honor, and laboring men will have sooner or later to occupy high political positions.

They will be obliged to do this in self-defence, or they cannot make the idle and dissolute believe that they actually do hold the political power of the country. All are required to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of the body politic; and that person who is in the pursuit of any branch of remunerative industry will make a great sacrifice if he abandons it either from choice or necessity for the purposes of political life. No industrious, sober, and moral man will better his condition by becoming a politician.

So small a proportion of those who do make politics their business succeed, that there is but little encouragement presented. So that, as a general rule, I would advise the laboring man to let them alone.

But the laboring man may well look to the qualifications, habits, and propensities of those who do present themselves for political place, without actually entering the arena himself. And this becomes upon his part an absolute and indispensable duty. Not to strive for political position so much as to check those who do strive for success, and who are unworthy of the position they seek. At all times this much should be the aim of laboring men.

Of late years political pursuits have become so demoralizing, that he who enters the ring and would ex

pect to come out unscathed, must calculate on starting with a fortune, and ending, if he be a man of honor and integrity, in poverty. He must expect, too, among the other surrounding calamities, the shipwreck of his private character.

There is such a thing as pecuniary political success, but the roads that lead to it are not those upon which the man of probity and self-respect would travel.

CHAPTER XVI.

a manner.

TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR.

In a hasty review of some ideas suggested, some pages back, I find an allusion merely to the tariff question. As this subject is so intimately connected with labor, I am not disposed to pass over it in so summary I find that I spoke of it merely as an abstract question, and favoring the idea as one of revenue. Revenue I understand to mean the result from the imposition of the least amount of duties upon articles of importation from foreign countries that may be sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses of government.

And if the nations generally with whom we have our commercial relations would be governed by the same rule, there can be no question but that it would be the best policy to pursue. I find it difficult to relieve my mind of an early impression, that it is wrong to build up any one branch of industry at the sacrifice or deterioration of another; such as must inevitably be the case where a discrimination is observed in the imposition of taxes upon a particular class of articles over that of another. An equal tax

on all articles would be different. But so long as the different nations and peoples with whom we deal will not come to a uniform understanding, there can be no sound reason why we should become an exception to a general rule.

Were all the ports of the world to be thrown open to free commerce and trade, and the toll-gates of the sea to be unlocked, there might be found a better and stronger argument in favor of free trade. But the millennium is not so near at hand. And, besides, people generally prefer to pay taxes indirectly than to pay them directly; just as improvident persons will buy more and at a larger price upon credit than when required to pay the cash. It is a postponement of the day of reckoning, and, like Micawber, we are ever under the expectation "that something will turn up" which will improve our condition and multiply our means.

If I pay indirectly a tax of five dollars on the cloth for my coat of foreign fabric, or, which is the same thing, if the price be enhanced that amount over a domestic fabric by imposing the five-dollar tax on the imported cloth, I pay it much more readily than I would pay the tax-gatherer half that sum. Because in the one case I only have a vague idea that some part of my money goes to the support of government; but in the other the collector is before me with his

warrant in his hand. I see him, and I see my

name upon the tax-book, and just so much as the claim is, so much is my purse depleted. Of all this I am very sensible, while by the indirect process it may go in less sums, but the demand is more frequent. The collector comes once a year, but the pass-book goes to the shop almost every day in the week.

But I should very reluctantly abandon the idea of a small tariff upon the goods of other nations, seeking a market here, under our protective policy, if this tariff did not come in direct conflict with the prosperity of the laboring man.

The old argument of Mr. Clay, which in its time had much force, was, that the manufacturers of the country needed protective tariff laws, because they were comparatively new, and were unable to compete with the older establishments of Europe. This argument has not the same force now as in the days of the great commoner. Our manufacturers have had years of experience, and the benefits of modern inventions and improvements, and with the exception of the price of wages they ought to be able to compete with the civilized world. If they cannot, the fault is with them.

But, then, we must bear in mind, that the English manufacturer is content if he make his fortune in a lifetime; in the United States, if not done in half a dozen years, he is considered a failure. Everything with us pertains more to hot-house or forced growth.