Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-07
REFUGE TIE TAXES.

We have again and again insisted that
there was an imperative necessity for
reduction in our national taxes We have
insisted that our duty to the creditors OF
the Government did not require that we
should submit TO such onerous taxation.
Wehave insistedthat rduty to thepeople,
TO energy, to enterprise, to every industrial
pursuit, demanded that the taxes should be
reduced. We are pleased to see that the
cry is being repeated throughout the cOun-
try, not only in the South, but all over the
North. tits not confined to the Democracy,
but comes Justify from Radical lungs.
Many of the leading papers in the North
and West have joined in the demand. The
New York Times plainly announces that
eff there is notto be production, large andim-
mediate, the country will hold Repubh-
can Administration and a Republican
Congress responsible. " In leading arti-
Gle on this subject in its issue of Tuesday
last, that staunch prop of Republicanism
says:
The cry still is, REDUCE THE TAXES
The trading class is literally unit in favor
of reduction. The farmers are compelled,
by falling prices, to pray for it as
measure absolutely necessary. The me-
chanics and laborers, who bore the hard
ship Of high prices without murmur
while they were incident to a great
national struggle, protest against that
continuance of high prices which proceeds
from eXorbitant taxation On no other
subject are the people half so united or
half so decided. They complain of the
taxes as a burden beyond their
strength. They know that much
Of the depression which aiilicts
industry, and much of the bitterness and
peril of the trial which every branch of
trade endures, grow ont of the present sys-
TEN of taxation. We are sustaining the
usual strain of war in a period of peace
We are paying the penalties of war years
after the necessity for their eXaction
| ceased. Hence the depth and universally
Of the demand for relief East and West,
North and South, insist upon it as meas
ure of justice and eXpediency-Of justice,
because this rate of taxation is in excess
of the legitimate requirements of the gov
eminent; of expediency, because diminu-
ton of the load is essential to the safety
of great and varied interests, entering into
the sum of national prosperity. The
| journals which oppose the demand are for
the most part advocates of monopoly ;
they would withhold relief from the peo-
pie for the agrandizement of special in
terests and the promotion of policy that
would precipitate resumption of specie
| payments at any cost.
The mistake of Mr. Boutwell's policy is
that it aims at concentrating effort upon
the reduction of the debt long in advance
of its maturity, regardless Of the suffering
| and loss which that effort entails upon
commerce and industry. 1t is persisted
in, moreover, with strange Indifference to
the fact that the nearer we approach re-
| sumption the heavier existing burdens be-
| come, and that if resumption were eff
fected the collection of those burdens
would be simply impossible. Values are
| falling, but taxes remain the same. The
| farmer receives less for his products, the
merchant less for his goods, the workman
| less forhis labor, while the eXactiOns of the
Government continueunabated. Supposing
specie payments to he restored without
| previous reform in the matter of taxation,
theresult would virtually be an increase of
taxation: for though the rate remained
the same, the available means of the ia Y
payers would be reduced. The effect of
such a condition of things mot be
| doubted. Such taxes in such circumstances
could not be collected. There would be
a falling of in the revenue at a time when
its prompt and full collection would be OF
the highest Importance to the credit OF tbs
Government. The Secretary of the Urea
sury fails to comprehend the course OF
public opinion if he imagines that the
story Of what he is doing with the debr
viii reconcile the people to the burden he
would perpetuate. They are in earnest il
the cry for reduction of taxes. And il
there is not to be reduction, large arc
immediate, the country viii hold a Re
publican Administration and Republi
can Congress responsible.