It takes no extended examination of any period in thelast fifty years—the term covered by the phrase “OurTimes” in the title of this book—to convince an unprejudicedstudent that as far as the tariff is concerned publicopinion has never been fairly embodied in the bills adopted.If the popular understanding of protection as expressed inour elections had been conscientiously followed, there wouldbe to-day no duties on iron and steel products, on cheapcottons and cotton mixtures, and, certainly none on a greatvariety of raw materials probably including raw wool. Thatis, in these cases and in multitudes of similar ones, thepurposes of protection had been realized, or it had beenproved that they never could be realized; and in either casethe dogma required the duty to be withdrawn. This volumeis an attempt to tell in narrative form the story of thisdefeat of the popular will.

The major part of the material in the volume has appearedat intervals in the last five years in the American Magazine.So many persons concerned in the making of our tariffs inthe period covered have aided me directly or indirectlyby documents, personal reminiscences, and explanations ofpoints of view that I find it out of the question to attemptto enumerate them. In one case, however, my debt is sogreat that I must acknowledge it specifically, and that isto Mr. Horace White, who has read, either in manuscriptor proofs, the bulk of this volume and who has been generousin his suggestions and criticisms.