COMMON SENSE AND THE TARIFF QUESTION. 593 



making tin plates. The income of the tax has been asked for this 

 purpose — it has been granted by the majority of the Committee 

 of Ways and Means for this purpose — it is consistent with the so- 

 called principle of protection with incidental revenue, and not a 

 man who has voted for this measure in the House of Representa- 

 tives can deny that, under the ruling of the Supreme Court, this 

 method " is not legislation ; it is a decree under legislative forms, 

 and is none the less robbery because it is called taxation." 



On the other hand, almost all the advocates of the theory of 

 protection according to the principles of its founders — viz., tem- 

 porary support during the period of the infancy of any art — may 

 now be ready to join with the reasonable advocates of freer trade 

 in coming to an agreement upon a measure which would be con- 

 sistent with existing conditions, and also consistent with common 

 sense. All admit, as Sir Robert Peel did, that we can not apply 

 the absolute theory of free trade at the present time. But we can 

 lay aside our prejudices ; we can treat the whole subject in a 

 judicial way ; we can adopt a measure of tariff reform which 

 shall lead in due season to such free trade as may be consistent 

 with the necessity of deriving a revenue from duties upon im- 

 ports, the subjects of taxation being selected with a view to the 

 least burden upon consumers. 



We may now take up the right method of bringing an agree- 

 ment on method into practice and thereby giving the necessary 

 direction to our legislators, who are all seeking for guidance 

 among their constituents. How can we expect legislators to 

 make good laws if their constituents do not .themselves know 

 what kind of laws they want ? 



When this subject is thus approached in a judicial way, there 

 are two lines of preliminary research and two sets of facts of 

 which full cognizance must be taken : 



The home market of this country rests for its development, 

 its stability and its profit, upon the prosperity of the great mass 

 of the consumers of this country who are working people busily 

 occupied for gain in all the arts of life ; of whom a vast majority 

 are "working people" even in the narrow sense in which that 

 term is commonly used. The census of occupations of those who 

 are engaged in gainful pursuits is doubtless about as accurate as 

 the enumeration of the population itself. Those who are thus 

 occupied for gain and who do all the work of production and dis- 

 tribution, and who enjoy greater or less abundance in their con- 

 sumption according to their larger or lesser share of the joint 

 annual product, number one in three of the whole population, dis- 

 regarding fractions. They are listed under different heads, viz. — 

 four general classes, and a great many sub-classes under each of 

 the general heads. The proportions under the four general classes 



vol. xxxvii. — 42 



