The Mote And The Beam

The Protectionists protest the action of Gerinany inclassifying canned meats from this country by the cana containng them, calling them "iren ware," inposing on the ad valorem duty, instead of üfteen per cent as formerly, when admitted as "slaughtered and pressed meats." On sueh protest, the N. Y. Times remarks: Surely, when we find Germany levying a tax on one insigniflcant article of American exports to the extent of thirty per cent. we inay very properly examine the beam in our own eye before expressing any great indignation at the toleration which our Germán frienda show for the mote which we have discovered in theira. Moreover, we must remember that the practice of high protective duties is taught to Germany by our own theoretical economists. Our ultra protectionists have preached for a half century that it is the highest duty of a government to make one class of its citizens buy at high prices of another class; that the home market ia the only one to consider, and that this must be reserved, at any cost, to some manufacturers. If Germany chose to do so she might read that lesson back to us in a f orm that we should hardly enjoy. We tax her wool. Snppose that she should tax our cotton, which, like wool, is a raw material far the manufacture oL clothing. "We tax her fruits and her cheese and her salt; suppose that she should tax our apples and our grain and our tobáceo. We tax her lamps and her machinery; suppose that she should tax our illuminating oil. "We tax her wine and Chemicals; sappose she should tax our lard and bacon. When she had done this she would have raised a barrier against at least $50,000,000 of theless than $70,000,000 which we expsrt to her shores, and with what would our much protected industries supply that loss ? Undoubtedly the Germán policy is a bad one f or Germany, and it is greatly to be hoped that she will not carry it any further; that, indeed, she will recede from it. But it is a policy of substantial freedom as compared with that which we ourselves pursue.