OPJGIX OF THE NAME. 405 



ties&quot; were nothing in the world but blackmail; they were the equiv 

 alent for no service rendered; they conferred no benefits on anybody 

 except the robber-like receivers of the money; they were commanded 

 and paid under compulsion; and they took just so much out without 

 return from the profits of the voyages of the ships which passed in 

 ward and outward through the strait. 



This origin of the name throws considerable light on the nature 

 of the thing. The modern tariff is a more complicated piece of ma 

 chinery than the ancient Moorish one, but that ancient one gave the 

 pitch to the tune that has been sung by all tariffs ever since. In 

 one respect that tariff was more respectable than almost any other 

 ever laid it was perfectly simple and above board. There was no 

 hypocrisy about it. The Moors wanted money; they were in a posi 

 tion to extort it, and they took it without compunction, apology, 

 or pretenses of any kind. They did not pretend that they were 

 &quot;protecting&quot; their victims while compelling them to pay tribute. 

 It was indeed downright robbery, but it was done on the square. 

 It was an open, straightforward, daylight performance; and in this 

 point of view contrasts strongly, as we shall see shortly, with some 

 modern tariffs which pretend to benefit the people, while they really 

 impoverish them. They are enacted in the name of patriotism and 

 righteousness, but when one looks narrowly into them, he sees that 

 they have remained true at bottom to the spirit of their origin. The 

 thing tariff corresponds pretty well to the name tariff. 



Tariffs take, but never give. At first sight a tariff seems to be noth 

 ing but a series of taxes on certain foreign goods. One may read 

 a Tariff Act from beginning to end, or begin in the middle and read 

 both ways, and he will find nothing but demands repeated over and 

 over again. &quot; Thou shalt pay! 3 is the only word that a tariff utters 

 or can utter. I will quote from the tariff now in force in this coun 

 try, from a copy just received from the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 as codified and re-enacted in June last, premising that the de 

 mands quoted are taken at random under the different schedules, 

 and premising also that there are by actual count just seven hundred 

 and fifty-six different rates of duty specified to be assessed upon dif 

 ferent things and classes of things. For example: Spool-thread, 

 six cents per dozen, and thirty-five per centum; slates and slate- 

 pencils, thirty-five per centum; aniline dyes, fifty cents per pound, 

 and thirty-five per centum; woolen shawls, fifty cents per pound, 

 and thirty -five per centum; bunting, twenty cents per square yard, 

 and thirty-five per centum; ready-made clothing, fifty cents per 

 pound, and forty per centum; webbing for shoes, fifty cents per 

 pound, and fifty per centum; hand-saws, one dollar per dozen, and 

 thirty per centum; hair-pins (iron), fifty-six per centum; druggets 

 and bockings, twenty-five cents per square yard, and thirty-five per 

 centum. 



These, and all the rest, are demands. A tariff gives nothing. It 

 takes. At its best estate, when most simple and honest, when there 

 are no &quot;protective&quot; features in it, and no combination of specific 

 and ad valorem duties on the same article, which is a device of 

 &quot; protection,&quot; as in some of the samples above given, a tariff is a 

 body of taxes, which the people have to pay. It is needful to note 

 this distinctly at the outset; because there are some people who 



