386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE TARIFF BOARD: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS 



By SEYMOUR C. LOOMIS 



NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



EMINENT authorities on civil government lay down the rule that 

 certain questions should be left to the people or their representa- 

 tives in a legislative body, and certain other questions should be 

 decided by experts : the latter, not because experts do, or do not, repre- 

 sent the people, but because they are more familiar with the subject- 

 matter and better able to reach a correct determination. Upon this 

 principle our federal and state constitutions have separated the legis- 

 lative from the judicial department. The legislature is chosen particu- 

 larly to represent the people; the judiciary, because of its knowledge 

 of the administration of the law. 



Many, if not most, public questions arising in a republic, may 

 properly be classified in one or the other of two ways: those which 

 should be settled by the people, and those which are best referred for 

 final action to men trained in the subject-matter. There are some 

 questions, however, which can not be put wholly in one or the other of 

 these divisions. They are similar to those issues arising in the prac- 

 tise of law which are mixed questions of law and of fact, as, for ex- 

 ample, the question of negligence. The court, when a case involving 

 negligence is before it, decides what standards the law requires and 

 provides certain positive rules which must be obeyed by a party in 

 order for him to be in the exercise of due care. But within those rules 

 there are a vast number of cases which may, or may not, amount to 

 negligence in fact, according as the jury applies the test of what an 

 ordinarily prudent person would, or would not, do under the circum- 

 stances. 



So the tariff is a question both for congress and for experts. Under 

 our federal constitution, as well as in accordance with the unwritten 

 principles underlying our government, the power to lay duties is 

 vested in congress. It can not be delegated to any other person or 

 body whatsoever. Obtaining the evidence and finding the facts so that 

 the duty can be intelligently levied, falls within the province of ex- 

 perts. It is for congress to say whether a tariff should be designed 

 primarily for protection or primarily for revenue, and to lay duties 

 accordingly. It has no power under the constitution, and ought to 

 have none, to frame a tariff simply for the purpoae of allowing certain 

 persons to obtain an excessive profit. Such a tariff has been called a 



