Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-09-10
Democratic Remedies.

THERE is a Democratic grumble about
taxes. When you reply that this burden
was made necessary by an armed Tebeliion
which the Government was bound 10 Sup
press, you are told that that question be-
longs to " dead past" Democracy does
NOT wish to discuss the merits of the war,
or it's own part in causing and protracting
it. The verdict of the people has been
taken so often, and expressed so emphati
cally. that no sagacious Democrat wishes
it tried over again. Allare ready to plead,
molo c0nte1,dere;; our party, justly or un-
Justly, is held responsible by the country.
We may as well admit it, But can you
not, say they, just as well "let bygones be
bygones?" Not so long as you try to hold
tie Republican purity responsible for the pres
ent heacy taratton, say we. Taxes come OF
the war. They were the inevitable con-
sequence. We only accepted the war as
necessity. 1t was only prolonged at such
a cost of life and treasure, by Democratic
opposition and sympathy with the rebel
lion. And thus the old issues come up, and
will continue to do so, until the Opposition
takes "new departure"
But suppose we indulge our opponents,
for the time being, and listen to their pro-
posals for the future, if the people will en-
trust them with the national power. What
are their promised remedies? Passing
over the threat of reputation, which is
thrust forward so prominently in the
Democratic State platform, and which is
the real policy towards which Democracy
is rapidly tending, let us see what the En-
q~trer proposes in its issue of the oath
inst,
''In the first place the Democrats would take the
taxes of OF sugar. tea coffee, salt and other necessa
ries. RWoMdm2t continue NE t"con1e tag: ltwould
reduce the tariff upon manufactured articles such
clothing and other fabrics, to one-third one
quarter their present duties" se
So much to begin with. Tea, coffee,
sugar, &c, consumed by all classes, but
more largely, of course, by those in the
best Gil eumstances, it would admit duty
free; ready made clothing, worn almost
exclusively by persons ofmoderate means,
it would still require to pay duty, though
reduced; and the ineometax, of which no
man pays a penny whose income does
not exceed one thousand dollars year, is
to be abolished altogether. So much for
the impartiality of its distribution of the
burden as between the rich and the poor.
The duty on tea and coffee is of course not
for protection, as neither is raised in this
country. The time was when they were
regarded only as luxuries nor is any man
who can regularly provide them for his
family too poor to afford the trivial tax
now levied on them. But it is the propo-
sition to repeal the income tax, that sounds
most strangely in a paper that processes
championship of the poor against the rich.
Comment is not needed. 81 avg
After thus curtailing the means of the
Government to ruinous degree-chiefiy
by exempting the rich from the income
tax-the Enquirer proposes, in order to re-
duce expenditures, to" pay off the bonds
in greenbacks" and stop interest. Does
any sensible person think the Agreenbacls
will come at the bidding of the Govern
ment? They can be printed without limit,
it is true, but long before half enough were
put afloat to pay off the bonds, the whole
would be made worthless by the expan-
sion Every sensible Democrat knows
this, and when you hear one talking in
this way, you may know he really wishes
to repudiate the debt, because he hates the
patriotic cause it was created to sustain,
But even after this extinguishment of
national currency, and national credit and
national character, the Enquirer childishly
talks of saving thirty million dollars an
nually by dispensing with the National
Banks and by issuing greenbacks in their
place." Dispense with hundreds ofmillions
of private property! And then the place
of National currency is to be supplied by
issuing more greenbacks, which the Demo-
cratic scheme has already made as worth
less as Continental shinplasters
Nor is this all. The Enquirer has the
bonds all taken up and Cancelled, and the
interest stopped. The country is flooded
with irredeemable' 'greenbaeks, and the
National Banks driven to take this cur
rency in exchange for, the bonds which
were their basis of circulation, are eds
pensed WITH" SO far as there was anything
left for the dispensing process to take eff
feet on and now, 10 and behold the
Enquirer has still something more to be
done:
Then they, would tanthe bonds the same as other
property is taxed and in that manner collect fifty
millions more
Here you hayey literally stated, the Dem.
ocratic remedies for taxation according to
the Enquirer. Was there ever grander
elimination of lofty financial scheme ?
The problem is to get. rid of high taxes.
The Democratic plan begins by taking off
the tax from incomes, CHIEFLY, which can
pay it better than anything else in the
world, and actually do pay out of the cof-
fers of the rich large proportion of all;
then it would issue now-storm of green
backs, pay off all the bonds, and stop. the
interest, which eats up half our receipts
then dispense with" whatever of value
the National Banks may have left at this
stage Of affairs sand then-yes, then, not a
moment earlierAit would raise fifty mil
lions year by taxing those everlasting
bondsl For everlasting they must be to
endure through all the previous processes,
and come out so healthy, robust and pro-
ductive at last. Perhaps we ought to add
that. being successful thus far, the nqaaaYr
proposes'to wind up in a blaze of glory
by applying the torch to the Freedmen's
Bureau" the free negro boarding house
in the South (which has no more exist
ence now than a Cancelled bond or castle
in the Cincinnati Chronicle. -'--.A
ROSecranS on the DamOcrafic Party