s. Thus the relation between
business and government becomes, not a matter of the exposure of all the
sensitive parts of the government to all the active parts of the people,
but the special impression upon them of a particular organized force in
the business world.

Furthermore, every expedient and device of secrecy is brought into use to
keep the public unaware of the arguments of the high protectionists, and
ignorant of the facts which refute them; and uninformed of the intentions
of the framers of the proposed legislation. It is notorious, even, that
many members of the Finance Committee of the Senate did not know the
significance of the tariff schedules which were reported in the present
tariff bill to the Senate, and that members of the Senate who asked Mr.
Aldrich direct questions were refused the information they sought;
sometimes, I dare say, because he could not give it, and sometimes, I
venture to say, because disclosure of the information would have
embarrassed the passage of the measure. There were essential papers,
moreover, which could not be got at.

* * * * *

Take that very interesting matter, that will-o'-the-wisp, known as "the
cost of production." It is hard for any man who has ever studied
economics at all to restrain a cynical smile when he is told that an
intelligent group of his fellow-citizens are looking for "the cost of
production" as a basis for tariff legislation. It is not the same in any
one factory for two years together. It is not the same in one industry
from one season to another. It is not the same in one country at two
different epochs. It is constantly eluding your grasp. It nowhere exists,
as a scientific, demonstrable fact. But, in order to carry out the
pretences of the "protective" program, it was necessary to go through the
motions of finding out what it was. I am credibly informed that the
government of the United States requested several foreign governments,
among others the government of Germany, to supply it with as reliable
figures as possible concerning the cost of producing certain articles
corresponding with those produced in the United States. The German
government put the matter into the hands of certain of her manufacturers,
who sent in just as complete answers as they could procure from their
books. The information reached our government during the course of the
debate on the Payne-Aldrich Bill and was transmitted,--for the bill by