386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
THE TARIFF BOARD: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS 
By SEYMOUR C. LOOMIS 
NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
Chaar authorities on civil government lay down the rule that 
certain questions should be left to the people or their representa- 
tives in a legislative body, and certain other questions should be 
decided by experts: the latter, not because experts do, or do not, repre- 
sent the people, but because they are more familiar with the subject- 
matter and better able to reach a correct determination. Upon this 
principle our federal and state constitutions have separated the legis- 
lative from the judicial department. The legislature is chosen particu- 
larly to represent the people; the judiciary, because of its knowledge 
of the administration of the law. 
Many, if not most, public questions arising in a republic, may 
properly be classified in one or the other of two ways: those which 
should be settled by the people, and those which are best referred for 
final action to men trained in the subject-matter. There are some 
questions, however, which can not be put wholly in one or the other of 
these divisions. They are similar to those issues arising in the prac- 
tise of law which are mixed questions of law and of fact, as, for ex- 
ample, the question of negligence. The court, when a case involving 
negligence is before it, decides what standards the law requires and 
provides certain positive rules which must be obeyed by a party in 
order for him to be in the exercise of due care. But within those rules 
there are a vast number of cases which may, or may not, amount to 
negligence in fact, according as the jury applies the test of what an 
ordinarily prudent person would, or would not, do under the circum- 
stances. 
So the tariff is a question both for congress and for experts. Under 
our federal constitution, as well as in accordance with the unwritten 
principles underlying our government, the power to lay duties is 
vested in congress. It can not be delegated to any other person or 
body whatsoever. Obtaining the evidence and finding the facts so that 
the duty can be intelligently levied, falls within the province of ex- 
perts. It is for congress to say whether a tariff should be designed 
primarily for protection or primarily for revenue, and to lay duties 
accordingly. It has no power under the constitution, and ought to 
have none, to frame a tariff simply for the purpose of allowing certain 
persons to obtain an excessive profit. Such a tariff has been called a 
