FISCAL POLICY
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of the 8th inst., J. W. D. says : " The deciding principle must be :—Which fiscal policy (Free Trade or Protection) other things being equal, will produce the greater amount of wealth for distribution among the people of this country ? "
While recognizing, as I have long done, that under Free Trade, a country will " produce a greater amount of wealth for distribution " than under Protection, I would like to lay stress on the very significant fact that that greater amount of wealth will be more equitably distributed under the Free Trade system than under the other.
In the United States the number of rich men, in proportion to population, is much greater than here, and there the very rich men are much richer than the very rich men in this country. In contrast to that, the farmers in America are crying out against the unequal conditions under which they suffer, and they now also want Protection which, of course, cannot be given them without inflicting injury on all classes of the community, raising the cost of living, and increasing the cost of production, with the result that were such additional Protection granted, the export trade of the country would be checked and labour engaged in that trade would suffer.
We do not want to reintroduce into this country a fiscal system which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.— 22 Carlton Hill, N.W. 8.
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