Thompson On The Tariff

"A tariff for reverme only" ivas tu o cry of the open and coucealed f.'eo traders of ten years ago. Mr. Samuel J. Randall tried to improve upon the saying by adding, 'and a revenue only from the tariff." Ha and the free traclers agreed in regardiiiL the as.sociation of the tariff with revenue as most intímate, and in clcppising any 'tariff that left the countrv in the lurch in the matter of lta annual income. Tliat, and not thf; amount of protection it afíordod, was the thing they professed to keep in view in framing1 a tariff. The tariff they actually have tnucted has earned the contempt oven cl iU autliors by provhig a complete failurc in this respect. For the lirst timo since the close of the war we have been una We to "male both cnds meet." "We actually have added to tbc natioanl debt more than it was at the beginning of the war through the operation of this WÜson-Gonnaa taiili'. Although many expenses have o'iminished with the gradual payment oí the debt, and although 'the party oi economy" had the outlay of the yeat entirely in own control, 3"ei we are going Into debt deeper stcad Of coming out of it. The surplu.s which Mr. Cleveland urgcd as a reason for getting rid of protection L'a.s disappeared utterly and ayawninj; deficit lias taken its place. A f: est. mortgage lias been placed on the pioperty and labor oí every -iitizen ïiy 'tlie issue of fresh bonds. Tlie o'-d mortgage was incurred to save tne ration irom disniemberment and contempt. Tlie new one is merely tbe penalty ti-o liave incurred by setting tlieorists like Prof. Wilson to deal uuthoi-itatively with practical piobIfcms. BeFore Ave are done with him tbat vural statesman is likely to oost tlie country more than his state vould feell for. The 'first reason for tuis gpeat deficil in the national revenue is that 1lni present miserable tariff is based on the ad valorem principie, lts dulies, therefore, bringa higher revemie v, beu the prices -are high, and a !ower 'n-hen the prices are loiv. Thus the revonue 'ol the country is made dependent on the manipulation of the marlet, the honesty of invoices and tha contingencies 'over which our treastjry has no control. We go on importing, and -vve even incre;ise our imports but we get no corresponding return in revenues. Prices all, and duties fall with them, so that both the treasury and the home manufactures suffer equally. The one gets no reveue ; the other sustaius a most