Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/602

584 would be different, and some of the stumbling-blocks in the way of prudent legislation would have been removed. An argument in favor of definite improvement does not involve a belief in Utopia.

As an example of the problems capable of scientific treatment, let us consider the tariff question. A man who is actively engaged in commerce, manufactures, agriculture, or mining, will, consciously or unconsciously, regard such a problem from the stand-point of his own industry—judging it according to his own interests, and giving less weight to the interests of others. Whatever benefits him must be good for the country; whatever injures him is surely bad for the country: practical experience and common sense are apparently on his side. Nevertheless, with him, a truly judicial treatment of the subject is so difficult as to be well-nigh impossible; and this statement is borne out by the existing condition of affairs. Every great industry in the country has either been represented in Congress, or has clamored for relief before it, each asking that certain duties should be raised, and others abolished or lowered. The result of this agitation is practically chaos. Some industries are overburdened, and others are unduly favored; inequalities appear in every direction; a fair adjustment seems to be almost unattainable. The tariff, so far, has been framed unsystematically; the treatment of the question has been unscientific; hap-hazard experimenting has wrought unmistakable mischief.

Suppose, now, that the tariff problem were brought for solution before men of scientific training. They would look at it much as they would regard a question in mathematics; as an equation having two sides to be exactly balanced. First, they would group together the objects capable of taxation by import duties, classifying them by a scientific method, and specifying each one with definiteness and precision. The list so formed would next be simplified as much as possible, by striking out repetitions and superfluities, and making as few general headings as would properly cover the ground. Then would follow the consideration of each group by itself, with reference to the amount of revenue needed by the Government, and to the possible prohibitive character of any given rate of duty. Finally, the effects of the tariff upon consumers and producers would be taken into account, and the relations of industries to each other would be carefully studied, so that a duty favorable to one should not be destructive toward another. Thus, step by step, there would be wrought out a tariff system as even and just as possible; not an ideal system by any means, but one moderate and practicable.

Now, although at first sight it would seem to be a simple matter to adjust such a tariff system, something which any steady-going man of average common sense could attend to, a little consideration will show where the value of a scientific education comes in. First, the rigid application of the method proposed is more likely to be carried out by a man of scientific training than by any other, or at least more