THE FISCAL QUESTION 127 



for him alone, that every man in his yard shall henceforth 

 be sober, intelligent, punctual, industrious, slow to assert 

 his rights, and sensitive to his duties? I venture to say 

 that as a practical man he would consider that such an 

 invention would give him an inestimable advantage in the 

 competitive struggle. And if such a change could be 

 brought about in every yard and workshop, in every 

 counting-house and office throughout the land, is it likely 

 that we should need to trouble much to protect ourselves 

 behind tariff walls? On the contrary, if this could be 

 done in part, and even in very small part, if the level of 

 the moral relations of masters and men were raised but a 

 little, we should increase our industrial efficiency as a 

 nation much more than by any meddling with our fiscal 

 policy. And, besides, the gain of the latter method is 

 doubtful as well as exiguous, while that of the former 

 method is indisputably certain. But we have not thought 

 this moral aspect of the question worthy of serious 

 consideration. 



Let us look at this matter for one moment from another 

 point of view. It is a common saying that " Money 

 breeds money," and I think it is a common opinion that 

 wealth increases by spontaneous generation. But the 

 economists tell us that wealth, whether national or per- 

 sonal, is maintained only by constant reproduction. Apart 

 from that portion of our wealth which is in a relatively 

 permanent form, such as roads, machinery, houses, cleared 

 land, etc., we consume it all and recreate it all within the 

 year. And we do that, of course, in virtue of our per- 

 sonal qualities. Deprive us of these, strike the com- 

 munity with a wand so as to stop its activities, or make 

 a free gift of the business of the nation as a going concern 



