MR. CHAIRMAN:

At the very threshold it is proper to define the terms I shall use and
state the exact propositions I purpose to maintain. A tariff is a tax
upon imported goods. Like other taxes which are levied, it should
be imposed only to raise revenue for the government. It is true that
incidental protection to some industries will occur when the duty is
placed upon articles which may enter into competition with those
of domestic manufacture. I do not propose to discuss now how this
incidental protection shall be distributed. This will be a subsequent
consideration when the preliminary question has been settled as to what
shall be the nature of the tariff itself. The present tariff imposes
duties upon nearly four thousand articles, and was levied and is
defended upon the ground that American industries should be protected.
Thus protection has been made the object; revenue the incident. Indeed,
in many cases the duty is so high that no revenue whatever is raised
for the government, and in nearly all so high that much less revenue is
collected than might be realized. So true is this that, if the present
tariff were changed so as to make it thereby a revenue tariff, one fifth
at least could be added to the receipts of the Treasury from imports.
Whenever I use the phrase free trade or free trader, I mean either a
tariff for revenue only or one who advocates it.

So far as a tariff for revenue is concerned, I do not oppose it, even
though it may contain some objectionable incidental protection. The
necessities of the government require large revenues, and it is not
proposed to interfere with a tariff so long as it is levied to produce
them; but, to a tariff levied for protection in itself and for its own