Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-01-28
FREE TRADE.

circulated and thus brought the Gen
eral into notice with the Free Trade
League of the country in whose in
terest the General was subsequently
employed and has been making
speeches all over the West. His
speech here, on last Friday evening
T&s very closely listened tc. ond
there is no use denying Tie I2ct that
his remarks awakened liz, ilter
est on the Tariff subject. y -i4o We
do not endorse all that Mr.. l.. SAID,
we have no doubt that the present
system Of Tariff needs radio. re
vision. We already see indica,. rs
that Congress will enter upon the
work Of Tariff Reform, and before
the present session adjourns, the du
ties on many articles will be consid-
erably reduced.
We give the following brief alb
stract of the Generals address:
The speaker defined free trade not
to be the abolition of taxation
neither did it mean direct taxation
upon property according 10 value
No people were more anxious than
the free traders, that the credit of
the Government should be maintain
eel, and all necessary revenue col
lected. So long as Governments ex-
ist, taxation must exist, and so long
as our Constitution remains as at
present, the only practical lie way of
collecting our national taxes, must
be by tariffs and excise laws.
Free trade, therefore, means moth
ing more than such a revision of the
tariff and internal revenue laws as to
give tc the Government the revenue
it requires, and at the same time be
the least bnrthensome to the people.
The tariff in any shape was bur
then and not blessing, and thel G
fore it should be made as light as
possible. In order to do this, it
must be confined to its sole object
taxation. To test a tariff, all we
have to do whenever we pay tax
under it, is to Inquire, does the
Government get it? Does it get it
all !? If it does not, if it sticks to
somebody's fingers, or goes into the
Golfers of some great monopoly,
you may rest assured that there is
something wrong.
OUR PRESENT TARIEF
Our present tariff is the highest
ever known among civilized nations
either ancient or modern. In
Greece the average duty upon i'm
ports was but Two per cent. upon
her own citizens, and five per cent.
upon subject allies. In Rome for a
thousand years the average duty
was but d per cent. The highest
duty ever known to a Roman Gus
tom house was l24 per cent. In Eu-
rope the average to-day, is less than
10 per cent. In England 93d per
cent. Of her entire customs revenue
is collected off Of six articles and
= whole tariff includes less tran
twenty articles. Our tausH s..4,7es
over 4 ZOO articles, and :, +e.t7..=
duty is little less than j., .,,.s...
The highest tariff we ever -. ue
fore was that of 1928, which was an
average of 4l4 per cent. and is ap-
propriately known in history as the
"tarilf of abominations. y
CUR TARIFF TESTED.
Now let us test our tariff by the
rule | have laid down, and see if q Il
the taxes we pay 60 to the treasury
Remember that as rule, whenever
a duty is imposed upon an article
which we also make at home, it not
only enhances the price of the i'm
ported article to that amount, but it
also equally enhances the price Of
of the home product. Take tor in
stance, lumber. The duty OF 90 pei
cent enhances the price Of all lum-
Der at least that much, whether it is
imported from Canada or made in
Michigan. ..,...
Now according to the census re
port Of 1860, our lumber product
was valued at S96, 900, and can
not now be less than $15O,000,000
Multiply this by 20 per cent. anc
you have S30,OO0,OOO as the tax
paid by the people upon the single
item of lumber If this all went to
the treasury would not complain
SC much, b,.t when I turn to the re
ceipts of the treasury last year,
: find that the Government got only
!, S66614O; over $4,000 went into
the pockets of the few rich owners
of the timber lands.
THE IRON MASTERS.
; So with pig iron. The duty o
$4,000 per ton caused the peopl
J last year to pay tax of over S15,
J 900, 900; whist the government go
only $1,125,90S. On bar iron W,
paid tax of over $2O,O0O,00O, ant
the Government got 81 1,204, ,7O4- o.
railroad iron we paid a tax of $14.
100000 and the Government ST.,
641,878. So in these three items O
iron alone, out of $45, 100000 of ia,
paid by the people, the Governmen
got but S5,0OO,000, whilst $4,000,
went into the pockets Of the irol
4 masters, three -fourths Of whom liv,
e in Pennsylvania.
e In the same way you may tax
salt, leather, coal, and a thousane
other articles, and find that out O