Middletown transcript., 1870-01-08
SPECIAL LEGISLATION.

AS soon as the Christmas holidays are
over, and Congress commences the real
work of the session, all the agents of the
lobby will swarm as usual to Washington,
to push their multifarious schemes. The
steel manufacturers of Pittsburg, who
have already almost a monopoly of that
branch of business in this country, are
clamoring for an increase of the present
high tariff citizens of Massachusetts ell
gagged in the whaling business are petition
ing for an increase Of duties on foreign
oils shipowners and shipbuilders demand
from Congress subsidy equal at least to
the duty on the materials that enter into
the construction of vessels; the wool grow
ers are complaining that their interests
are not sufficiently protected by the duties
imposed upon low grades of foreign wool
and so we might go ON, citing instance
after instance to show that, whilst the peo-
pie are suffering under burthen of direct
and indirect taxation almost too heavy to
be borne, special legislation in favor of
certain pursuits is still to be the order Of
the day. That the wool growers have
not been benefited by the duty on foreign
woods to the extent which they anticipated,
is unquestionably true. The manufac-
tureres have been too sharp for them.
High prices have led to stagnation of
trade, and the low rates at which the cereals
of the West have been selling have added
to the general depression. Dissatisfied
with present receipts" says the Commits
ioner of Agriculture" and gloomy over
future prospects, many farmers have sac
rifced a portion of their flock. During
the past year, it is estimated that four
millions of culls were killed for pelts and
tallow."
The only remedy for low prices, they
hold, is further protection in the shape of
higher duties on imported wool. But the
Commissioner points out very clearly that
the most serious trouble which the Amer
lean wool grower has to contend against,
is not his foreign competitor, but the los
scs sustained by the depredations of dogs.
In Ohio alone thirty thousand sheep were
killed by dogs in 1867, and nearly twenty
thousand others badly injured. The ag-
gregate annual loss in the wool growing
States is set down by the Commissioner at
two millions of dollars on sheep killed by
dogs, and one million of dollars in injuries
"a loss which is equivalent in value tc
six millions Of pounds of wool, and to al
anual tax of two per cent. on the tota
sum invested in sheep. No amount o
duty imposed on foreign woods will checl
these depredations, and if an additona
duty, equivalent to the yearly loss from
this source, were to be imposed upon tn,
consumers of wooen fabrics, for the bcnef
of wool growers, it would but increase thu
evil by extending the area of sheep raising
under the subsidy which would thus b
given to the farmers as compensation
for their losses by dogs.
1t seems to US that the more rcasonabl
mode would be to get rid of the dogs, in
stead of remuncrating the farmers by
protective tariff of the loss which they oc
casion. The Commissioner is evidentl
inclined to adopt u similar opinion. II
maintains that the canine maraudcrs ough
to be taxed He says; " There are 81,
millions Of dogs in the country, of which
millions are utterly worthless; that the
destroy food worth many millions of dol
lars; commit serious depredatons upo
farm property, and reprcss and depress til
"ooi lnuustiJ, ~ lhc INJURY vi puslhes
and the loss of national wealth" Ht
therefore, proposes, as means of gettin
rid of these pests, "a uniform tax of NJ
less than two dollars head"
The suggestion is certainly sensib
one and if such Il tax were vigorously el
forced, the wool growers would be fir,
from much of the hazard they now run
raising sheep, and might well forego tt
additional taxation which they now ask f
as a measure of protection to their speci
branch of industry.-Baltimorc GaSett