Excerpt from The New Tendencies of Political Economy The doctrines of the historical school in political economy lead to no partisanship whatever. They are held equally by free traders and by protectionists in Europe. The underlying motive of their system is the right of individual and of national judg ment to determine upon a given state of facts, what policy, in respect of production and exchange, it is wise to pursue bore and now. It treats political economy as a science, not of pure principles, but of applied principles, and this alone makes pos sible a progressive fiscal policy, moulding itself according to the traditions, the usages, the aspirations, and the actual condition of a free people. This is eminently the economic system suited to the wants of the American people. It deals with the past without contumely, and it welcomes the future without prejudice. No man who looks at the history of past American legislation on the subject of the tariff, in a calm and philosophic spirit, can fail to admit that it is full of ignorance, of vacillation and of mistakes. We might have been abreast of England in opening our markets freely to the world, if our tariff policy had been consistent and progressive. If the English House of Commons has legislated for mankind rather than for man, the American Congress has legislated for man rather than for mankind. In other words, the Committee of Ways and Means has always been the center of personal and individual and local interests, instead of consulting and rep resenting the average interests of American citizens - occupying a great continent with different productions and different wants. I do not say that the harmonizing of those interests is not at all times difficult, but it does seem to me that if the fiscal policy of the country were put beyond the pale of party, as completely as has been done in Great Britain since the repeal of the Corn Laws, a system might be eliminated which should respect traditions, conciliate labor and make rapid strides in the direction of commercial freedom. In this as in most public questions the truth lies between the extremes - Media latissimus ibis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.