seldom has any first-hand knowledge of the points in National
Legislature as a machine that worked one way volved, so it has to be guided by public hearings, at which will put money into their pockets, and worked another every interest that thinks itself affected by the proposed way will take it out; it has impregnated America with the legislation seeks to present its case as effectively as mercenary view of politics." possible. "The witnesses," says Mr. Brooks, "are all The mischief does not stop at the House of Representa- interested parties. Whether lobbyists working for their tires. It tends to spread over the whole field of American living, Congressmen currying favour with their con- society. The prologue and chorus of which we Spoke a little stituents, or manufacturers who realise that a little way back are hard at work outside the Legislature. " Repre- judicious manipulation may mean millions in cold cash, sentatives of all the great protected trades have come to all who appear before the Committee have something Washington, taken sumptuous suites of apartments at tangible to gain by influencing its decisions the hotels, and begun a season of lavish hospitality to There is no one to question, criticise, or even cross-examine inconspicuous members of Congress whose votes may some their wildest statements. The consumers throughout are day be of great service for what looks like an unimportant absolutely unrepresented. ; the organised few ride rough- little line in a schedule, but which really means millions shod as usual over the unorganised many." The lamenta- and millions to the sugar refiners or the steel kings." One tions which Mr. Chamberlain puts into the mouths of the great company is believed to maintain a special register of various industries of England are reproduced in America. every member both in the National and State Legislatures. The wealthiest Trusts in the country will "pose as the His past history, his present ambitions, all that he is known guardians of an infant industry whose very existence is to wish for or suspected of liking better than he would threatened by the pauper labour' of Europe." Mr. acknowledge, are all noted, so that, if an offer is made it may Brooks quotes the instance of a man who wanted a duty be directed towards his most vulnerable point. The range imposed on chlorate of potash. The Committee, possibly of prices differs, of course, for various classes and for only for form's sake, asked for some reason for doing what various men, but the company starts with the assumption he asked of them. "Well, chlorate of potash was a raw that all are to be influenced, if only the price that each will material used in calico-dyeing, blasting-powder, and the take can be ascertained. A Wall Street tip will secure manufacture of matches. All these industries had Protec- one man, a social good time will attract another, the tion ; therefore chlorate of potash was entitled to it." smiles of a pretty woman, or the fear that he will lose his This was the general argument on which he relied, seat if he disregards the warning given him, these and But it was reinforced by a particular one. He him- other forms of temptation or pressure have each their use. self had invested -£30,000 in the manufacture, and thus The capture of groups in the House itself is completed. given employment to fifty men. No sooner had be bone- and made effectual by the capture of individual members fited his countrymen in this way than there came a fall in outside the House. prices, the profits disappeared, and the patriotic menu- These are the consequences of Protection in the United facturer had to close his works, and see the dyers of calico States,—consequences of which the triumph of Tammany, and the manufacturers of blasting-powder and matches at which we were all so virtuously shocked the other day, growing rich on the lower prices which had driven him was but an offshoot. They are also the consequences which out of the field. The array of reasons was wound up by Mr. Chamberlain assures us can never be reproduced in one which we may suppose to have had an etymological England. It is a natural and amiable confidence on his force. Chromate of potash was already protected ; why part, but we should like to have some indication where the should not chlorate of potash be equally favoured? It evidence on which it rests is to be looked for. What are would have been hard if a difference of merely two letters the reasons which lead him to think that Englishmen will should make a difference of 25 per cent. in duty. Anyway, resist the temptations to which so many of the citizens of the Committee thought that it would be hard, and chlorate the United States have yielded ? It cannot be difference of potash was placed in the list of protected articles, of race, for the original strain is the same in both, and During a brief hour, says Mr, Sydney Brooks, I saw the both have drawn to themselves additions from every quarter. process repeated in the case of hides, quinine, and anthracite It cannot be difference of religion, for in both countries coal." a Protestant majority faces a Roman Catholic minority. It In his manner the Tariff makes its way through the can hardly be the form of government, for though the one Committee of Ways and Means. Then it has to be accepted is a Monarchy and the other a Republic, their political by the House, and the process is repeated on a larger institutions, after. the Court has been excluded, closely scale and with more elaborate preparation. "The necessi- resemble one another. And the existence of a Court is no ties of the situation," says Mr. Chalmers Roberts, "bring guarantee of political purity. Corrupt Courts are as common will not, perhaps, re-establish the monasteries, but they about ' deals ' innumerable. The group asking for an will allow the party or the man who has grasped power increase in the duty on manufactured steel will enter into to permit the old Associations to glide once more into an alliance with those hoping to prevent any reduction in authorised and very powerful existence. the duty on sugar." Regard for the public interest, even in the Protectionist sense, is excluded. The maker of steel rails may honestly be of opinion that while in the case of PROTECTION AND CORRUPTION. this industry Protection will really benefit the country, it THE Daily Chronicle of Tuesday contains a very timely can only be injurious to the country to extend it to sugar. article by Mr. Sydney Brooks, founded on one by Mr. But in practice the two things cannot be separated. Part Chalmers Roberts in the November number of the World's on the re_ protect of the price which he has to pay for the votes which are to Work entitled " Making of a Protective Tariff," steel rails is his readiness to add his vote to those lation between Protection and corruption as it exists in the which are to continue the protection of sugar. And so United States. Mr. Brooks has himself seen something the contagion spreads. " Sugar allies itself with iron, of the processes which Mr. Chalmers Roberts describes, so tobacco is leagued with silk, wool grasps hands with that he is able to add such confirmation as the testimony kerosene." Even this is not the worst feature of the of an English witness can supply. The scene of this system'. Protection tends to drive every other subject out really wonderful drama is the House of Representatives of a Politician's mind. " I wonder," says Mr. Brooks, at Washington, and it is divided into two acts. The first " whether it is quite realised in England how hard takes place in the Committee of Ways and Means, and the Americans have found it to get away from the tariff, second on the floor of the House. There is also a pro- how it dominates every other question, and gathers and logue, which is continued as a sort of chorus behind the absorbs into itself the politics and passions of the nation." scenes, and heard at intervals throughout the performance The same causes will have the same consequences whether This prologue has to do with the preparation, first of the mem- the theatre of their working be the United States or Great bers of the Committee of Ways and Means, and next of the Britain. " From budget to budget men's thoughts and whole House, for the work that each has to do. That work is time and interests will be engrossed with specific and. the construction and passing of a Tariff Bill. The con- ad valorem duties, tariff schedules, and rebates, to the struction belongs to the Committee of Ways and Means, exclusion of all else. Political questions will become the members of which are appointed by the Speaker. The Pocket questions, by the side of which mere matters of first step is to go through the existing Tariff Act in order conviction, statesmanship, principles • will seem subsidiary to determine which of its figures shall be changed. This and uninteresting." In the United States Protection has necessarily opens up the whole question. The Committee " accustomed vast numbers of people to look upon the seldom has any first-hand knowledge of the points in National Legislature as a machine that worked one way in history as corrupt Legislatures. The only explanation we can offer is that Mr. Chamberlain believes in an excep- tional viciousness as inherent in the American character, of which he sees no trace in the English character. If this is the ground of his security, we cannot compliment him on either the accuracy or the charity of his diagnosis. Outside the tariff and political zone the average American is just as honourable and God-fearing a man as the average Briton. For ourselves, at all events, we shall continue to believe that like causes will produce like effects.
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