New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-01-19
Nalu Orlfalls daily Qgrrsteat
TARIFF TAXATION.

TARIFF TAXATION.
We have already stated, In general terms that If
the people Of the United States really want to nay
of the public debt they will have to abolish the
costly, cunabrous and oppressive restrictive sys.
tenn Our proposition was that we could not pay
to the government the two hundred millions per
annum required under Mr.. McCulough's estimate,
and pay It to the manufacturers at the same time
On the other hand, by abolishng the onerous and
restrictive tariff syatem We should vastly add to
the aggregate Of the public wealth, and thus in
crease our ability TO bear high rate If taxation.
When we made this suggestion we knew that We
were under the mark as to the amount extorted
from the people Of this country as a bonus to the
manufacturers, but we did not know the sum to be
az immense as It really is. An idea Of the rate of
profits accruing to the mannfacturers under the
existing system may be gathered from the state
naent oil the New York Independent that Z one Of
these corporation, the Androscoggin mills, with
capital Of million Of dollars, pays forty per cent
fper annun.); the Nashua, with the same capital,
pays thirtyifve per cent; the Appleton, twenty
1--WE; the Pacific capital two millions and a half,
I twenty-fouri the Merrimac, twentysthree, and so
on, 3sss4sg s.3,
on costrse the country must be xtremely pros
porous we are told when manufacturing enter,
prises pay these enormous profits. But wheii the
diyidends, exceeding as they do the legitimate
Bounds of profit, are levied on the industry OF the
country, extorted from the great mass Of con-
sumers, who, it must be remembered, are pro-
ducers likewise, IL ID evident that the result is
indicative only Of tyranny andoppression, and not
by any means Of general prosperity.
In order to show the enormous tribute which the
tariff system enables the manufacturers to wiring
from tile industry Of the country, we give the fol.
lowing calculations, which are made up by the
Chicago Times.
BY comparison with the returns of 1850, the
consumption of cotton goods in the United States
sfound to be slS7 1874 Sl6 in 1866 on the Lasis of
the present ruling at the former period. Bat the
price of these goods has. risen enormously Two
-hundred and fifty per cent. would be low
estimate for the increase. Say two hundred per
cent. and the actual gold value Of the cotton
goods Consumed in the United States during 1865
would bc s563 ,ss2, ,sis, and putting the ayerage
price of gold for TIE year al l50, the currency
value w6uId be Ssa5, .422. BY similar pro-
cess the value of wooien goods consufasa during
the same year is ascertained to be S279 ;09S, SOL
B giving the following total:
Cotton go6ds consunaed l2a
WooIsn goods Consumed 27s pa5sei
Aggregate value o goods consumed 10 1865 2sS
The tariff imposes duty averaging aboytats
per cent. ID gold, or GBa per cent. in currency,
with gold at 150. Almost the whole of this
amount appears in the price OF domestic goods
The United States Economist, paper devoted to
the dry goods interest, stated, not long since, that
to manufacture yard Of Spragne Prints costs
seventeen cents, but the manufacturers would not
sell itfat less than twenty-ssyen cents This is
aboutsixty per cent. over the cost OF preIuctioni
which may be taken as a basis. According to this
the manufacturers sell about 81 ,l0o 60 Of their
goods for about 81 100000. thus making clear
profit of S7Oo, ,99O 900. WeeaFs Ont the profits Of
the wholesale and retail nieEUIles,s ia this esti-
mate, because their pTopof.iQn Rsolld be about
the same under eithsrsysten. Ibsir actual profits,
however, would be greater to the extent that the
general business of the country would be increased
by free trade.
s. Without going any further therefore, We find
that the people Of the United States pay tax of
seven hundred millions dollars, Gu cotton and
wooden goods alone, the greater part of which
goes, al bonus, into the pockets Of the manufac-
turers OF Neyy England. Z N sss 81 s
The amount which goes into the Treasury is not
more than eighty millions at the outside. Ii is
probably even much less than this, as the effect Of
the high tariff has been to drive foreign goods
y almost entirely out of the American market.
8 N Now this vast sam, thus wrung from the people
m by8 the yora .iDns manufacturing capitalists Of
the Eastern States in each year, is one fifth as
great az the whole public debt
1t is double the revenues of the government
during the fiscal wear ending June 30, 1865.
tits greater than tile estimated revenues Of the
government, fren, all sources, during the fiscal
wear ending june 30, 1866.
8 "A ri III equal to- netwentieth Of the entire value
y, otl,er words II would buy all the pro
e 4, .,,,o,,t ,,oors
perry OF the ces'isly ~ .'seh'y sea,s. tt
Thus the farmers OF the great west may under
stand that they arc culdvating their lands not fol
80 o,5n nrofst Int only to enable them to buy
~ r,asto, a dnpa tbai,
81 goous IRON elie n'sss'in S'''sss, =.
Gaal value. The country exists as the Ihcago Times
wen saws, simply to afford the manufacturers o
~, IIso,,a,a With market far their wares ir
psW IA :,
which they can fealize donpie thef sisue' anu a'
the energies and resources of S0,00o,0o0 people
are concentrated in one grand effort to enrich the
of that region. EVERY farmer me
mauulACtul VI 4f''ioft Afs