CHAPTER IX. 



MONOPOLY OF TRADE THE TARIFF. 



No BRANCH of our subject has received greater atten- 

 tion in the past twelve months than the tariff question. 

 Though the extent to which the rate of duties effect 

 internal trade has been a matter of difference between 

 statesmen since the foundation of the government, the 

 question has been discussed in all its details with as much 

 avidity as if entirely new. The following is the contents 

 of a letter written by the author to the National Wheel 

 Enterprise during the summer of 1888: 



In a discussion of the tariff issue it is not intended to 

 cover all the grounds of that most complicated of all 

 questions; neither is it intended that we shall point out and 

 advocate a well denned policy to be pursued in the read- 

 justment of the tariff schedule. To do so would require 

 more time and greater facilities for obtaining the necessary 

 facts than we have at our disposal. It is only intended to 

 expose some of the fallacies of the different systems and 

 indicate the danger that threatens as the result of an 

 unjust and impolitic readjustment of our tariff laws. 

 While there is quite an element that is uncompromisingly 

 and openly in favor of free trade, it must be admitted that 

 a very large majority among the law-makers and the 

 masses favor protection in some form and to some extent. 

 The most remarkable feature, however, in connection with 

 this vexed question is the great amount of talking done, 

 compared with the little that is known about it. As an 







