incidental reve- 

 nue," in order to render this country, as they term it, " independ- 

 ent of all others." It does not matter to them whether a branch 

 of industry which might be set up exists at the present time or 

 not. For instance, the Republican tariff bill will double the tax 

 on tin plates without regard to the use to which these tin plates 

 are to be put. No regard is paid to the nature of the work which 

 must be done in order to ascertain whether it is desirable or not. 

 The promoters of this measure simply say, Here is something 

 which may be made in this country for which we now exchange 

 our surplus products. The work ought to be done here, even if 

 its establishment costs twice or thrice what it is worth ! 



Now, if the most superficial examination had been given to 

 the kind of work which is to be done in dipping sheets of iron or 

 steel into melted tin by hand, no machine having been invented for 

 displacing this process, it would have been found that it is an art 

 for which the people of "Wales not only possess an inherited apti- 



