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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



healthy symptom ; and before we take 

 our ease we should see what can be 

 done to moralize the existing conditions 

 of industrial life, and to give to the 

 world's workers a conviction that the 

 action of natural and social forces is 

 making for their good and will con- 

 tinue to do so in the future. How is 

 this to he done ? By any form of gov- 

 ernment action ? Upon this point Mr. 

 Wells does not give us all the light 

 we should desire to have ; but we 

 thank him for having shown, in the 

 matter of the sugar bounties and draw- 

 backs and kindred measures, the futile 

 character of government interference 

 with trade. On the score of restrictive 

 tariffs much might have been said. If 

 the little, comparatively speaking, that 

 has been done by different countries to 

 force their sugar upon other countries 

 has been productive of so much dis- 

 turbance as Mr. Wells describes, to 

 what a vast extent must the natural 

 course of industry and commerce have 

 been interfered with by the hostile 

 tariffs that different nations have erected 

 in order to shut out from their markets 

 the cheap goods that other communi- 

 ties were prepared to supply ! Had the 

 commerce of each country been re- 

 quired to adapt itself simply to the 

 natural conditions established in the 

 world, there would have been far more 

 of permanence and less of uncertainty 

 in all business arrangements; and a nat- 

 ural equilibrium would have resulted, 

 the benefits of which would have been 

 shared by all countries alike. But with 

 tariffs enacted either by irresponsible 

 autocrats or by more or less purchasable 

 majorities of representative assemblies, 

 wholly incalculable elements have been 

 introduced, with results as grievous to 

 commerce in its broad aspects as would 

 be the shifting of the stars to naviga- 

 tion. But more injurious still than 

 any actual financial loss resulting from 

 government interference has been the 

 habit which has thus been cultivated in 

 most countries of depending on the 



government or the legislature, not only 

 to control the channels of trade, but to 

 secure the national prosperity. With 

 all our boasted intelligence we make an 

 absolute fetich of the state. "Whence 

 have these men this wisdom ? " might 

 well be asked regarding the men who 

 undertake to make our tariffs, and say 

 just how much of this or that foreign 

 article we shall import, and how much 

 we shall pay for a similar native prod- 

 uct. But few, comparatively speak- 

 ing, ask the question : the assumption 

 is general that the man who is elected 

 to Congress and placed on a committee 

 is thereby invested with a wisdom and 

 knowledge almost supernatural in their 

 range. 



For our part, we do not share the 

 delusion. We do not believe that any 

 man or body of men is wise enough to 

 be intrusted with the task of fettering 

 the industry of a nation or prescribing 

 the extent to which its citizens shall 

 trade with other nations. We do not 

 believe that election to any representa- 

 tive assembly whatever confers such 

 wisdom. Holding such views, we are 

 far from looking to government for any 

 help in the present crisis. The only 

 help, as we conceive, that the govern- 

 ments of the world could give would be 

 to cease their interference with many 

 departments of life which they now 

 undertake to control. Leaving, then, 

 every form of state action out of the 

 question, we believe that much good 

 might be do.iC by the dissemination in 

 a condensed and striking form of such 

 facts as Mr. Wells has so industriously 

 gathered; and we learn with pleasure 

 that it is that gentleman's intention to 

 republish his essays in book form, with 

 such modifications as will best adapt it 

 to popular usefulness. If the work- 

 ing-classes could be brought to under- 

 stand the action of economic and so- 

 cial laws, and if it could be made clear 

 to them that up to the present their 

 own position had been steadily im- 

 proving, they surely would not be dis- 



