i82 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



We now come to a long list of food-stuffs, all of which 

 pay import duty before reaching the people, such as 

 cocoa, coffee, tea, milk, and milk preparations ; sugar ; 

 confectionery of all kinds; fruits dried; jams and 

 marmalade. 



A free trade Government may call these luxuries, and 

 therefore, they are taxed, but the people know full well 

 that most of these foods are no more a luxury than bread 

 is a luxury ; nevertheless free trade Governments have 

 no more scruple about taxing these commodities than a 

 protectionist Government would have. The new Tariff 

 Convention between this country and the United States 

 of America, signed on November 20, 1907, is but another 

 example of the utter hollo wness of this " Free Trade " 

 fraud. 



The present Government which calls itself Liberal — 

 but which its political opponents dub Radical — has just 

 entered into an arrangement which is as diametrically 

 opposed to the principles of Free Trade as light is to 

 darkness. The United States, wishing to secure still 

 greater advantages for her goods, and freer facilities for 

 her commercial travellers, says to us: " You give us free 

 entry for our samples of dutiable imports, and we will 

 give you something in return. You profess to be a free- 

 trading nation, nevertheless, you are just as much open 

 to a bargain, or in other words, to those principles of 

 reciprocity under which the protected countries of the 

 world formulate their systems of tariffs, as other nations 

 are. You already draw £35,000,000 annually from your 

 import duties on goods of various kinds, many of them, 

 such as sugar for example, being necessaries of life and 



