The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-25
TARIFF HARBARIsMs.
Reasons for the Abrogation of the Tax on Art. on Hooks and on Lumber.

on Art, on Books and on Lumber. From an Editorial in February Century. l The tariff on art cannot be defended by any of the customary arguments of an economic sort. It is not desired by | those whom it "protects;" it accomp- fishes nothing in the upbuilding of our l industries; it does not result in the ulti- | mate cheapening of something to the
 consumer; and thousands of protec-
 tionists desire its abolition. If such an absurdity could be conceived as the protection of our portrait painters, for instance, through the tariff, it could | he done only by excluding foreigners from plying their brushes within the | boundaries of the country. To read | the law, one would think we had .Old l Master" factories in full blast. but in 1 perpetual infancy. unable to compete with the Old Masters of other coun- | tries. So weak, indeed, is the economic
 basis of this tax, that its defenders have
 nothing to urge in its favor but the
 argument that paintings and sculpture
 are luxuries, like champagne and dia-
 monds. and that their importers should
 be made to pay roundly. This is tar if for revenue only" with a vengeance; it is certainly tariff for nothing else. Meanwhile the educational and civiliz- ing value of art is left wholly out of the account.
 There Is probably no one thing that
 has so retarded the general develop.
 Inent of taste in this country as this
 tax. The influence of a correct public
 taste upon the production of art is i'm
 mense. As the recent Comparative Ex- hibitfOn of American and Foreign Art has indicated, we have admirable paint
 CTS; but. with few exceptions, they
 have formed their taste and received
 their culture abroad. That they are not more widely appreciated at home
 Is largely due to the obstacles thrown
 in the way of the importation of great foreign art. The love of art and the
 taste for it are formed by q continual acquaintance with its best examples. aud upon these the United States Gov
 ernment puts stigma amounting to ban. The objection that we should be flooded with trash is spacious. For educational influence all the trash in the world--and we have plenty of our
 own--could not weigh in the balance with one great Rembrandt Not only
 is beauty ''its own excuse for being;' it carries it's own power and revelation and fnspira tion. How many soever
 artists we produ0e. we shall never be
 an artistic people until we live in closer access to the great art of the world Every museum in the country is a
 standing rebuke to the short sighted
 ness of Congress in thus taxing the development of the people.
 Another barbarism is the tariff on books. This Is as much a tax upon the public schools and colleges By a
 curious anomaly. the books thus af- fected are mainly those of English origin. the expression of a civilization sympathetic to our own. while books in foreign languages are admitted free The situation Is something to be ashamed of. If any duty Is kept or books, there should be a clause pro. viding that all books sent for review to any periodical entered as second class mail matter shall be admitted free under such regulations as the Sec. A hardly less absurd theory seems to have inspired the tariff on lumber On our northern border Is a country of inexhaustible timber. able and eager to supply our wants. And yet for tho enrichment of a comparatively few, WIG prefer at enormous expense to destroy our own supplies-at many a point to make solitude and call it peace ' The destruction of forests in Mime
 scta. Wisconsin and Michigan, New York and New Englapd-by fire and for the needs of construction and, Iatterly for woodpulp--is alarmingly on the in crease. Against such influences the conservative tendencies of forest reser- vation in the far West, ree-planting and scientific cultivation and cutting. seem to be like saving at the spigot
 and wasting at the bung." It Is high time that Congress should look at this
 subject in truer perspective and should
 remember that It's duty is to legisIate
 not merely for it's constituents today,
 but for generations to come who are
 to preserve and defend the ideas for
 which this republic stands.