TARIFF DUTIES AND CONSUMERS. 45 



CHAPTER X. 



TARIFF DUTIES AND CONSUMERS. 



FEW newspapers in the United States have been able to prop- 

 agate so much error about duties on imports as the New 

 York Evening Post. This is due mainly to its mode of discussing 

 the question. As a rule, its editorial articles on the tariff embody 

 scanty citations of individual facts, pertinent to the issue, and 

 illustrative of the argument. Usually, the Post delights in gen- 

 eral propositions which, for the most part, contain only a small 

 fraction of the total truth, yet which are presented and reasoned 

 on, not as fragmentary and incomplete, but as aggregate and entire. 

 All the co-operative factors are assumed to be present in the state- 

 ment which is taken as a basis for deduction ; consequently, eVery 

 progressive step of the dialectic method is an additional movement 

 into the realms of error. A specific example of our meaning will 

 be found in the following extract from the Post, Dec. 26, 1874 : 



Tariff taxes do fall, must fall, as a rule, upon the consumers of the taxed 

 goods. It is true that dealers sometimes, in order to tempt a brisker market, are 

 temporarily willing to pay a part of the tax out of their own profits ; but this can 

 never be the permanent state of things. Trade is always carried on for the sake 

 of the profits of it; these profits tend to reach an average level; and profits con- 

 sequently will never steadily pay steady taxes levied on the goods by the sale of 

 which the profits are realized. Such taxes are always ultimately thrown upon 

 the ultimate consumers of the taxed goods. 



To persons who have not dug down to the bedrock of such 

 propositions and conclusions, those above are likely to appear rea- 

 sonable or conclusive. So soon, however, as we test these propo- 

 sitions by existing facts, or by a long term of experience, we im- 

 mediately detect their fallacy. For example, some weeks ago we 

 proved in our columns, by the concurrent statements of four col- 

 lectors of customs at the leading offices where the revenues are 



