FISCAL REFORM.
me WE EDITOR OF Tale "SrEcTATOIL1 SIR,—You have given us again your favourite dilemma : if foreign goods continue to be imported under a tariff, the home manufacturer will not benefit, and if they are kept out, the revenue will not be increased (Spectator, April 27th, p. 685). But surely this dilemma can be rebutted in the ordinary way : if the goods come in, the revenue takes the tax, and if they are kept out, the home manufacturer will be benefited. Possibly neither dilemma is worth very much, but I confess one seems to me as good as the other. Perhaps you have some other argument which is not expressed in your dilemma as it stands.
[" A Faithful Reader" forgets that our new Protectionists do not present their propositions as alternatives, but count upon both things happening. They pledge the money to be raised by Protection "from the foreigner" to social reform, and yet count upon keeping out foreign imports, and thus protecting the home and Colonial producer. If only one of these things happens, the policy of the Tariff Reformers will have failed.—ED. Spectator.]
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