The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-03-31
INSTABILITY.
Protection aud business uncertainty-A
Illustration Of Its truth

Protection aud business Uncertainty An
Illustration OF Its truth.
One who has not studied the subject
can hardly realize the difficulties in the
way of transacting business in the
United States contingent on the COM
plications and obscurities which have
characterized our tariff policy for the
last quarter OF century. aud many of
which have been Intentionally created
with a view of indirectly restricting
foreign commerce, or, what Is the same
thing, obtaining higher taxes, u a
greater degree than public opinion
would have sanctioned IL attempted Iii
rcctly.
Consider the situation of the British
and American business man under the
fiscal policy of their respective coun-
tries. The former goes to his business
of any description every morning with
out thought that anything of dis
turbance is likely 10 come 10 his indus
trial or commercial interests from par
liamentary legislation, for the tax sys-
tenn of Great Britain-the best in the
worlds so simple and SO well adapted
to every fiscal exigency that any radi-
cal modification of it is hardly within
the bounds OF possibility. To every
American business man. on the other
hand. the session of the federal con-
grcss has become IA period of apprehen-
sion OF the enactment of laws affect
ing his interests. and only those IA
miliar with the situation can have any
correct idea OF the number of persons
who annually gather at Washingt ton,
and the amount of money expended to
effect OF defeat changes in ma
tional fiscal legislation A ques-
ton which may here suggest it,
self is: Why not, then. accept the
present tariff, and why not advocate
policy that will involve further contin-
ued and radical disturbances? A sutii-
cient answer to it is that the existing
tariff is in condition of unstable equi-
librium. as every tariff necessarily must
be that is founded, rs is now the case. on
the claims of private interest rather
than on considerations of public welfare.
and that the element OF sta bility cannot
possibly inhcre in it if the government
is to remain free and democratic.
What an illustration of the truth Of
this is TO be found in the fact that since
the enactment OF the Mckinley tariff,
or within the last two years. there have
been 100, 325 cases of dispute between
merchants and treasury officials, accom-
panied by formal protest or appeals re-
speeding the construction or meaning
of the law or the evidence of fraud. IL
is true that very many of these are set
tied by a single court decision: but
every one of them nevertheless repre-
sents worry, the employment OF legal
counsel. a large expenditure of time
and money on the part of the merchant
L nder the tariff in force in 1890, com
mittce of the United States senate re-
ported that the calendar Of customs
suits in the district courts of New York
had grown so large that there is no
reasonable prospect of disposing of
them in this generation" Such a state
of things, which is equivalent to a de-
NAL of justice TO the merchants. does
not exist in any other commercial coun-
try, and its continuance in the United
States is an outrage and a reflection on
its civilization David A. Wells, in
Eebr,ary Forum