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The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield. E. E. Brown
replied Garfield, "does not weigh with me; I believe in English liberty and English law."
Speaker Colfax wanted to reappoint him on the military committee, but he asked to be excused, saying—
"I would rather serve where I can study finance; this is to be the great question in the future of our country."
In his first speech on the tariff question, he defines his position as follows:—
"I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best gauge to regulate international trade. Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is my doctrine of protection."
In the well-remembered controversy that succeeded General Schenck's tariff bill, Garfield said—
"The great want of industry is a stable policy; and it is a significant comment on the character of our legislation that Congress has become a terror to the business men of the country. … A distinguished citizen of my own district has lately written me this significant sentence: 'If the laws of God and nature were as vacillating and uncertain as the laws of Congress in regard to the business of its people, the universe would soon fall into chaos.'
"Examining thus the possibilities of the situation I believe that the true course for the friends of protection to pursue, is to reduce the rates on imports when we can justly and safely do so, and accepting neither of the extreme doctrines, endeavor to establish a stable policy that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people."
Finding that no one in Congress had made a business of examining in detail the various appropriations of the public money, Garfield took the arduous task upon his own shoulders so that he might vote more intelligently. Having made out a careful analysis, he delivered it before the House; it was so well received, that each succeeding year another was called for until "Garfield's budget speech" became a well-known institution in Congress, and was considered a most important help in reducing the expenditures of the Government.
A few years later, Garfield was promoted to the chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations.
CHAPTER XVIII
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