The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1869-09-23
IDAHO WORLD.
HOW PROTECTION RoBs THE POOR MAN

We take the following from the Oin-
cinnati Commercial;
In country where the laws are
framed ostensibly to secure the greatest
good of the greatest number, taxes
should be levied so as to fall lightly
upon labor. The mass of the commu-
nifty consists always Of men without
accumulated means. These men are, it
is true, the producers of wealth, but so
large a share of what they produce
goes to their own support and the cap
ital which employs their labor, that the
mass of laborers do not become wealthy.
At the same time that they are pro-
ducers they are steady consumers Of
products. Now, it would be equitable
to take off the taxes on what they con-
sumo, or at least to reduce those taxes
to the smallest amount consistent with
the nations necessities for revenue. 1t
should be the policy of the Government,
since the laboriag classes have but lit
tle"money, to shape its Legislation so as
to make that little go as far as possible.
How has our Government, as judged
by the present system of duties on ar
ticles on consumption, discharged this
duty? Has the principal burden of
taxation been laid upon articles of lux
ury? Has Legislation been so framed
as to protect the poor man in his right
to buy where he can buy cheapest? Has
the accumulated capital of the rich been
made to serve as the principal basis of
taxation, while the poor laboring mans
earnings have been exempted? We look
into the tariff laws for answers. The
clothing worn by our working men is
taxed between seventy-fve and one
hundred per cent. The salt they con-
sumo is taxed from one hundred to one
hundred and sixty per cent. The iron
they use pays a duty of seventy to
eighty per cent. The cotton goods they
buy cost them from one hundred to one
hundred and twenty per cent. more
than they would do but for the tariff
levied ostensibly to protect" Ameri-
can labor.
What is it that is protected" by
laws which so enhance the prices of
commodities consumed by the whole
people? Is it the people, or is it few
owners of spinning and rolling mills,
and salt works? Look at little SAM
pie of the beauties of this protective
system. Here is farmer, or me-
chanic, or a merchants clerk, who
wants to buy good comfortable coat
for his ordinary wear In former times,
before the war, with the duty on wooden
clothes at twenty-five per cent, Jas it
would be now under tariff framed for
revenue) he could buy such coat at
from seven to ten dollars, according to
the quality. Now the duty OH woolens
is fifty cents per pound, and thirty-fve
per cent. ad Uolorem in addition, which
amounts to between ninety and one
hundred per cent. on the prime cost of
the material in London. 1t results that,
after adding the exchange on gold and
the profits of the American dealer the
coat which used to cost less than ten
dollars now costs from twenty to TWEEN
ty-fve. And two-thirds of this enor-
nous increase of cost is directly trace
able to the protective tariff, of whose
virtues we hear so much. Were the
duty on woolens reduced from ninety
per cent to twenty-four or twenty-five
per cent, the coat which now costs the
wearer twenty dollars could be bought
for fourteen.
But the existing tariff actually dis
eliminates against the poor man by
levying heavier duties on coarse goods
than on fine ones. Thus the tariff on
cloths and cassimeres, which was fixed
up" in the interest of the wooden man
ufacturers, lays the heaviest tax upon
the commonest articles of wooden fab
RIGS, such as are more largely manu-
featured here The duty, instead of
being graduated to the value or cost
of the goods, and so taxing the articles
of luxury the heaviest, is cunningly
levied upon the weight of the cloth, so
that the coarse wooden worn by the
working classes pays more than double
the amount of duty, in proportion to
its cost, than is paid by fine broad-cloth.
The duty, the reader must remember,
is fifty cents per pound. and thirty-fva