Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-10-13

The difference between what was paid
aud what has to be paid now, is the re-
suit Of the tax levied on these articles,
except only what is equally the result oil
Radical rule, that our money is not TO-
day at par with gold. A good, honest
Govern ent is all that is needed-that IL
to say more economy and less stealage-
all that is wanted to make our money as
good as ever it was, in quick time. A
poor man dollar would then buy what IT
used to buy, and be could live and lay
up something for a wet day, which is
next to impossible now. Look also at
the following list of articles from the
same source, which tariff and taxes to
support thieves in Office have raised in
price from fifty to FIVE hundred per cent
over old rates;
Boots, shoes, etc, 100 per cent; drugs
and medicines, 300 naval stores, 200;
paints and oils, 200; dry goods, 90 |;
books and stationery, 100; clothing, iOO !;
furniture, 100; iron and steel, 100;
lumber, so; crockery, 100; liquors, 800 ;
cigars, 300.
What have laboring men, farmers and
mechanics to say of such facts as these
of taxes not drawn from their pockets to
pay the public debt, but to support
bureaus, scallswags, carpet-baggers,
bond-holders, standing armies in time of
peace. officers, tyrants and school-fund
thieves2 The unexampled tax is appro-
priated to the support Of corruption,
while, instead of getting out OF debt by
paying, the more we pay the more we 60
deeper and deeper in. How do poor men
like such government as this Z There
is probably not country on the globe
where taxation is either so great, so une-
DUAL, or so oppressive on poor men as
this. If the tax, great as it is, was
equally distributed according to the val
uation of property and the means Of the
people it would be almost intolerable.
But twelve hundred and fifty millions in
manufactures being benefited by the
tariff, and twenty-five hundred millions
bonds more being excepted from all
State as we'll as Federal taxation, one
fourth of the property holding portion OF
the country is exempt, and Except what
three-fourths by direct tax will pay) the
whole bill has to be footed by the tax on
the plainest necessaries of life. And
thus the tax on these necessaries, which
the poor man must have as well as the
rich, is increased on him twenty or
twenty per cent. from what would be
necessary if all were fairly taxed alike.
Is not such system as this oppression,
iniquitous and damnable?
The two and a half per cent tax on
cotton, or twelve dollars aud half a
bale, has paid, or should have paid the
Government about twenty-five millions
a year. According to our old count Of
the product Of labor about three hundred
thousand persons should have made
all this cotton, and every one OF
them without the tax would have had
eigLty-:hree dollars a year more in
his pocket-iH two years, enough to
buy that mule and forty acres. Two
hundred thousand negroes in the South
have thus paid by their labor as much as
sixteen million dollars year, all for the
benefit of the carpet baggers and scala
wags, for nobody else gets any benefit
from that money on Southern soil. And
then besides the same negroes have paid
as much more in the increased prices
they have had to pay for the articles of
consumption on which they lived. Is
not this paying rather dear for the bene-
6t Of the friends who promised the mule
and forty acres, and never got a dollar
which they did not sink in their carpet
bags2 How do you like it, Mr.. African ?
You can't deny the facts which
we tell you. Is it not time for you to see
them and act for your INTEREST," We used
to buy good cotton cloth for ten cents;
now you pay twenty for it. You used to
get coffee as low as ten cents; now you
pay twenty-five and thirty for it. And
whisky for fifty cents, which you now pay
two dollars for. What is the matter 2
We tell you it is taxation on everything
you eat and drink and wear which makes
you poor, aud makes it hard TO live.
And we tell you that so long as
these rogues 10 Office can deceive
you, and get your votes, and keep
on stealing aud pocketing the money,
while the debt is increasing instead Of
being paid of, you will be poor aud live
hard, and your noses will be to the grind
stone. Nobody can prosper. The rich
will grow poor and the poor poorer until
il is next to impossible the scsllswsgs
themselves should live.
There will be few who viii prosper.
The bond-holders who pay no taxes, the
contractors, speculsiors,
bankers and brokers can siaad the thing
pretty well. They may get rich. They