The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-11-06
FINANCE AND TRADE.
Financial md Commercial.

sets forth, very clearly, the ideas of
those who claim that, in proportion to
her property, our country is more heav-
lily taxed than any other on the face of
the globe
According to the most accurate stats.
tics of national finance the aggregate
amount paid in taxes in this republic is
greater than is paid in any other cOun-
try in the world. Last year the tax
laid by the general government alone
reached the enormous sum of five hun
bred and sixty million dollars. But
with the taxes of the United States, the
State, county, city-all taken together
it is estimated that not less than one
thousand million dollars annually go to
pay for the poor boon of bad govern
ment. While the national government
demands percentage on every mans
income-a share in the profits of
every stroke of business-and must
be paid for all that we are
permitted to eat, drink or wear, the
State government taxes us to an extent
never before known; and the amount of
municipal taxes is seen and felt in the
tremendous price of rents and of all the
daily necessaries of the people that are
bought and sold in the city. Such is
the burden of debt resting upon US
that one third Of all the property own
ed in the State would barely relieve us.
One-third of every mans property is
responsible for the Indebtedness of the
State and the nation, and the owner
must pay in taxes the interest on that
vast debt. Not only does taxation so
oncrous not exist anywhere else, but it
was perhaps, never before known i'll the
history of society.
In looking over the tax tables it seems
bad enough. AS officially shown in the
Treasury Department reports, the load
that the nation staggers under naturally
appals the thought of people that less
one on earth that hardly knew what a
tax-gathcrer was. But what is seen in
the tables, bad as it is, is not the worst.
The figures show only what was paid
in, only what found its way to the gov
eminent Golfers, and that may have
been the smaller part Of what was taken
from the people. Tax gatherers with us
are corrupt beyond all possible prece-
dent. Popular opinion hardly makes
the distinction between a revenue Of
ficer and thief. Stealing in place
is SO common, 50 general, it is SO
much recognized fact that this
class of functionary seeks position
only to acquire Il sudden fortune, that
no one of them any longer feels called
upon to deny it through any supposed
necessity to seem honest. From remote
times the taX-gatherer was scoundrel,
publicans were robbers and the friends
of robbers, and the Christian text class
es publican and the taX-gatherer" as
one in repute and performance; and
those old fellows stole q measure of
cummin, may be, or skin of wine.
Perhaps some fellow of unusual bold
ness here and there may have
taken talent of silver. What pigmies
of plumber! Hundreds of thousands of
dollars make the small dust in the
balance of our revenue collectors, and a
place is hardly worth the intrigues by
which it is gained if it does not promise
a round million above all contingencies
for term.
Dothe people clearly understand their
position in all thisi Do they appreciate
that of the vast amount they pay in
taxes q large proportion is as unjustly
taken rs if it were taken bv the high
wayman, and goes not even to sustain
a mismanaged government, but to en-
rich the corrupt minions of profigate
party We may naturally feel a GER
tain sympathy for the people of the
South, beaten down, humbled by de-
grading laws, and denied all the rights
Of freemen, that the niger may out
weigh them in the political scale; but
the people Of the State must awake to
the perception that they have nearer
and more positive reason than mere
sympathy for Joining their voices to the
rebuke that the whole nation is utter
ing against the recently dominant
Republican party-the party of negro su-
premacy, the party that has piled up
this enormous burden of taxes; the
party of unlimited, indiscriminate rob-
berry in office. All this terrible taxation
is telling on the material interests of our
people in the worst way, and thus the
Republican party has come to make it.
self felt in mems pockets, and men
must make their reputation of such a
party felt at the polls in such good
round terms as a majority of one hun
dred and City thousand votes against
its candidates next Tuesday. Such a
declaration the party will understand,
but will heed no other. 1t has got
beyond all fear but that of the loss of
power.