Middletown transcript., 1868-01-11
Taxes ON Neeessnries.

VIC uopc anu eApcct 10 see the DAY
when every dollar of the revenue needed
to support our government will be levied
on superhuities, and when articles of ne
cessary consumption will be free. That
this idea is not chimerical one is abun-
dantly testified by the success already
achieved in this direction by other coun-
tries, and notably in England. Less than
a century since every article imported into
the United Kingdom, and many of those
exported were burdened with high duties
Every useful commodity, aliS every article
of comfort and luxury, had to pay heavy
contribution to the State before it reached
the consumer, and the tariff exhibited o
formidable load of unjust and oppressive
burdens. Under the spread of more liberal
ideas the taxes levied by the custom laws
upon almost every article largely consumed
were gradually reduced or got rid Of
Through the arduous and Intelligent la
bors of Golden, Bright and other leaders
of the Anti-corn Law League, the princi-
pie of protection which had long ridden
the British people, as it still does our own,
was formally abandoned and disowned.
The taxes on brcadstuffs were repealed,
and a great diminution was made. ..s.
Two hundred years ago the number of
/ articles charged with taxes in Great Bri-
tain numbered 1000 In 1887 they were
reduced to ,425 articles in 1926 to L.
280; in 1S41 to 1,052; in 1849 to Sis,
and in 1853 to 46G. In the latter wear
the Chancellor Of the Exchequer, Glad
stone, thus stated the principles that gov
crn the tax levy: 1.
=" First, to abolish altogether the duties
which are unproductive and in the next
place to abolish, as far as considerations Of
revenue will permit, duties on articles of
manufacture, except such as are in the
last stages as finished articles. In these
cases we have cndeavorcd to fix the duties
in such a way that, as a general rule,
they should not stand, as to any class Of
goods Except silks, higher than ten per
cent. on their value.
"Next; we have been dcsirous to lower
the duties that press ON foreign articles of
food, which enter largely, if not into the
necessaries of life, at any rate into what
may be called the luxuries and comforts of
the mass of the people" r l-e
Still greater reductions in the number
of articles taxed have taken place and
since 1860, the British tariff retains only
nineteen articles subject to import duties.
Our own complicated and burdensone
tqrif presents a painful contrast to this
simplicity with its $500 articles subject
to duty--or about double the number that
were ever faxed in Great Britain, even in
her darkest days of national exclusiveness
and oppression. Yet England raises as
great a revenue every year from customs
as does the United States, and collects it
far more eheaply and surely. Five great
items produced twenty million pounds,
s 100, 900, 900, more than our whole rev.
enue from customs GALL sources) in 1865,
and nearly as much as the total average
receipts Of the current fiscal year from inn
ports. These great staples are sugar, tea,
tobacco, wine and spirits-all, save one or
two, articles of mere luxury or superfuity.
Great Britain has population about equal
to our own. No nation stands more in
need Of large revenue, since ner national
debt is greater by onc-third than ours
What is the secret of her success? Low
taxes and cheap prices for all the necessa-
ries of life.
1t should never be forgotten that hea-
Wy taxed articles extensively consumed by
tho people, enhance the cost of those arti-
cles, first, to the extent of the duty itself;
second, to the extent of forty per cent.
premium on that duty, Gas all such taxes
are payable in gold, third, to the extent
of the expense, delay and inconvenience
suffered by the dealer in the payment of
the duty; and lastly, ON account of the
discouraging effect of such duties upon the
importation of the article. How many
times have we been told, in thd last three
years, as a reason why the merchants no
lodger keep certain articles on hand--'s we
can't afford to import that article any more,
the duty is so bigh." And how often are
we reminded, when hesitating over the
frightfully dear prices asked for imported
goods that the article has paid forty or
fifty per cent. gold duty and cannot posi-
bly, be afforded any less2 This eAhance-
ment of the cost limits the consumption
of articles which are of primary me-
cessity to the welfare Of the people, and
so far it is great injury. 1t is the boun-
den duty of the State to interfere so az to
diminish materially the comforts of the
community. Yet we find our Govern
ment, through the unwise and mistaken
counsels of men who appear not to COM
prehend the first principle of political econ
omy. standing in the unparental relation
of an obstructionist to the commerce of the
people. By,a system of inordinately high
duties, never paralleled before in this
country, we are cut off from using our own
resources to the best advantage, while the
Government, instead of reaping the adyan-
tage which the people lose, is actually
cheating itself ont of millions by pursuing
a more reasonable system of taxation, in
the articles subjected to customs duties.
1t appears from the last report of the
Commissioner of the Internal Revenue.
that the present average tax laid by the
custom laws unon imported goods is Hor-