The Industrial Progress of the Nation; Consumption Limited, Production Unlimited (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 Excerpt: ...who advocate national isolation, with whom discussion is useless. The benefit of foreign commerce, under certain conditions, is fully admitted by every one. It may be admitted that the duties upon foreign imports give a different direction to domestic industry, but the effect, whether beneficial or otherwise, of our present system of duties, has been, in the opinion of the writer, very greatly exaggerated by the representations of both sides in the discussion of the system. When this becomes a part of the common conviction, the reform of the tariff, admitted by both parties to be necessary, may be entered upon by reasonable men without bitter contention, and with the simple purpose of adjusting the necessary revenue duties so as to give the widest scope to the development of domestic industry, and to interpose the least obstruction to the exchange of product for product, in which our foreign commerce must, in the nature of things, consist. The point to which I desire to give prominence in this treatise is, that in spite of the depreciation and the fluctuations in the currency, and in spite of the ill-adjusted burden of taxation of all kinds which is now admitted by all parties, whether under a tariff, under the internal revenue system, or under State and municipal assessments, the effect of these minor forces has been but to retard in some measure the great progress of this country. Confidence and credit have been based on the progress which is assured by the application of invention and of science to human welfare; these elements of commerce have far more than counterbalanced the blunders and stupidities of financial legislation, and will ultimately force our fiscal system into harmony with the higher laws of material progress. If some of the computations ...