THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 1 89 



various tariff acts which have been passed since the war, 

 all the non-protective duties have been swept away, in 

 order that the protective duties might be retained. Arti- 

 cles like cocoa, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, olives, the 

 most natural and proper sources of revenue from import 

 duties, have been admitted free of duty. The decisive 

 step in this process was the tea and coffee act of 1872. 

 There are at present none other than protective duties in 

 our tariff." 



Thus we find that, though the United States customs 

 free list has been extended, it has been by ignoring the 

 farmer's right to be considered a subject for protection, 

 while at the same time increasing protection to 

 manufactures. While these changes referring to the 

 tariff have been transpiring, the internal taxes upon 

 domestic manufacture laid in 1862, which amounted at 

 one time to $127,000,000, nullifying, to a slight extent, 

 the protection given the manufactures, have been discon- 

 tinued. Besides this, the tax of $72,000,000, which was 

 taken yearly from the 460,170 persons who were found 

 to have incomes exceeding $r,ooo, to the aggregate 

 amount of $800,000,000, is no more collected. In fact, 

 this vast aggregate income, which has doubled or trebled 

 since the repeal of the tax, pays nothing for its protection 

 into the federal revenues, except in the individual cases 

 where the indirect taxes operate to the extent that the 

 living expenses exceed the $1,000. 



In the earliest days of Canadian protective legislation, 

 the agricultural interests were classed among those which 

 were to be directly guarded and vastly benefited by re- 

 strictive duties against the products of the foreign rival. 

 Many farmers were highly delighted at the prospect of 

 having the domestic markets all to themselves for the 



