FISCAL POLICY AND AGRICULTURE 343 



greater respect and more honest treatment at the 

 hands of those in a happier position in Hfe. 



The object in deahng with the incident here is 

 a political one — to protect the labourers from fraud. 

 Misstatements repeated and repeated, unless dis- 

 proved, are apt to become current among the people, 

 and in time, if unchecked, to be believed even by 

 those who are the authors of them. The ques- 

 tions touched by these misstatements do not affect 

 Mr. Chamberlain's great scheme of tariff reform. 

 Without discussing that scheme, it might be described 

 as one that has for its basis employment — enough well- 

 paid employment, and for its acme increased powers 

 of money-getting and money-spending on the part of 

 the people. The interests of the working-class pro- 

 ducer are put before those of the general consumer. 

 The success of the scheme would reduce to a second- 

 ary place any slight rise in the price of commodities ; 

 for, after all, " cheapness " is a minor matter to the 

 person who has money with which to buy, and is no 

 benefit at all to the penniless man. 



The statements about the dearth and dearness of 

 the necessaries of life before the repeal of the Corn 

 Laws could not be made, and were not made, a 

 generation ago. There were then too many persons 

 living who remembered the facts. The "cry" that 

 food was "dear" in those times is of recent date — 

 a modern invention for political ends. 



Free -trade writers of thirty and forty years ago 

 fully admit the increase in the price of food which 

 followed free imports. An economist, referring to this 

 increase, states : " Notwithstanding the extraordinary 

 increase in the importation of butter, cheese, and eggs, 

 consequent on their admission free of duty, these 



