6 9 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



r 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



TARIFF LEGISLATION. 



THE tariff question is one that will 

 not down. So long as the govern- 

 ment of any country interposes arbitrary 

 obstacles to the activity of the people, so 

 long as it undertakes to make artificial 

 channels for industry, to open markets 

 here and close them there, to dictate 

 the prices at which goods shall be sold 

 — so long, in a word, as it assumes the 

 prerogatives of an all-wise Providence in 

 directing the affairs of individuals and 

 showing them how to be happy — so long 

 will there be " a doleful song steaming 

 up " of the ignorance, incapacity, and 

 injustice that mark its action. "We en- 

 deavored to show, a couple of months 

 ago, that a policy of protection, as it is 

 called, naturally and inevitably allies 

 itself with fraud and extravagance in the 

 Government, and we do not think the 

 demonstration can easily be refuted. 

 The essence of the protective system is 

 that the Government or the Legislature 

 undertakes to make higher prices for 

 goods by shutting out competition from 

 abroad. Is it to be supposed for one 

 moment that the people for whom a 

 favorable price is thus to be made will 

 not give pecuniary support to the party 

 that so arranges things for their benefit ? 

 Is it not perfectly known that election 

 funds are provided in this way, and that 

 the taxing power is thus virtually put 

 up to sale? The crowning disgrace of 

 the worst days of the Roman Empire 

 was that the supreme power in the 

 state was made a matter of bargain and 

 sale with a corrupt soldiery. We are 

 far removed from the days of the Roman 

 Empire ; but how far are we removed 

 from its methods? The question is a 

 serious one. 



We publish in this number of the 

 Monthly the conclusion of a carefully 

 prepared article by Mr. Edward Atkin- 



son bearing on this subject, the first part 

 of which will be foundin the August num- 

 ber — an article which we trust will re- 

 ceive the attention it merits. Take one 

 statement that Mr. Atkinson makes — 

 and he is a writer who is known to be 

 careful about his facts : " On the plea 

 that this branch of industry" (production 

 of iron) " should be sustained, the con- 

 sumers of iron and steel in this country 

 have paid a sum in excess of the price 

 paid by the consumers who have been 

 supplied by Great Britain and Germany, 

 ranging from $50,000,000 to $80,000,000 

 a year. The excess of price has not been 

 turned over to the workmen by the 

 owners of the mines and works." Not 

 at all ; the workmen have been left to 

 compete as savagely as they chose with 

 one another, and with a constant stream 

 of new-comers ; and the manufacturers, 

 profiting thus by cheap labor, have been 

 enabled to carve huge fortunes for them- 

 selves out of the excess in price secured 

 to them by the Legislature. It is no 

 wonder if want of gratitude for such 

 big mercies struck Chairman Eoster as a 

 most hideous crime; but such ingrati- 

 tude is the exception rather than the 

 rule, and would chiefly manifest itself 

 when the monopoly seemed secure 

 against attack; a little danger would 

 develop " barrels " of gratitude. 



The misery is that we have a manu- 

 factured and altogether falsified public 

 opinion on this subject — a public opin- 

 ion, we fully believe, which, has not at- 

 tained its present consistency without 

 much not altogether disinterested advo- 

 cacy. What is the use of having the 

 " sinews of war " if you do not employ 

 them? Money speaks in more senses 

 than one ; the chamber of Danae is not 

 the only sanctum that has been violated 

 by a shower of gold. Be this as it may, 

 however, certain it is that the public at 



