The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-05-05
WHO PAYS THE TAXES,

The advocates of high tariff taxation have
always deluded the people with sophissry
| and unsound reasoning on the subject of tax
alton. They used 70 seriously argue to the
people that high taxes made low prices
that the higher the tariff upon an article the
cheaper the aatiele could be purchased.
Thousands of well-mesning men have been
wretchedly deceived and imposed upon by
specious humbuggery like this. The radi.
Gals even now try to make the poorer class,
es believe that it is the rich and not the poor
that really pay the taxes ofthe country. The
fsllacy of this dogma is well exposed in the
. following article from late number OF the
N. Y. Day Book
"The poor man pays his tax, and the rich
| mans tax also. Instance: Mr.. A is a
wealthy real estate owner he figures up the
| probable tax he viii have to pay on his in.
come, and the cost of the high priced repairs
| on his stores and dwellings, and the expense
| of his naturally extravagant family. he
claps the sum total into his rent roll, and
Mr.. B, the active and wellto-do grocer, hires
| one of AS houses and one of his stores, and
| agrees to the exorbitant prices demanded.
| A, you will see, good reader, has charged all
| his taxes, direct and indirect, upon b. Now
what does do? He advances the price o
| every article in his store, and these articles
are made to carry AS taxes and his own al
| 40, which includes what he may probably
| nav over as income and what he demands as
profit. B is wholesaler. C, the retailer
| in the same line, gets the majority of his
stock from B. Every article comes to C's
hands saddled with the entire expenses, di.
rect and indirect, and the profits also, OF
both A and b. @ deals at retail with the
customers, the great million who exhaust all
| their weeks wages in the purchase of the
necessaries of life. The great masses who
labor for a living, who have no goods, n.
property, no wealth, which some other stra
| tum of the human family can be made tt
call for, have now to part with enough o.
| their earnings to pay the taxes of every in
| diyidual who may have handled the article
they consume. These taxes have gone into
the cost of it. The poor man who uses i
| up, foots all the bills against it, including ;
| big profit to the capitalists, who each in thei
turn, as they handled it, put their own bonus
on il, and obtained the same. The profits
of the capitalists have been bigger than the,
ever were in the history of commerce in this
| country Fortunes were never so rapid,
| screwed out of the consumer. just as long
as taxes are collected, just SO long We have
proof that the rich are getting richer and the
poor poorer. Wealth may not be so wei
distributed, there NAV be a less number get
ting rich, but every article that is clothed
with tax, and consumed, has had the take:
| and profits of the scores of those who hay,
handled it repaid by the poor man. H'
has none to fssten upon it. He alone car
ries the load. But, says the benighted mig
gerite, who believes 10 this state of things
"labor has increased in its own value, an
prepared itself not only for the extra tax
but for its own surplus of profit over thes
taxes" Not bit of II, Mr.. Mongrel. Messr
A and B have had the start of the lsborer
They collected in advance on the articl
handed down for his consumption, all, am
more than the price his labor prepaid for
They heaped on every item of groceries, o.
every item of clothing, on his house rent ant
fuel, on his every necessity, their taxes, thei
cost of living, their profits, and when he hon
ored their drafts be had nothing left for him
self The consumer pays his own taxes, tn
taxes of all who have touched the article
uses, and he pays also a heavy percentag
l.. of profit to the rich capitalist and the mid
die men, through whose hands his necess
ties come, and when he has done this, larg
as his wages appear to be, he has nothin
left for q rainy day. Lord help the poo
! consumer