Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1853-06-01

49,
Complainss sSsissf cnr Ad Valcrem Tar.
if grow daiIy loe1Iss sud more vehement
Yet 50 long hxS1 deposition and injustice
continued, thai 4 = eanplaints take the form
Of general anafIIxfna against all duties and
all custom houses
The despairing hsaler, whose business i
moderate, and wlI66o aims are TO get an hon.
orabIe living In a busorable way, goaded to
desperation BIZ tho Advantages taken by kna-
wish importers and given to colossal estab-
lishn,enis BY the systenl Of appraisemont, ex-
Laust the langusgs Of its couden'natory ep-
ithcts, in characterising the existing tariff sys-
tenn. Whether the ID valorcm principle wa:
INTRODUCED, or moi, to make Free Traders oui
Of Protectionists, and moderate men Of little
or no politics Of any, such is its palpable ef-
feet. The existing tariff is reckoned to be an
intolerable nuisance, which ought to be abated
And the cry Is unmitigated Free Trade. An
honest man has no chance under the presen,
system. The business Of the small upright
importer is cut up roo and branch. He can
not compete at all with the unscrupulous and
knavish. And this not all. Under the sys-
TEN Of appraisemcnt which grows out of it,
the man who Imports by the million, by paying
the smallest conceivable proportion of his ag-
gregate duties, by way Of douceur, wins IA
vors of the appraisers which no small impor-
ter can by any possibility obtain. 1t is Of no
use to attempt to gainsay the proposition that
men situated as the appraisers are will grant
fa,ors to the wealthy and powerful Importer.
Almost any of the larger importers ofthis city
could crush any subordinate Custom House
officer who should attempt to thwart them in
any little pecuiarities or irregularities in their
inportations. Between these two classes, the
millionaires on one side who cut vide swath
and carry everything before them by the main
force of tremendous business, and the hard
customers on the other, who, to save their du-
ties, would swear the head off bronze lion,
the moderate and honest importer his no
chance for his life. He is overslaughed by
the one, and has the ground shoveled from
under him by the other. Honesty and fair
dealing are driven out Of the field. Men of
small capital are hopelessly forced out of the
ranks of the importing interest. 1t is no
wonder that the outrage should burn into the
bone of those thus excluded. A man is for
ced out of legitimate business, because he
is not immensely wealthy, or because he wont
scar his conscience and perjurc his soul. How
long shall this gross injustice continue How
long shall the temptation TO make men for
shake honest for dishonest paths remain -
Why should Government desire to lure its
own citizens from the ways of virtue, give adj
vantages to knaves, additional power and
riches to wealth, and at the same time bear
with an iron hand upon struggling honesty
and resolute integrity
What we have to say is-Have done with
this wretched Ad Falorem system, and give
us Specific Duties on every article where spe-
cifc duties can be substituted. We speak
for the interests of commerce, for fair dealing,
for justice and thrift, for the responsibility
and honor of the mercantile profession, and
not as partizans or tariff men. Give us a
system where honesty will have chance, and
under which an honest man, who desires to
import goods from foreign market, may do
it on as good terms as SEQ undrel. IN. Y
Tribune.