The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-07-09
PRAISE FROM THE LIPS OF THE ENEMY


morrow at noon.
PRAISE FROM THE LIPS OF THE ENEMY.
The new tariff bill passed by the House of Rep
resentstives has been much and deseryedly praised
in many quarters. But Of all the appreciation which
has been bestowed upon it, none is perhaps more
remarkable all things considered, than the follow
ing brief but most significant and extraordinary
comium, which we find in the New York Tribune
Of the 7th instant. This journal is we'll known as
one Of the fercest opponents of the bill, and one Of
the strongest advocates Of the whole system of pro-
lection. The Tribune says "The MASTER WRONG of
the bill, however, is the abolition Of all specific du-
ties and minimums, and the resort to the ad va
loren principle throughout" The last clause of
this sentence is superhuous. "Resor to the ad va
loren principle" follows necessarily, and Of course,
from the abolition of specific duties and mini
NUNS" The abolition these, then, u.s. in the judg-
ment Of the Tribune, the MASTER WRONG" Of the
BILL IL the bill does any other wrong or injustice
such other wrong is in comparison with this, unim-
portant and inconsiderable. This confession of the
Protectionsts we regard the most striking and
extraordinary certificate of the merits Of the bill
from an enemy that we have yet seen.
We lay down the broad proposition that "mini-
mum duties" in all tariffs, and especially those OIL
the tariff of lS42 are legislative ruads barefaced and
unblushing, and introduced into the statute in the
clearest violation of the elemental principles of
justice and fair dealing, for the sake Of making
system Of taxation which is, at the best, unequal
and unjust-altogether more scandalously unjust
and unequal than il could be made by any other in
genuity or deception. We call the attention of the
Tribune to the literal import of our words; and we
join issue with that journal in the above proposition
exactly as we have stated it.
Holding, we do, that tariff upon the revenue
principle Isl in the present state of our country, the
best mode Of collecting sufficient revenue for the |
economical administration Of the general govern
ment, we yet say that system of indirect taxation
upon imports, even in its best form, the cad va
loren" principle, is unequal system of taxation,
because, being in the main tax upon consumption,
1t Is in fact tax upon persons rather than upon
property Of those articles which pay the largest
amounts Of duty, the laboring man, who has little
capital and large family, consumes, and must con-
sumo, as much as the capitalist. He, therefore,
pays under this mode of taxation as heavy a tax
for the support of the federal government as the
rich man. To mitigate this inequality as much as
possible the present bill taxes-as every tariff pre-
tending to be just, must tax-the articles consumed
to their value; and, in the same view il
lakes Injuries the highest, and the absolute neces-
saries of life far less or not at ALL These two prin-
;iples Of the bill, taken in connexon with its rev.
snue principle, do all that be done to mitigate
he inherent inequality Of a tariff system.
But the minimum principle, the abolition of which
he Tribune considers the "master wropg' of the :
bill, aggravates this same inequality hundred fold
Nay more, it does this openly and avowedly. I'm
Ter the tariff Of lS42, for instance, this minimum
principle finds yard of cheap cotton CLOTH such as
he poor man uses, costing in Manchester d. 6, g. TO-
" IL cents. Upon these cottons the tariff of lS42
ays duty of 30 per cent. ad valorem But, instead
f estimating and collecting this 80 per cent duty 8
o the actual ualue of the articles, the minimum f
rncipe enacs, in the very teeth of the truth and ii
lets of the case, that each Of these yards of cotton
worth not or 10, but 20 cents, and then estimates
nd collects its 30 per cent. duty on this lying e.
gislative valuation. The working of this process N
clear. Suppose the yard of cotton cloth to be g,
orth cents A tax of 80 per cent upon it, would IL
less than cents, and added to It's price would ia
AXE it cost in market less than cents. But II
e minimum principle falsely asserts that the ward II
cotton is worth 90 cents; and taxing it 80 per n
mt. upon that, makes it pay rather more than 6 CO
nts duty, so as to hand it to the poor man at
mething more than double its fair price, This is s.
C minimum principle, fairly stated it stands in lii
C tariff Of 1842. The abolition of this minimum it
incipe is the "MAsTER WRONG" of the present III
II n
But this is not all. The Tribune has repeatedly m
ID recently said, what everybody knows, that the M
OF cheap cottons in this country at 10
esent does not need protection. We are sending c.
If cheap cottons to Canton and Calcutta, and there c.
'derselling the British manufacturers. We are to
finishing, as Mr. Winthrop said in debate, the tn
filings in which the British troops in the East In W
es perform their drills. So that this minimum
incpe as it is applied to cheap cottons in the Ia Sc
OF 1912, is, in literal strctness, legislative lie fo
aking an unequal system more unequal, and tax- ed
9 the poor man, by acknowledged falsehood, 100 te,
cent or more on yard of cotton CLOTH for the be-,
rpose OF protecting manufacture, which, with
such protection would drive the fabrics of Leeds %,
d Manchester out of the East India markell 10,
IL is no answer to this to say that the poor man in
re may buy the cheap American article and so es IN,
pc the tax. Not the less on that account
es the tax stand against him the statute-book to
't the less on that account does the minimum M,
nciple outrage all justice and all decency On tie
It very account, indeed, il is such an outrage ter
Jolly without necessity or paiation. There il Ru
confession, no good coming from it; and it is put sin
on the statue-book in the shape Of a naked lie, b.,
no other purpose, that can conceive Of but to the
'w the people that the proectonists, If they can Hi
We their way, will tax the laboring man gra oor
lously and scandalousy, and in defiance of all den
tn and justice, in the matter Of cotton cloth, for
sake of showing their power to tax him, and Pre-
order that he may bear taxation on other articles ann
h less wincing and a better grace. Such is the enc
limum principle, Of the abolition of which the ado
bune complains to be the chief wrong Of the Ii
sent bill! And now, in conclusion upon this the