The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-09

equipages, are all the result Of human
labor. Every dollar, every cent, every
fraction of a cent Of il all was created
by the actual toll of man. KNOW that
it will at once be said that this remark
is trite. For the very reason that it il
trite, it never ELECTS proper recognition,
nor does it command the profound at
tention it deserves. Your common
wealth and all that is m it, your vast
social structure, your brilliant civilizs-
ton, all being supported upon the
brawny shoulders Of this great army of
workingncn, is it not of the highest
Importance that the strengthening, the
well-being, the prosperity of this mighty
support Of US all, should bescared for
as the apple Of the eye The great
body Of any civilized people, as | have
said before, earns its subsistence by la
Dor. The condition of State or of
community, of course, must accord with
that of its laboring people. When the
latter flourish the former prospers.
When the latter are free, the peerless
dignity and sublime prestige which can
only belong to free state, are the in
valuable attributes of the former. But
the contrary is none the less true. When
your workingmen are enslaved the
state is degraded; when they are
bound with shackles of oppression, the
country they uphold is paralyzed and
powerless.
And yet as important as this fact is,
as obviously true as it is universally
known to be, how little is il recognized
practically by the statesman and the
capitalists, those who, of all others,
have so great q control over the we'll
being Of labor and of workingmen ?
How frequently does the one impede
the source of all power, and the other
fetter the creator Of all wealth, showing
blind faulty, thick-headed stupid
ity-to call it by no harsher name
that reminds one forcibly of the fool in
Esop who killed the goose that laid
the golden eggs.
How misnamed is he who, bearing
the appellation of statesman, does not
make it his constant study to lower tn,
terrible burden of taxation. For, does
he not know, is it not one of these
principles of political economy, obvious
to even the tyro in that science, that
taxes, in every shape, are eventually
paid by labor, crippling its energies,
yea, resting upon it like a trightful
nightmare This truth is an affair OF
daily demonstration. No matter what
shape the tax may assume, whether di-
rect or indirect, the ultimate taxpayer
is the consumer. And who are the
consumers but the great bulk, the mass,
the overwhelming majority of our peo-
ple-the workingmen. Not only do
they pay the original tax itself ultimate
ly, but the person who first pays it in
eorporates it into the price of the COM
modify, and, as it is rule of trade that
no man can lie out of any portion of
his money without being remunerated
therefor, he must have profit on the
outlay in the payment of the tax. The
same rule is observed and the same
course pursued b the L st individual
! who purchases It's cCmm0d Id, bet1 Z
I it gets 10 the ha IF rh- nr4l CCnsu-
rner, and b. also rnust have his prUi.
not only on the original outlay of The
taxpayer, but on the profit be has been
compelled to pay him; and so the
price, like rolling SNOWFALL, continues
to gather bulk as it passes from hand to
hand, and the load, when at its greatest
weight and most intolerable dimensions,
finally falls and remains upon the shout
ders of the honest man of toll. And
that now almost intolerable burden
which bears upon all parts Of our coun-
try, is limited in its weight only by the
number of dealers through whose hands
the taxed commodity passes. And oh
the frightful system of taxation that
paupers and presses upon and encum-
bers the industrial energies of our vast
country and its great people on all
sides. There seems to be no end 10
the various systems of taxation that the
citizens of this republic are called upon
at short intervals to pay, and some OF
them are as relentless as time, and as
steady and unbroken in their operation
as the diurnal motion of the globe, fol-
lowing each other as regularly and as
exactly as day succeeds night. No
sooner is one disposed of than another
inexorsbly awaits payment. First, then,
is our tariff or customs system. This
not only fixes tax upon impor ted com
modities, which increases according to
the number of dealers through whose
hands they pass, but at the same time
has the invariable effect of enhancing
the price of the corresponding home
article to the same mark with that OF
the imported one. This is a burden,
which is like the dews of heaven in one
respect at least, in that it falls alike on
the Just and the unjust, for it certainly
spares no human being, from the babe
at the breast to the octogenarian latter,
ing on the brink of the grave. And
who does this abominatiOn of protec
tire tariff, as it is pompously called, ben
eft? For whose express profit is il
made? 1t has for its sole object piling
up mountains high the already enor-
nous riches of the lordly capitalist. 1t
is an every day matter to see parade
made of the great profits and monstrOus
dividends of our great manufacturing
establishments, but who ever hears that
any of the great mass Of operators en-
gagged in them, who are to their EN-
ployers as thousands to one, are ever at
all benefited or their condition better
ed? No, no. The veriest neaphite in
the science Of political economy under
stands the undisputable principle, inva-
riable in its operation, that large accu
mutations of wealth in the hands of the
few, render the many-thc great body
Of a community-poOrer and poorer
Every dollar Of the largest fortune ever
made, has been the result Of labor; and
if concentrated in the hands Of few,