The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-10-07

SpCCl W Ou oSo1.
Now, my fellow-citizens, it ispretty
safe to say that the man who
consumes dollars worth of tea has
paid upon that-to be moderate about
cents as tax. 1 suppose it
would be fifty cents. 1t is not i'm
portant to be precise as to the exact
proportion he pays. When you have
the portion you are obliged
to pay in the currency i'll which you
deal, it will be nearly nalf the amount
of the cost of the tea. How is it paid ?
Nobody comes to your house and col
lects the tax for that. No, it is paid
in an other way. The importer pays
it in gold to the collector; but the i'm
porter sells it to the Wholesale mer-
chant. And what does the wholesale
merchant do? Why, he pays the i'm
porter the price of the tea, and it goes
from him with the duty upon it, and
the importers profit to the retail deal
er, and the retail dealer pays back the
wholesale merchant the price of the
tea, all the taxes and profits upon the
same. Finally the retuil dealer sells
it to you and and your families con-
sumo it. Now what do you pay the
retail dealer for it? You pay him, as
o matter of course, what he has paid
to the Wholesale merchant for the
price of the tea, and the tax and the
profit; and in addition to this, the re-
tail dealers profit. Now you drink
it up, and can get nothing back; it is
gone. Take the commonest case on
earth; here is little box of matches.
There are ten thousand spies around
bounding a man down if stamp is
not on. The stamp is one-third or
one-half-no matter whiCh-the price
of the matches. You fill your box
with tobacco, which is taxed, and you
take your pipe, which is taxed, and fill
it. You light. your match, which is
taxed, aud when you have smoked the
tobacco you have paid the tax, and it is
gone into smoke, and there is all there
is about it. That illustrates just ex-
actly what is true of every single az
ticle /; and while one hundred laboring
men consume these articles, there is
one man of the wealthier class; and
the consequence is, there is one hund-
l ~, 20 n
articles by the poor man as the rich.
Now, you might go further, fellow
citizens. and look at the income tax,
every cent Of it. 1t is true the rich
| man pays it first, but it is just as true
that it is put on the cost of what you
purchase of him, and is at last paid
by those who use up the article. That
is true. And any man may demon,
strate it by investigation, that the
great mass of American people who
consume the foreign and domestic
goods pay this tax. And when it i:
said that they do not pay the great
bulk of the tax of the people, it is just
simply falsehood, and SO silly a false
hood that it don't take one minute o.
thought to refute everything that car
be said about it. If you are interested
in lessening taxation, look at the ebvi
Gus reason for reducing taxation
What want to get rid of is this ever.
lasting horde of tax-gatherers an6
spies that are now in every neighbor
hood of this country. [Applause. j
Here is man; he may have paid hi:
taxes all along; but if he omits to
mark out stamp OH q matchbox, ol
to cancel stamp on a paper, no mat
ter where he lives, he will find gov
ernment spy there, and it is more thar
likely this spy will go to his shop, anG
| If the man has not seen the last edi
ton of the tax laws-and they change
about as often as the chameleon doe!
his color-why this fellow will catct
him up by purchasing paper of to
bacco from him which is not stamped
according to the latest law, and the
next thing he knows he is started off {
hundred and fifty or two hundred
miles and brought up before this au.
| gust federal court for infraction of the
1 revenue law. What comes of that
This scamp that has been peepins
around gets his fees for arresting hin
and his fees for travelling here anG
back, and the innocent man who i!
caught in that way will find before h,
| gets through, he has got two or three
hundred dollars invested in shat ell
terprise. a....
| We want to get to point were th'
government shall not have this ever
lasting army. Now let lis see if W,
could reduce the burden of the coun
4 try by reducing its officers, so tina
this, at least, will not be necessary
They, never were necessary /; except a
d it was necessary for each man in offic'
to provide for his own household ant
those of his friends, by making a
many Offices as possible, and filling
them with men, and getting as muct
money into their hands as possible.
II THE PUBLIC DFBT.
But here comes the public debt
You can hardly speak to some o
these gentlemen about this debt, bu
/, what tears roll down their faces will
the idea that you are not seriou
and grave and solemn enough il
, speaking of the public debt. 1 feel a
great obligation in regard to this deb
as those men. I have no thought o
doing anything but standing up ant
discharging the debt honestly an
fairly, and in the spirit in which i
was contracted. But what does Con
J gress tell US upon this subject? l
} passed law at its last scssion-and
, wish I had it here to read it to you Ii
, order that you might see how com
pletely they arc in the hands of tn
, moncyed men of the country, ant
; how completely at their bidding