446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



c. It is neither lawful nor expedient to impose duties upon 

 imports without exercising such discrimination in the choice of 

 subjects of taxation as will most fully promote the public interest, 

 irrespective of private gain. 



d. It is neither lawful nor expedient to frame measures for the 

 collection of revenue from duties on imports for the purpose of 

 raising or permanently maintaining the price of any given article 

 above what it would otherwise be ; except under the necessity of 

 taxing such article for purposes of revenue only. 



e. It is neither lawful nor expedient to put either a duty or 

 a tax upon any crude or partly manufactured article which is ne- 

 cessary in the processes of domestic industry, by which large 

 numbers of persons may be burdened, even if the interests of a 

 lesser number might be for a time promoted. 



If such are the conditions which we are now called upon to 

 meet, and if such are the lines on which we are to work, then mani- 

 festly the first consideration must be given to sorting and classi- 

 fying articles which are or may be imported, with a view to their 

 use rather than with a view to the question whether or not they 

 may be produced in this country. On the other hand, it must be 

 admitted that there may have been some branches of industry 

 which have been promoted by high duties and which may have 

 been developed a little more rapidly than they would otherwise 

 have been, under a high tariff, at the cost of the consumers for 

 the time being. How shall they be treated ? 



It may be held that the position which has been assumed by 

 most of the advocates of the protective system, I mean protection- 

 ists, according to the common acceptance of the meaning of that 

 term, has been mainly due to the former misconception in regard 

 to the source of wages, which was held even down to the time of 

 Mill, and by him until a late period in his own life and work ; to 

 wit, a conception that wages are derived from a fund previously 

 accumulated, and therefore from a " wage-fund " which might be 

 to some extent under the control of capitalists by whom it should 

 be administered, either in one direction or in another at their own 

 choice. This mistaken conception of the source of wages leads to 

 the further misconception that we must make work, or provide 

 work, for a multitude, arbitrarily or willfully directing the force 

 of capital in one way or another. What we really desire to do, 

 what we really seek to attain, is that which is the purpose of all 

 science and invention— not to make work, but to save work ; to 

 diminish the effort which is necessary to procure subsistence, 

 shelter, and clothing, thereby increasing abundance. When we 

 do that, it becomes necessary that there should be the widest pos- 

 sible and the freest possible exchange of services, or an exchange 

 of product for product, of service for service, of product for serv- 



