i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Passing by sucli important facts as that we- have almost en- 

 tirely lost our South American trade ; that EurojDe shows an 

 increasing tendency to buy her grain elsewhere than here — I ap- 

 peal to the following interesting fact cited in one of Mr. Kurd's 

 speeches : In 1870, before sugar was admitted free from the Ha- 

 waiian Islands, our exports to them amounted to $590,000 ; and in 

 1883, after the sugar kings had been favored, our exports were 

 $3,683,460. In a few years our exports increased sixfold ; and 

 Americans now control both the business and the politics of the isl- 

 ands. There is no reason why something like the same proportion 

 should not hold for other countries, especially for Australia, South 

 America, Canada (whose trade has been most senselessly sacri- 

 ficed), and even for England. But supposing that our whole trade 

 would have increased in only half the above proportion, we find 

 that our exports might have been, in 1887, $2,250,000,000 instead 

 of $750,000,000. Had this been the case, our imports would simi- 

 larly have increased, and our people would have bought and sold 

 to an advantage of at least a billion dollars more than they have, 

 and would have been at least a billion dollars better off. 



Heretofore we have taken a survey, necessarily rapid and in- 

 complete, of the strictly industrial effects of the tariff. Let us 

 now pass to a consideration of its general social and moral effects. 

 We shall find their mere enumeration a serious task. The tend- 

 ency to undervaluing of imports is well known, and is inevitably 

 inherent in the tariff system ; and on this account alone the tariff 

 has been said to make us "a nation of liars." Newspapers are 

 subsidized by its beneficiaries, and false information is systemati- 

 cally spread and groundless fears aroused among the ignorant. 

 Money is sent to districts of tariff reformers to defeat them. Each 

 protected industry maintains a watchful lobby at Washington in 

 its interest. Sham conventions are got up to affect public opinion. 

 In short, it is the old story of privilege maintaining itself by all 

 means fair and foul. Just as Bright and Cobden were denounced 

 as red-handed revolutionists for advocating untaxed bread for the 

 people, so the mildest revenue reformer is now " in favor,'' in the 

 words of General Alger, of Michigan (who owns several millions' 

 worth of protected pine), " of moving American industries to Eng- 

 land." Mr. Cleveland, according to other profound statesmen, 

 " desires to ruin American workingmen." Ludicrous as such talk 

 is, it has its serious side in the debasement of politics and the de- 

 struction of intelligent discussion. It is not indeed to be expected 

 that the political discussion of any subject will be remarkable for 

 research or breadth of view. Still, one must be surprised at the 

 manner in which the protection side has been defended by its 

 chief supporters. Mr. William McKinley, Jr., is supposed to be 

 the ablest and most intellectual of the champions of a high tariff, 



