The democracy in America, when called the consumer, appears to
have no rights at all. Mr. Blaine actually pub- lishes the following letter to a citizen of Maine who had sug- gested that to remit the duty on sugar would help to deplete the overfull Treasury. He is willing to take off the tax, but we ought," he says, " to have in exchange for free sugar a free market for breadstnffs and provisions, besides various fabrics, from all parts of the United States. If sugar be made unconditionally free, we shall give the Latin American States free admission for $150,000,000 worth of their products." The fact that cheap sugar would help to fatten every American, and is therefore clearly beneficial, does not even occur to Mr. Blaine. His notion is that trade only benefits the seller, and he does not ask himself how the sugar is to be paid for except in American exports.
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