Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-02-28
brought to the sea board and the amount

II
\ of the weekly shipments show that the
crop of last year has yet by no means
been brought to market,a the expecta'
ton Of two million bales is likely TO be
fulfilled. The crop cannot be hidden
| forever, although both the planters and
Spectators conspire TO mislead. The
| price Ia too tempting to allow cotton
hands to remain idle. Mex year, L the
season should not be unpropitious, We
may anticipate a handsome increase over
the present. The crop of the past year,
after paving the three cents per pound
tax will have been sold for three-tourths
as much in gold as that of the largest
crop 1850 ever produced in the United
States.
Liverpool is the great cotton market,
and although the stock on hand Is larger
than for FIVE years, yet the price is higher
now and growing firmer than it was
last May, selling for middling uplands
at about Twenty-Five cents per pound in
gold and tending upward and it Is sell
; ing in New York at thirty-four cents
per pound, currency.
The promise for cotton from most
| other countries for 1867 is not improV-
! ing Egypt and Brazil will not increase
their crops, Notwithstanding the tempta-
ton of high prices, and India will, it is
estimated, fall short Of the crop OF the
present year by four hundred thousand
bales. There is no encouragement in
the way of the prod action of cotton in
| the United States, aud the tax should no
sooner be removed from it than on petro-
! leum.
The manufacture of leather is hardly
| less extensive than its use. Nearly every
| State and Territory has more or less
| capital embarked in its production. The
| outlay for boots and shoes in the log
cabin is not unfrequently greater than
| in the four-story brown-stone mansion.
! The harness, trunk and carriage maker
| also use it as raw material, which II
taxed duplicates their burdens. Before
i we were compelled to levy internal taxes
We had prosperous and growing eX-
| port trade of several millions in boots
and shoes, which, of course, must be
nesrly or quite annihilated by the tax on
leather, no part of which could be re-
| turned by virtue of drawback; but
with leather free this trade may again
/ have better chance of being recovered.
Tinware, hollowware, stone and crock
| eryware, employing large numbers Of
WORKINGS, is used by all classes of peo-
| pie for domestic purposes, and by those
| in moderate circumstances perhaps be-
You'd their fair proportion. II exempt
ing tin pals and tin pans shall tend to
diminish the cost OF good butter who
would be likely to complain
Last year we exempted all dry casks
and barrels; but why should not pork
or beef or oil or fish barrel be free as
well as -four barrel 1t is proposed to
answer this question by making all the
work Of the meritorious class of cCopers
free.
have before had occasion to say that
tax in the nature Of an excise tax on
manufactures could have been resOrted
to only from the imperative necessity OF
| at once placing in the hands Of the Gov
ernment an unusual and large amount Of
revenue. This resort has been success
ful. Last year it produced $l78, 356, Gel
! 81. But the exigenCy has passed, and
measures designed to be but temporary
must be replaced by other of more
satisfactory character in the speediest
time possible. l do not doubt that we
shall at very early day be able to re-
lieve iron, cotton, wooden, and all other
general manufactures from any internal
tax. 1t is with this prominent idea that
the committee have diligently labored
in framing the present bill. A reduc-
tOn of expenditures and a more effeCtu-
al collection of taxes on the few articles
which the judgment Of the world con-
signs to such burdens will hasten the
day when there will be full relief to the
industry of the country from all such
taxes Meantime, in addition to con.
CessiOns in various other directions. it is
proposed to reduce the tax on woolen
manufactures from five per cent. to two
and half per cent. Some may think
that bar-irOn should hav9 been liberated
| instead of wOolens, but the tax on bar.
! iron has been in the form Of a specific,
| and is not now and never has been equal
to the nd rakore~ tax of five per cent. The
trade in each branch of business is
equally depressed, aud the action now
| proposed will make the distribution of
tavOrs not unequal. But higher motive.
perhaps, moved the committee, and that
was to place wooden manufactures in the
I bands Of the consumer at reduced cost,
! BY reducing the tax on home manufac.
lures Of wOOlens two and a half per
cent, reduction Of the rates otherwise
| asked for by manufacturers can be made
in the duties on imported woolens of five
per cent. as an equivalent. This will
tend in some degree to satisfy the lust
claims of consumers. The amount of
Maternal revenue from woolens last wear
at six per cent was $88l4,l0 OF but
in the act Of July last it was, with all
other manufactures, reduced to five per
cent. The loss to the revenue this year
by the proposed reduction to two and
half per cent, if our production re-
mained the sam, as it is not likely to
remain, would be $3.l72,542 10.
The revision Of the income tax, it Will
be seen, presents the subject in the main
as it was presented last year, or, the
differeatial rate excepted, as it passed
the House, though not then accepted by
the Senate. That every person should
contribute to the support Of the gov