The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-11


tion, even to resumption, that we should be
relieved of some of these taxes
Ii some OF these heavy burdens laid upon
all consumers were projecting" native i'm
dustry, SO that soon wo should have pro-
duct cheaper, and were building up thus
domestic manufacture and home market
for agriculture, we as consumers might have
some'consolation for the load we were forced
to carry. But it is because we see that many
of our taxes have no sort of relation to
protecting" or building up a native indus
try, but rather to undermining what we
possess; that they only benefit a few capital
lists, and not the people; that they lessen
every mans means, and cripple every other
industry; and that they add very little to the
national revenue. 1t is for such reasons that
we protest against them, and urge a thorough
overhauling of our system of internal and
customs taxation. The truth is, Congress
has nearly taxed many branches of industry
out OF existence, and has made the expenses
OF every mode of production and every indi-
vidual SO great that we can now hardly ex-
port single manufacture which can COM
pete, on foreign markets, with the products
of the world. This defective system of
taxation is felt personally by every man,
woman, and child throughout the country in
their daily expenses. All manufactures, all
agriculture experience it, Our taxes are
slowly destroying the industrial life of the
nation. ~ MI. .I" t.... =.
We are running in debt to foreign nations
about 5000, 900, 900 per annum. Every year
this country is less able to pay this great in
debtedness. We cannot manufacture at suf-
fcient profit to be able to export our own
products in payment. If specie payments
could be resumed this year, it is doubtful if
we could keep the gold in the country, SO
constant and heavy is our foreign indebted
ness. Thus in manufactured cottons, which
used to be one of our strong points, we were
only able to export SIS, 871, 900 in currency
value in 1862 against $10,934, 900 (gold) in
1860, or about one quarter of the former In
woolens our export was even less in proper
tion, having fallen off sixty per cent. the past
year, amounting only to the small sum of
$160,000, while Great Britain during the
same year exported 1920, 100000 In one
branch, the manufacture of boots and shoes
we formerly considered ourselves pre-emi-
nent. Ten years ago no country could COM
pete with the United States in the quickness,
cheapness, and efficiency with which boot
or shoe could be made. Since then our ma
chinery has been improved. But now, such
is the burden of our defective system of taxa
ton, boot or shoe costs more in gold than
1T did in 1858; and as a consequence we can
not exchange them with the products of
foreign countries, where they are manufac-
tured more cheaply. The export has declined
from ST ,329, 900 in 1868, to 1861, 706 in 1867,
and $475,050 in 1869. Again, this countryhas
possession alone of machinery which can
manufacture combs, piano-keys, and other
articles of ivory cheaper than anywhere else.
But SO heavy is the tax on ivory that there is
now scarcely any export of these articles from
the United States. In exclusively domestic
manufactures, we all know how entirely ship
building has been destroyed by our taxation,
SO that while our increase of tonnage in 1867
ought to have been, according to the past
average, 100000 tons, it was only $4,000,
thus throwing out of employment (according
to trustworthy estimate) in that one year
10000 men in building, equipping and sailing
vessels Or we may take o smaller branch
yet, employing $40, 100000 of capitalize
silk and fur hat manufacture Here, with
duties of sixty per cent. on the raw material,
the cost is so heightened that the export is
almost entirely cut off, and the demand at
home reduced twenty-five per cent. during
the past three years. All the revenue derived
from this branch is $610,0CO and the do
mestlc manufacture cannot compete with the
foreign.
These instances could be multiplied by the
scores, where taxation direct and indirect has
eaten out the vitals of our industries, Ex-
penses of production are rendered so heavy
that we cannot compete with foreign
countries, while every one is paying useless
tax. When will Congress have courage for q
thorough reform?
THE INJUSTICE DONE MRS. STOWE.
From the Wilmington (DsL) Commercial
A good woman, of heroic labors in behalf
of many great endeavors, Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe deserved far better at the
hands of liberal American newspapers than
she has received. Certainly whatever her
verboseness, or her feebleness of argument,
or her faults of style, all of which have been
80 freely charged against her Byron article
and book, she did not deserve the contumely,
ridlcule, and misrepresentation which large
portion OF these journals have recently thrown
at her. For their intemperance, their inde-
cency, nay, their brutality, we can find no
explanation or excuse; their conduct has
amazed us. . .I
For Mrs. Stowe may have shown bad taste
in publishing her stories about Byron at all.
If 80, in that degree, she may be condemned.
But she sincerely believed she ought to do so.
OF this, no one who appreciates her character
can doubt And the reasons she assigns for
the step are at least plausible. Then her in
discretion must be to large degree pardona-
BILE. Let us pass that question, leaving what
ever of ground remains uncertain to her op-
ponents. What next?
Nobody doubts, surely, that Lady Byron
distinctly stated to Mrs. Stowe that her hus-
band had been criminal with his sister. Lady
Byron says he, himself, told her So What
then?
Mrs. Stowe asserts, and to our satisfaction
it is proved, that Lady Byron was incapable
of maliciously inventing the story; that she
was of sound mind, and therefore could not
have imagined it; and that her subsequent