The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1865-11-08

necessary for the economical support of the
governmsnt and the protection of your per-
sons, your property and your interests, Is q
duty which should be cheerfully submitted
to-.
But il is the payment of other taxes for
other objects, and the accumulations follow
Ing their imposition, amounting, in the aggre-
gate to q sum sufficient to astonish and appal
the stoutest among you, if it could be esti-
mated, enriohing those who already possess
sufficient wealth to control the legislation of
the nation, and impoverishing those whose
labor produces that wealth, that would coun-
sell you to abate, Burdensome as your taxes
already are. with the immense debt pending
and the nation unable to provide the means
for paying the interest and meeting the cur
rent expenses, the inevitable tendency is, an
increase of taxes, and. with the gloomy fu-
ture staring us In the face, there are those in
the country who echoiug the fallacy of
Great Britan-a National debt IS a National
blessing. Believing,or pretending to believe,
the fallacy, their interests and their charita-
BILE natures prompt them to efforts to have
the nation doubly blessed by doubling the
blessing we are already burdened with.
1t the privileged classes of Great Britain,
who constitute but about one tenth of the pop
ulatiOn, and who owe their existence to the
national debt, are the nation. then is the pa-
ton blessed. But. if the other uiue-tenths
the toiling millions-who, by the operation
of oppressive taxation, consequent upon the
debt have become the tenants at will of an
arstocracy most heartless and corrupt-an
aristocracy sapping the vitals of the nation,
and preying upon and paralyzing the ener-
GIGS of people, who otherwise would be free
and noble, TO an extent unknown in the histo-
ry of nations. If this people constitute the
nation, then is the nation doubly cursed
cursed with a national debt from which there
is no redemption, and cursed with national
sristocracy more relentless than death, and
who would prefer death to redemption.
Fellow citizens: like causes have like ten
denotes. If you would maintain our institu-
tions upon the basis intended by our fathers;
if you would be free men and would enjoy
freedom yourselves and transmit 1t to your
children, your must throw this debt, great as
is its magnitude, from your shoulders. You
must do it. and do it honestly. You have the
ability, and teel assured that the will will
not be wanting if an honorable aud fair way
Is pointed out to you.
As previously alluded to, you are paying an
amount of taxes, and accumulation on taxes,
beyond your comprehension. Duty, interest,
self preservation itself, demand that these ac-
cumulations be stopped. A few illustrations
will subserve In demonstration. At the last
session of congress page 80 OF session laws,
1t was enacted, that a specific duty of five
and half cents per SCARE yard and an adva
iorem duty of twenty per cent. should be lev
led upon each yard of stained or printed
goods of the fneness of the better sorts of
prints or calicoes-the first cost of the article
to be the basis of the tax.
We have not the direct means o! ascertain
ing what that cost Is, but We possess the
means of apprOximating very closely to 1t.
We will suppose that IL Is eight cents per
yard | would say TO my fair hearers, be not
Gstonished that the goods which you are in
the habit of paying thirty-hve or forty cents
yard for is really worth bus eight CENTS
Such tear is the case.
To the eight cents add the specific duty Of
FIVE and half cents, also the advalorem duty
of one and three-ffth cents, and it makes fit
teen cents per yard, gold standard; convert
it into ourren y by adding the medium pre-
MUM of thirty three and one-third cents, and
the cost is twenty cents per yard, To this
add importers charges and profits of twenty
/ five per cent. and the wholesale dealers profit
of twenty per cent, and we have the sum of
thirty cents per yard, an amount equal to
New York quotations at the present time
/ So that our assumption of eight cents per
yard cannot be TOO low. To the thirty cents
add the moderate profit of thirty-three and
Que third cents for the article, and this origi
nally cheap goods amounts to forty cents per
I yard just five times it's original cost.
| 1t may be of some importance to ascertain
what the cost of this yard of goods would be
/ without the tax, As before, eight cents orr
ginal cost convert iEto currency by adding
( thirty-three and one-third cents, making ten
/ and two-thirds cents. Importers charges and
\ profit two cents wholesale dealers profit
/ one AID third cents, making fourteen cents
! per yard, TO which add retailers profit, say
/ five cents, and we have nineteen cents per
! yard, very near, as the cost making differ
I ence of twenty one cents on each and every
! yard of calico you buy, over aud above what
! you would have to pay were there no tax
! And Of this twenty-one cents the government
collector gets only seven cents The balance,
! or on an average, twice as much, goes into
I the pockets of individuals.
I This Is not en- isolated case. l am rather
! forced to the conclusion that it is an average
| one.
! Take the article of good brown sugar, for
/ which you are now pay ing twenty cents per
/ pound. The duty on it, by the same act is
! three and one half cents and by the same
process as with prints. | ascertain the cost to
! be four cents. or the selling price to be FIVE
/ hundred per cent. over the cost The "a ne
/ as with prints. From these calculations we
arrive ut the fact that you are required to
| pay three dollars for each and every dollar
/ the government receives. The revenues from
| customs this present year are estimated at
/ $780, 900 900, and you are taxed and required
to pay $500, 200, 600, in order that the gov
/ eminent may get that amount. But that ia
not the worst feature. Did the enormity
stop there, Your grounds for complaint would
be comp aratively small.
There is another item which it is our duty
to present-an item not Insignificant in am