The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-02

tective deities-Forward and Mallory aud |
Snyder. When cause must needs find its |
representatives in men dead and buried o
half century ago it is weak indeed. The
trouble with Mr.. Greeley is that, as politi-
clan, he too frequently lives in the era of
1920. He became a protectionist when a
boy up in one of the Whig counties Of a
Yankee State, and he has never changed his
mind, as, indeed he has never changed his
mind on any question. Failing to win new
followers, nothing is left to the protec-
tionists but to invoke dead memories and
rake up the objects of alteration in the bones
and ashes of the past. Who cares for Simon
Snyder nowp The old Pennsylvania Cover
nor has gone to peace, and is probably by
this time an oxydized iron formation in some
iron county of the Keystone State. Who
cares for Henry Clay? We might as well
seriously quote his opinions on internal i'm
provements, the war with Greece, or the re-
moval of the bank deposits, as to regard him
with patience on question like revenue re-
form. These men are the remnants of
pslmozoic age, and we may say of tbem as
Coleridge of the good knight
Their swords are rust,
Their bodies dust,
And their souls are now with Christ, we trust.
In the famous comedy Of Rip Vdn WitbIe
the old man, with rheumatic joints and white
flowing hair, and trembling limbs and rheumy
eyes, stalks down among the villagers and
seeks some familiar face. "Does anybody
here know Dick Vedder or Jacob Stein ?"
why, they are dead twenty years" And he
goes on to ask, if they are dead who is he
and why is he alive? This is very much the
position of Mr.. Greeley as he wanders through
the Tribune from day to day asking if any
body has heard of Forward and Mallory and
Snyder The men and the times have changed.
We have a new North and new South. The
business interests of the Northern States flood
new channels The South is in the hands of
a new people. In other days the industrial
Teople of the South had no interest in the de-
velopment of the country. They were bought
and sold at so much head. They were
simply so much property, like so many oxen
or horses or sheep. With them life was only
hog and hominy and molasses. Whether
trade WAS poor or thriving, whether crops
were full or barren, whether there were rail
roads or canals or industries, was of no
value. But now they live and think. The
negro has an interest in every ounce of tea,
every pound of sugar and tobacco. 1t re-
presents his own industry, and he must
guard and hoard it if he would prosper.
To the South, therefore, questions of taxa
tion and impost and revenue are vital and
immediate.
In the West the people need cheap iron,
lumber and coal. Next to salt and air iron is
of more necessity to modern civilization, to
the comfort and happiness of mankind, than
any substance known in science. The price
of iron affects us as much as the price of
wheat or corn. Cheap iron means cheapness
in transportation, in household furniture, in
agriculture. Every new country needs cheap
iron. One railway in Indiana and Kansas is
of more value to the country-a larger con-
tribution to its wealth and prosperity-than
twenty iron mills in Pennsylvania So tax
upon pig-iron, while aiding few IRON
masters, is virtually tax upon every bushel
of wheat-upon the labor of every farmer in
the West. The argument that the labor of
the men who make the iron is protected
that without protection the mill would stop
and they starve-is absurd; for if they cannot
puddle iron ore at small wages in unhealthy
mills, they have only to 60 into the cheap
Western counties and till the ground. For
this reason the revenue reformers, in de-
manding cheap iron, strike chord to which
the Western Territories and States will
respond
Another strong pointin this new platformi is
| the removal of the tax upon wool and lumber
and coal. Why should wool be taxed? This
article enters into the economy of our daily
existence SO absolutely that every penny put
upon it is a tax upon every laboring man who
wears woollen coat, or who buys his wife a
woollen dress. Is it not of more importance
that the millions of poor laboring men should
have cheap clothing than that we should have
large herds of sheep, especially as in the pro-
gress of national growth agriculture will pro-
tect its own sheep growth? The tax upon
lumber is virtually an embargo upan our ship
| ping and hindrance to the social develop
| ment of our new civilization. Lumber is scant
enough in many parts of America. If a
farmer builds a house at the base of the
Rocky Mountains, he must bring his lumber
from Chicago. In that item alone transpor-
tation is a grievous tax, and when to
this we add q protective impost we put
upon the farmer q heavy burden. Anne
rica wants cheap lumber for the sea, just
as she wants cheap iron for the land.
Our shipping is dead, from the sheer
inability of our capitalists to build ships in
competition with the builders on the Clyde.
While conceding these salutary reforms
these revenue reformers halt. Now, true
revenue reform should go deeper into this
question Of removing taxes We look in
vain through the speeches of the eloquent
speakers at Delmonico's to find any sugges-
tion for the removal of taxation from tea and
sugar and coffee. We are asked to look al
the English tariff as an ideal tariff. Well,
the English tariff, we believe, is levied upon
nine articles-spirits and wine, tea and
coffee, su gar and tobacco, currants, raisins,
and chicory. OF these articles, tea, coffee,
and sugar pay thirty millions annually, ol
more than one-third of the whole revenue
Now, if the revenue rsformers mean
to popularize their cause, if they
mean to take hold of the people, lei
them add to their platform whatthe humbles
and poorest can understand, and remove tax
alton from articles which are nseessaries OF
life. The true theory of all taxation is te
put the burdens upon the shoulders that car