y are precisely the same as those of an individual,
and President McKinley, understanding well what must happen unless some
change is made, is doing his best to save us from the unhappy position of
a poor debtor.

He is prudently trying to stop the trouble before it gets the mastery of
us.

A country is different from an individual in the fact that there are
certain expenses that are not exactly necessary, and yet which must be
provided for, for the honor of the country. A man who is in money
difficulties can cut down his expenses to the mere cost of food, house,
and clothes. In this way a man is better off than a country. But, on the
other hand, a man can only earn just so much money; he cannot force people
to buy his goods, or pay him better prices; he has to do the best he can
with what he can earn; while a country can, by taxes, force people to give
it the money it needs, and so it is better off than an individual.

Some of the expenses of a country that must be met are the salaries of all
the officers who preserve law and order, the judges, soldiers, sailors,
and the police; the pensions of the old soldiers, and of their families;
the building of forts and warships, and of the guns to arm them; the
making and issuing of money, and the handling and delivering of letters.

Enormous sums of money are necessary to meet these expenses, and they are
raised by taxes. A country has no right to spend more than it earns, any
more than a man has, but there may come times in the history of a country
when extra expenses are necessary, and then the Government taxes the
people to meet them.

This is what President McKinley proposes to do now.

The new tax proposed is to be a revenue tariff on all articles of foreign
manufacture that are brought into this country.

The extra session of Congress is to consider, and, if possible, pass the
Tariff Bill, which it is desired shall go into effect May 1st of this
year.

The bill is being introduced by Congressman Nelson Dingley of Maine, who
is Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of
Representatives. It is known as the Dingley Bill, and, it is said, will
increase the income of the Government over one hundred millions.

It is said by people who are against the bill, that, if it passes, the
cost of living will become much greater. People who are in favor of it say
that by preventing goods of foreign manufacture from being brought into
the country, our own industri