which was the best they could get. A new community must take risks in such matters. It has to put up with railroad accommodations far inferior in point of safety to what the people of the richer States enjoy. If we had a National railroad law, which required every road to be built with the thoroughness, and conducted with the precautions, which are possible in the older States, the new States would be left almost without railroads.

Yet not unlike such a law is that which forbids any bank to issue paper money until it has bought National bonds to the full amount, and deposited these with the Treasurer of the United States. The effect is that there are few banks and not many bank-notes in the South and West, while the North and the East can have as many as they choose. A change which would enable each of these poorer communities to establish its own bank of issue, and give its producers credit, as the Scotch banks do, would be of great It would both relieve them from the need to borrow from the older States on mortgage at high rates, and would tend to develop local business of all kinds. Their need would not be met by larger issues of either Treasury notes or Silver dollars, for these forms of National money are even more centralized in their issue than are the notes of the National Banks.

use.

15. In the regulation of our domestic commerce it is the right and duty of the State to guard the health and lives of its people. It should see that no articles are sold for food which are unfit for human use through either decay or immaturity. It should require that food and medicine shall be free from adulteration of all kinds. It should see that transportation companies take proper precautions to protect both passengers and employees from foreseen dangers. The number of train-hands killed every year on our railroads is a blot on the Nation. It seems to prove inhumanity in us, but

really stands for thoughtlessness, and "evil is done by want of thought as well as by want of heart."

16. The commerce in some kinds of articles is attended with so much danger as to justify the requirement of special precautions. Thus the storage of explosives in large quantities within a city is not allowed, and even gunpowder can be sold only by those who take out a special license, and show that they have taken proper precautions for handling it.

It is much the same with the sale of intoxicants. Some States forbid this by law. Those who allow it should exact special security from all who undertake it. They should be persons whose social record is good, and who can be trusted not to sell to minors, to persons already intoxicated, or at hours when the sale is forbidden. The number of such places should never be greater than is necessary to meet the actual demand. If there be more, they will push their trade by free distribution of articles calculated to provoke thirst, by sprinkling whiskey on the sidewalk, and by other means.

17. Domestic commerce is that which is of most importance to a Nation. It is based on difference in industrial skill and toil. It is liable to injury from combination of both producers and traders. Our railroads have harmed it by unfair charges, which tend to centralize business at a few points; but our laws are seeking to undo this harm. Our banking system has had the same bad tendency, which also should be corrected by law. Some branches of domestic trade require special precautions.

CHAPTER X.

Foreign Commerce.

1. WHILE domestic commerce depends on differences of employment within the country, foreign commerce grows out of differences of climate and productions in different countries. It secures to each country as much as possible of the advantages of the rest. It supplies to more northern regions the spices, fruits, tea, coffee and sugar which flourish best in the neighborhood of the Equator. It sends in exchange for these the flour, tar, pine-lumber, ice and the like, which belong to the colder climates towards the poles.

Besides this, foreign commerce establishes profitable exchanges between countries whose people differ in the degree of their civilization. It supplies dress fabrics, tools, knives and ornaments to people unable to produce these for themselves. It takes in exchange their ivory, copra (dried cocoanut), camphor, fur-skins, india-rubber and other rude products, which it uses in its manufactures.

Even between nations of the same general rank in civilization, there is a natural commerce in articles of finer workmanship, which represent the development of national taste. and skill. These range from works of art and books finely printed and illustrated down to dress fabrics of graceful design, and the like.

2. As in a well-managed household, the expenses of the year will be at least no greater than the income, so in a Nation whose economies are well seen to, there will be no excess of imports over exports, to require the export of money to settle the balance. If, indeed, a country is producing more Gold or Silver than it can find use for at home,

the export of these as commodities may be made without loss. In that case they are simply commodities, like dry goods or hardwares. So, also, if a nation has made large loans to others, it may take the payment of the interest in imports without any disadvantage to itself. Or, if it have a large body of shipping, and carries goods for other countries, it can take the payment for this in imports without incurring any debt. In this way the balance of trade may seem to stand against a country, when it really is in its favor.

3. Our own situation as a trading nation is the reverse of these suppositions. We produce a great deal of Gold, but not enough for our own use, and any sign of its being needed for export causes a just alarm. We are heavily in debt to England, Holland and Germany, and must export grain, cotton, meat-products and other articles to pay the interest. Through our neglect of our shipping, we have to hire that of other countries, especially England and Norway, to carry our exports and imports. We need, therefore, to export goods to the value of all we import, and also to the amount of the interest on our indebtedness to Europe, and to the amount of the charges made for our use of foreign ships. When we succeed in doing this, we neither export Gold nor go more heavily into debt.

4. It is said by some that there is no harm in exporting Gold or Silver, since these are less useful than the things we get in exchange for them. Those who say this regard. money merely as the instrument of exchange, and not as that of association for production. They hold that its export can but lower prices in the country, and thus induce foreigners to bring back Gold to make purchases. It has been shown (see pp. 35-41) that the facts do not fit this theory. The countries which have least money are the countries of small production and of high prices. Those which have

most money have also the best organized system of labor, and, therefore, the lowest prices. To export money is to give irreplaceable power in exchange for the products of power.

It is true, as these writers insist, that nobody can eat, drink or wear Gold, and that, by exporting it, we buy things which meet these immediate needs. But this proves nothing, as the most useful things are not those which we can eat, drink or wear. They are those which enable us to furnish an ample supply of things to eat, drink and wear. And this Gold does.

5. For this reason, among others, it may be wise to impose restrictions on the import of articles which can be made at home, with a view to promoting their production at home. This is generally done by laying a duty upon those articles when brought in from abroad. The list of such duties is called a Tariff. In America, such duties are now laid only by National authority, and our Tariffs are made or altered by Congress.

Not every Tariff aims at promoting the manufacture at home of the articles on which it imposes duties. In some only those articles are put under duty which cannot be made at home; or if any article made at home be included, the home-made article is taxed equally. This is the method of the present English Tariff. It thus avoids turning capital and labor to the production of any articles which they would not undertake if there were no such law. This is called Free Trade, and such a Tariff is for revenue only. It is a form of indirect taxation, which is open to the objections that lie against such taxes. It falls more heavily upon the poor than upon the rich, as it taxes the consumers of tea, coffee, spices, tobacco, and other articles in proportion to their consumption of these articles, and without regard to their ability to bear such taxes. It thus tends to make the rich