Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-10-08

sell the pound of tea for the same as If he
had not been required to pay anything? Ol
course not You might as well expect him
to pay the freight across the water without
getting it back. 1t simply adds that much
to the price of the tea Now when your
wholesale grocer goes to New York to buy
groceries,, what will the importer charge
him for tea ? First, the cost of the article
abroad; next, the freight and other ex-
penses of Importation, including his profits
and third, the twenty-five cents duty in
gold, equivalent to at least thirty five cents
In paper. The retail dealer pays the same
price to the wholesale dealer, with the ad-
dition of another profit, and when you go
TO the store to buy pound of tea you pay
it all together. Now. what do you pay for
tea? From 81 % to So 00per pound. Then
about one-fourth or one-fifth of the price
you pay for every pound of tea is tax to
the Government So with sugar. What
do you pay for sugar? The cheapest you
can buy is 121a cents pound; the best
about 20. cents. ;IIl.f- : . s---. lf
Well, if you turn to the U. s. Statutes at
large, vol. 13, page 202, you will find tha.
the duty on sugar ranges from to cents
per pound in gold, according to its quality,
or from Al to n cents per pound in paper
currency. Well, AZ cents, the lowest duty,
Is more than one third of the price of the
lowest priced article you can buy, and u
cents. the highest duty, considerably more
than third of what you pay for the high
est priced article. So on every pound OF
sugar you buy, whether cheap or dear, you
pay more than one-third of its price to the
|Government for tax. ,f'i
And it is one of the peculiar beauties of
this system of taxation devised by the Rad
ical party i'm Congress, that on many arti-
cles the poorer man is, the more he seeks
to economise and the cheaper the article he
h,,, fhfa, H., lo - H.
portion. Take the article of tea, of which
just spoke. The retail price varies from
81 25 to $200 per pound. The tax on all
kinds of tea is % cents in. gold, or about SO
cents in paper. If you buy tea at 50 90 the
tax is about Is per cent -of its value, or
nearly OF e-fifth; but if you buy cheaper
tea at 81 %. the tax is about 30 per cent, or
nearly one-third. y1ug
Coffee, tea and molasses, and pepper and
other articles of every day us in every
household, which in our state of society
have come to be regarded as among the or
binary necessaries of life, are taxed
through these import duties in the same
way. And these, you will observe, are all
articles OF foreign growth or production
exclusively, for the only ones of those
have mentioned we ever produced, were
sugar and molasses, and that production
has been virtually destroyed by the war.
We have no choice but to import them and
pay these enormous duties, or to go with
out; we cannot produce them here. But
how is it with articles produced both al
home aud abroad, such as manufactures
Does not the tariff raise the price of the
domestic article as well as of the foreign
The domestic manufacturer is relieved
from competition and can raise his prices
as high as those at which the importer i:
compelled by the duties to sell imported
goods. If New England shoe manufac
turer knows that merchants cannot import
and sell shoes tor less than So 25 per pair
which they might, if the duties were low
import and sell for 81 so per pair, he will
put the price of his shoes up to 1925 pei
pair. Many of these duties imposed, a:
they nearly all are, with an eye single tc
the interests of the New England manu-
facturer, are simply prohibitory and brins
no revenue to the treasury, but operate
solely for the benefit of the manufacturer
of the East. Let me give you
an mple-related by promin-
ent wholesale hardware merchan
in Cincinnati-an intelligent ant
reliable man and member of the Repub-
lican party. The American Screw Com.
pany, located somewhere in New England
enjoys almost monopoly of the mauufac
ture of screws-by holding most of tn,
patents under which they are made. 1t haC
capital of one million of dollars. My
friend ascertained during visit to Eng
land that he could get them vastly cheaper
there, and believe tried the importation
of small amount. But Congress-at tn,
instance, doubtless, of some loyal gentle
man from New England, seconded by sucl
vigilant guardians of Western interests a:
MIR. Shellabarger and Judge Lawrence
imposed duty of and IL cents per pounC
on imported dscrews-whichi is 1l2 per cent.
on their value. This, of course, simply
prohibited Importation, and the Govern
ment got nothing from the duty. But how
was it with the company? In the yeal
1864 it declared a dividend of one million
of dollars or 100 per cent; in 1866 it declar
ed dividend of 81, 200 600 or 120 per cent.
making profit on its capital of 220 PEI
cent. in two years, or ITO per cent. a year
Men out here think they make pretty
good profit if they make 10 per cent. OIL
their investments. But these gentlemen
the special wards of Congress, are enabled
to make profit of ITO per cent, and you
gentlemen, when you 60 to the hardware
stores, pay the bill. -sa!I-
How is it with the clothing you wear
What are your shirts made of? Cottor
cloth. What do you pay for the cotton
From Is to 25 cents per yard. Well, thu
duty on such goods, as you will find BY
turning to page 492. vol. IA of the U. S
statutes at large, is or 51s cents in gold
per yard, according as you buy bleachet
or unbleached goods, which is equal tt
| II to cents in greenbacks. So just abou
oue-third of the price of the COTTON Tor yon
shirt is tax. F-a n 10.
But most of your shirts have linen bos
oms. What about linens? They, as yol
know, are mported-generally from Ire
land. The duty on them is 80 and 40 pc
cent, according to quality. This take
| hafv n rd n nd q half NJ hn n
the linen for tax. And on the spool cortcl
with which the garment is sewed, the ta1
amounts to over 80 per cent. So you Sc
that over one-third of the price of the ma
terial in every shirt you wear is tax.
How is it with the outer clothing whicl
you will be buying as the cold weather ap
proaches. 1t will be almost universally O
some kind of woolen goods. Now Congress
last year passed new law laying increased
duties on woolen goods of every descrip
tion. If you turn to the Statutes at large
vol. IA, page 56l, you will find these dutie
laid down: On fiannels, blankets, WOO
hats, knit goods, woolen cloths, woolel
shawls, and all manufactures of wool O
every description, duty of 35 per cent. oil
| their value, and in addition thereto spe
cific duty of 20 to 30 cents per pount
weight in gold, equal to about 80 to Z;
cents in paper, for gold Is near 100 pre-
MUM. TO ascertain the taxes you pay ol
wooden goods of foreign Importation whicl
you buy, then, it is only necessary to weigl
the article, and then turning to the law
see what the duty per pound is on that par
| ticular class of goods, and count from 30 Il
rs cents tor each pound weight, and thel
add to that 30 per cent, or a little over one
third of the original price of the article
and you have about the portion OF th'
price which is tax.
Fol, instance, suppose a laboring ma
wants to buy shawl for his wife, worth
say, So 90. Such shawl, | am informed
will weigh about one and half or tw'
| pounds. Suppose it weighs one and hal
bounds The tax on such articles is fit,
cents per pound in gold, or about seventy
five in paper. So there is Sl.1211s of tn
price of the shawl, and in addition to thi
| there is a tax of 80 per cent. of the valu
| of the shawl before it left the ship, whicl