Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-09-07
A WEAK INVENTION.

Carpet 20 per cent. window curtains, if pa
pes, 30; window curtains, if of mixed worsted
material 20; wash basin, jug, etc, 40 glass wa
ter bottle and tumbler 40; toilet soap, if CASTLE
cont per pound and so per cent. ad valorem ;
toilet soap, if perfumed 10 cents per pound, and
p per cont. ad yalorcm; tooth brush, 40 per
cent. hair comb, 81 per cent. looking glass, if
10 inches by "a inches, 6 cents per square foot ;
looking glass, if "a by 80 inches, 10 cents per
squerr foot; bedcoyer, if printed calico 81 cents
and ~ per cent ad valorem; bed-cover if
worstcd 80 cents a pound and IS per cent ad va
loren
Now, farmers, if you are fools enough to go
and deposit your votes for any man of this tax
pound keeper to President why, vote for such
and be taxed.
The above article was reprinted in the
Wing, yesterday, and if allowed to pass
uncontradictli might lead some astray. In
the first place we have an immense war
debt to pay, rs we all well know. Many
of us know, too, how that debt was incur
red. We generally find the very men who
brought about the rebellion and drove the
country to war, the loudest in their COM
plants about the taxes which they have
forced upon us. But we have the debt to
pay, and we must pay it by taxes. In fix
ing these taxes Congress has aimed to
make them fall a much as possible upon
luXuries-upon the rich who are able to
pay But the revenues the Government is
Obliged to raise to pay off this debt, our
Democratic friends made us incur, amount
to 50 large a sum that some part of the
tax must fall upon the necessaries of life
But this is not the case in the above list.
or farmers do not have in their bed
rooms the fine, rich carpets, window cur
tains, china wash basins, fine glass water
bottles, 1oerJunted toilet soap and costly inn
ported bed clothing, included in the above
list Most of onr good Fast Tennessee
farmers make their own carpets, or buy
carpets made in America, and, therefore,
the 20 per cent tax of the Wing imposed
upon fine imported carpets does not fall
upon thcm but reaches only the gilded
salons of the rich Their window curtains
are not damask or fine worsted, or even
costly paper curtains and the 10 per cent
named by the Wing does, therefore
reach them The imported china
washbowls and pitchers, glass water
bottles and tumblers, upon which the 40
per cent. tax is levied, does not fall heavily
upon many farmers hereabouts, but If il
does we think they are well able to pay it.
The pertumed soap and fine brushes and
combs are little articles, which are general
ly used by Il class who can afford to Day the
tax demanded, but they are not often found
among the farming class.
But we have enumerated enough of the
list to show that what at first reading might
seem an article calculated to prejudice our
farmers against Congress is in fact a very
ridiculous and weak invention of Demo-
cratic stump-speakers. In the first place.
of he inI, 1;
and in the next place il taxes things scarce
~ ever found in farmers bedrooms" |
We believe Mr.. Samuel Marshal, of nli- |
nois, not long since made some such |
speech in Congress, enumerating the ari- !
cles upon which farmers were taxed. and |
IN II enumerated linen table-cloths. china
tea sets, fine cutlery, knives and forks, &c. |
The speech attracted some attention, and |
found its way across the waters to England. |
1T was there republished in the papers. and |
the list of articles named by MIR. Marshal
as being on our farmers tables, was referred
TO as PROOF Of the pcdHh and prosperity of
dncricdn tdbOrers, and as reasons to en-
courage emigration. Perhaps if the fine
picture these Democratic papers make of
our : farmers bedrooms" should find its
way to Europe, it would there be used as
an argument in favor of emigration, and as
proof of the great wealth and extravaganza
OF our farming population.
III might be AN argument to be used i'm
some such way, but for the purposes for
which the Democracy publish il, il il
simply ridiculous.