iscriminates against our goods; we,
acting on the "maximum" theory, discriminate against theirs, and the
result is that the consumer pays the value of the article plus the
amount of the tariff of discrimination, since it has ever been true that
the limit in price is the top of the tariff wall.

A noteworthy feature of the bill is the provision for the formation of a
Tariff Board, composed of experts, who shall conduct investigations with
the view of evolving a scientific tariff. The board has little power
save that of advising the President in the application of the "maximum
and minimum" clause.

That the tariff has not been deemed an honest redemption of Republican
campaign pledges is shown by the recent elections. In the Sixty-first
Congress there were 219 Republicans in the House of Representatives and
172 Democrats; to the Sixty-second Congress there were returned 162
Republicans and 228 Democrats.

The Democrats at once began a revision of the tariff. Allied with the
progressives in the Senate, revisions of the wool and cotton schedules
were brought about. The Farmers' Free List Bill, which admitted free of
duty agricultural implements, sewing-machines, boots, shoes, fence wire,
and other things useful to farmers, was passed as an offset to the
Reciprocity Bill which was deemed by some to be disadvantageous to them.
The President vetoed all of these measures upon the ground that, since
the Tariff Board was to make its report within a very short time, it
would be wiser to defer action on the tariff until the report could be
used.

The Reciprocity Bill, which met the approval of the President, provided
that our markets should be free to Canada's leading agricultural
products, live-stock, fish, lumber, etc. Print paper and wood pulp were
also to be admitted as soon as the Canadian provincial governments
should withdraw the restrictions upon the exportation of these products.
The duties on some other products--iron are, for example--were to be
reduced. Canada was asked to admit free our agricultural products,
live-stock, etc., and to reduce the duties on coal, agricultural
implements, and some other manufactured goods. The September elections
in Canada, however, showed that the reciprocity treaty was not
acceptable, for the Conservative party, which was strongly opposed to
the plan, gained a decisive victory. The act as passed by Congress still
remains law in the United States, and stands as a constant invitation t