The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-02-21
The Cotton Tax,

Is ~ ~ - a
TIE Commissioners appointed by. Che
congress of last year to consider the ques-
ton Of taxation, have included amongtheir
Recommendations on the subject, that Of a
taXof five cents per pound on raw cotton,
The gentlemeR who have made that report
appear to have been actuated by a bitter
spirit Of hostility to the prosperity ofthe
South. and to have shoWnit, in the. teeth
of the principle that taxation has all eco
.nomical. limit. That cotton tue great
source of Southern wealth, should have
been selected for so enormous a tax, while
wheat, corn, and the immense basis Of tax
alton made up Of the staples of the North,
go free Of excise is a clearindieation ofthe
conclusion that the Commissioners were ac-
tuated by feelings of bitter sectionalism.
That Che taS,proposed should be so ener-
nous as twelve per cent, on one special
branch of agricultural indastry-an annual
tax on the gross value Of the production
leads to the conclusion which we have sta
ted above, that the gentlemen are ignorant
of the fact that industry cannot carry an
indefinite load Of taxation. 90
Craftsmanship would have Suggested to
the tax commission inquiry, that public
policy should foster those interests which
are placed under exceptional suffering.
The cotton culture Of the South IS, this mo-
ment, pining for want of capital and Ian
guishes at less than half its usual energy, for
want Of seed, tools, buildings, stock. And
besides these lfeavy discouragements, it is
bowed down by political uncertainties, and
almost crushed by the arrangement OF its
system Of labor. With its fences gone, its
fields overgrown with weeds, social neces-
sites leave it but doubtful hopes, save in
the Importation Of white labor and to
meet a condition of things so idiscouraging,
| its pockets are empty! And at this point
the fostering hand of the, Federal Govern
ment, is told to come in to mulct it of an
eighth of the gross results OF its industry ;
/ and they place an effectual barrier, between
lit and the last hope gifts restoration to ac-
| tivityAcapital! The government which
would sustain such Il policy, can certainly
claim no longer to be paternal but, on the
contrary, proves itself destructive iief the
best interests gifts citizens. If great
branch of the industry of this country
should be dealt with at this moment ten
derry, nay, fosteringly, by the central au-
thorities, it is that Of the golden yield which
has so long balanced our accounts with Eu-
rope cotton N+i3i +
Five centssper pound on raw cotton
Ordinarily the market price Of that, staple
has been but about ten cents And when
| in those,days,of, hard currency, and cheap
food and low tariffs, aud nominal taxatioa,
| it fell belo,u ten cents, the production fell
loft. It had ceasedto Improbable, Corn
| or hogs took its. place. Does it occur to
| the Commissioners, Whosereport We object
Ito here, that there. is. q net profit at which
cotton industry may still cease topay, and
ct which it will, therefore, decline, or dis
appear? That commodity is, it is true,
quoted in the market at from forty to fifty
cents per pound aud will, we grant, con-
time to carTy4some sncls pricetfor d greater
or less length ofltime to come. But -four,
pork, beef are double now what they were
before the war coffee, sugar, clothing, and
fother elements entering into the net cost OF
cotton PRODUCTION, cost, compared with
Those. happy days, treble. So far as these
Items of It's cost enable us toiudge, cotton
cannot be held to be more thai ordinarily
profitable sese at the rate of about twenty
five cents per pound. But, special ,circum-
stances Of its cultivation at the present,
suggest that to reacll'its ordinary profta-
|bleness, the price of the. staple must be set
lstill higher. The capital which the planter
had sunk formerly in its growth, cost him
nothing, whereas now that Which he en-
EpIoys burdens him with an enormous inter
lest, which amounts to d tax on every pound
/ he grows And The labor now at his dispo-
| sal, may be fairly held to be less steady,
less active, and, therefore, very seriously
less productive in its YIELD His heavy
taxes to the, Federal Government and his
probably equally heavy taxesfor restora-
ton Of the wreck of public. things in his
State and county, constitute other items of
special burden which represent. in effect, a
certain rate pei, pound on his, cottons An
these taken into consideration as additions
to the rate Of twenty-five cents pei. pound
deduced from the price Of the necessities
Of labor, there is, at least, some doubt
whether, under the present circumstances
around it, the cotton iadastry. Of this eoan-
try can be maintained at a price much be-
low that which it actually bears. What