Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-14
IFrom the Pittsburgh CPa Post.l

Conversation between Mr.. R., mechanic
and Mr.. s., a United States Bondholder.
Mechanic-Will you purchase my hous.!
Being somewhat in debt, cannot afford TO
live in a house that cost me $4,000. :.
Rondholder-Whatw will you take for 1t,
payable in United States per cent. bonds.
interest payable in gold every six months'
Mechanic-I will sell it for $4,000. In es-
timating the cost, have not included my
own labor and superintendence.
Bondholder-It Is high price. If buy |
your house, shall have yearly tax to
pay of $l0S, whileI now hold S42 600 of U.
s. bonds, the interest payable in gold, the
premium on the gold at the present price,
makes the interest nearly 8 per cent. per
year, giving me an income of $3.50 yearly,
and not a cent of tax to pay. II invested
my money in houses, stores, stock of goods,
mechanical shops or mortgages, or any ar
ticle produced by mechanical labor should
be taxed. .i7.
Meehanfc-Do you think it right to ex-
ernpt the wealthy class from taxation?
They and the national banks are the prn-
cipal bondholders. Take your own case.
You have two children being educated at
thespublic schools and not farthing do
you pay towards educating them. The
very school books they study are partly
paid for by the hard working mechanic.
and laborer partly by the business man and
real estate holder, and partly by widows
and orphan children. F'iI s-f i.4i i''i
Bondholder-You know many of us loan
ed our money at the commencement of the
war when the Government required it.
Mechdnic-Y es, that is trle; but the Gov
ernment let you have the bonds at a large
discount, and you have been receiving your
interest in gold for seven years, which has
averaged about eleven per cent. yearly in
currency, and not dollars tax have you
paid during those seven years, while you
have realized nearly interest sufficient to
pay the first cost of your bonds. You have
saved BY not paving taxes for seven years
ON your bonds, $6500-and could sell them
at a premium of $4,000. being the first is
sue. Here is profit of $12,70O, in addition
to q yearly interest OF eleven per cent. in
greenbacks for seven years, and from whom
does this enormous interest and immense
profit to you CONT? The industrious and
hard-working people of the country. Those
who labor ten hours per day are bearing
the burthen, who are taxed for everything
they wear, consume and own. Their cloth
ing, their provisions, their fuel and their
house rent cost them nearly double what
it should in consequence of this system of
taxation. l-e Hf la lia'l
Bondholder-From your remarks pre-
sumo you are not a Republican, for they are
opposed to taxing U. s. bonds, and are in
favor of paying the principal of all the
bonds in gold. la 81. es''l'7.
Mcdaniel have always voted with the
Republican party, but shall not support
them any longer. L cannot as an honest
man vote their ticket, when 1 believe it un-
Just to exempt the wealthy bondholder
from taxation, he paying nothing towards
educating his children, nothing towards
the support of police department to pro-
tect his own life and bonds, nothing to-
wards the support of fire department,
nothing towards the repair of streets which
he daily rides over in his carriage, and
nothing towards the support OF the poor,
and nothing towards the State Government
which Is organized to secure his life and
property. The Democratic party are in
favor of taxing U. s. bonds. They are for
equal taxation and protection to all-they
are tor one currency for the bondholder,
the farmer, the pensioner, the mechanic
and laborer, the business man, the office
holder and all others.
Bondholder-Then you intend to vote
against your own party. l1sn 2f'-a
Mechanic--Do you think would support
a party to create a moneyed aristocracy,
and party that was not only opposed to
taxing U. S. bonds, but in favor of paying
the principal of the bonds in gold, when on
the face of the bonds it does not agree to
pay them in gold, which would be giving
the bondholder equal to fourteen hundred
and fifty dollars in greenbacks for every
bond of one thousand dollars, and you
would receive seventy thousand nine hum
dred dollars, for what cost you less than
forty-two thousand dollars, as you bought
them at a discount, and for the farmer, the
business man, the mechanic and laborer to
receive paper money for their dues, and for
them also to pay your proportion of taxes
you with the gold received from govern
ment for your interest can purchase CLOTH
ing and provisions at half the price, that
others can purchase them for with paper
currency. 3as
r II
on those who have no money to buy bonds
with. uf sf.
Mechanic-- Why, sir, am acquainted with
man that lives in country town in this
State and has siXty-ive thousand dollars In
United States bonds, pays no tax, nothing
for educating his son at the public school,
rides over the road in four wheeled ve-
hicle that cost $4,000, and lets others labor
to keep the roads in order at their expense,
while a hard working man, living within a
quarter of mile of where he boards, cul-l
tivates with his own hands eleven acres of
land, supports wife and three children by
toiling twelve hours day, and pays four
times the tax of his rich neighbor who
pays only poll tax-do You think would
support any party that would pursue such
a poicy-this is the Republican platform.
Bondholder-The Republicans have made
some mistakes. I am apprehensive their
course will injure the party j5e 81
Mechanical government of the people
is not intended to favor the rich at the ex-
pense OF men OF limited means, taxing the
latter class of their various occupations,
ana furnishing gold to the one and paper
currency to the other, exempting the bond
holder and his children for thirty or forty
years from taxation, creating privileged
class as in Ireland, where the people labor
for the benefit of the wealthy aristocracy.
Bondholder-You ought not to find fault
wr,se - h<r. 1hrlI fzkN
to favor us. Why not find fault with ne
groes at the South whom the u. S. Gov
ernment supports the year round? Are
you not taxed to take care of them, and are
they not allowed to vote? The poor white
man at the North cannot vote, if he re-
ceives from the town or city three feet OF
wood in the winter season. Why not COM
plain of the injustice OF fa3oring the ne
groes, excluding the white man from the
same privileges? -1. aE
Mechanic What you state is another act
of injustice on the part of the Republican
party. While was in favor of freeing the
negroes, was not in favor of the Republic
cans giving them any privileges that they
did not give white men. / am aware that
the white laboring classes are supporting
the negroes of the South. The official re-
ports from Washington state that over one
million of dollars have been expended for
fuel for them, and over three millions of
uOilarS lor meulclne, anu Gne amount Ior
provisions, which was very great, do not
remember-you bondholders do not pay
any part of this. The wasteful extrava-
gance and system of taxation adopted by
the Republican party is very severe on
men of limited means, and laboring classes
particularly-there is nothing that they
consume or use but costs them really
double. The farmer has his share of this
Republican taxation aud waste, to bear in
his high taxes on his farm-the exorbitant
prices for his implements of husbandry,
plough, shovels, hoes, &C., his clothing and
articles of consumption for his family.
BondhoLder--If bonds were taxed should