ainst the greedy lobby in this process of tax
revision. And so, selfish commercial interests could get nearly what
they asked for in Congress, and the politicians at Washington, who had
come to have a well-nigh superstitious faith in the efficacy of very
high protective duties, could quietly use the opportunity to raise the
people's taxes for the people's good.

These virtual increases in the protective power of the rates in force
are not evident in the statistics of average _ad valorem_ rates,
because the higher rates in many cases were sufficient to exclude
relatively more of the foreign products to which they applied.[5] The
imports came, by a process of selection, to consist more largely of
goods subject to lower rates. So the year 1868 showed the highest
average rate on dutiable goods (48.6 per cent) of any year after the
act of 1828 until that of 1890, and the rate fell somewhat each year
until in the fiscal year 1872 it was 41.3 per cent.

Sec. 8. #The tariff, 1872-1889#. In 1872 the country was again, as in
1857, nearing the crest of a wave of prosperity and of speculation.
Imports and customs receipts attained new high points in our history,
and, despite the enormous reductions of internal revenue taxation,
the government's receipts continued to be excessive.[6] The important
revenue articles, tea and coffee, were then transferred to the free
list, as were also raw hides and paper stock and some other articles;
the rate on salt was reduced one-half and that on coal almost as much.
Many other specific rates were reduced and the _ad valorem_ rates on a
long list of articles were cut to "90 per cent of existing rates."
The effects of these reductions were mingled with those of the severe
financial panic occurring in 1873 and of the depression following,
which reduced especially the importation of luxuries bearing the
higher rates. The average rate of the three (fiscal) years 1873 to
1875 was 39 per cent on dutiable (a fall of 9) and 28 on free and
dutiable (a fall of 16). The ratio of imports entering free, which in
1872 was still only about 1 in 14, became the next year 1 in 4. But
government revenues falling short in 1874, advantage was soon taken
of the circumstance to repeal in 1875 with little discussion the
horizontal cut of tariff rates made in 1872. The specific rates that
had been reduced in 1872 were little changed, however. From 1876 to
1883 (8 fiscal years) nearly a third of the imports consisted of g