The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-03-16

dnstries S1S5, LIS, ,953, on their foreign
purchases SI94, ,53S.374; then paying
in one fiscal year, or submitting to see
Secretary Boutwell, pay, $10l, ,601 ,9lG
of the public debt; and heaped on
top Of all their burdens, see them sub
hitting to swindling protective :"
tariff which makes them pay to pet
manufacturers and favored monopo-
lists 1886, 100000 more. And the
i ankee nation is cute nation
There are. about thirty eight and a
half millionsof people in this coun-
try. They have to pay for each indi
Vidual at the rate of S5,05 in duties on
imports, $3.50 in internal taxes, and
SS, 73 III bounties to favored interests
through the enhanced price of domes-
tic products caused by the tariff In
brief, our present tariff costs us $I3,
rs per capita, of which $5,05 go into
the Treasury and SS,73 into private
pockets. Our whole burden resulting
from this peculiarly beautiful system
of taxation is SlS,5S for every man,
every woman, and every child in the
United States of which 1913 go into
the pockets OF monopolists S2,64 go
to pay the holders OF United States
bonds and, Sll,37 per capita being
thus spent, the remainder, only S7,2I
per capita, suffices for the expenses of
government as eXtravagant as Radi-
cal rings can make it.
The father Of q family of four chill
dren can easily calculate his share of
this burden, and what part of it goes
into the Treasury. He pays for tour
children, for wife. and for himself,
six persons in all, Sill, AS each year.
OF this sum, S52,3S go into the pock-
cts of those favored capitalists who
invest their money in pet industries !;
$l5,S4 go to pay the holders of Uni
ted States bonds: and, over and above
these $6S,22 year, he has still to pay
$43,26 as his share of the yearly ex-
penses of the benefcent government
which taxes the many thus heavily for
the benefit of the few. OF course
some families pay more and some less
than these sums, according to their
consumption of foreign or domestic
articles or their liability to domestic
taxes; the figures given are the ave-
rage for the whole country, rich and
poor. But it happens that the poor
people, as they consume comparative
ly little of imported articles, and rely
more upon domestic products greatly
enhanced in price by the tariff, pay a
larger sum in proportion to the mo-
nopolist and a smaller TO the Treasu-
rY. AS if to, make this diserimina-
ton offensive as possible to the great
body of the people, the tariff is SO de-
vised that in many Instances its idu-
ties fall far more heavily III proper
ton upon the cheaper and cOarser an
ticles used by the poor than upon the
costly and rich fabrics of the same
kind used by the rich; !; so that the
costly foreign product comes in pay
ing duty to the Treasury, while the
cheaper article is excluded, and do
mestic product, enormously enhanced
in cost, taxes its place in the consHmp-
ton of the poorer classes. Thus it
happens that the rich, who buy much
of foreign goods, pay taxes to gov
ernnlent; while the poor, buying of
we'll protected domestic manufactur-
ers, pay much larger taxes into their
already well-filled pockets. Is it
strange that labor grumbies, combines,
and strikes? ~, t 4,s
We do not need to pay any part of
the debt at present. This generation
has done enough. BY postponing
payments upon the principal of the
public debt, and reducing taxes ac-
cordingly, we can remove 3S15, ,84 from
the burden of each family.
1t is a cheat and a fraud to tax one
man in order to enrich another. Yet
protection has no other meaning or
object; it puts money into the pock-
cts of favored manufacturers, and that
money must come from somebody,
and does come from the consumer of
their products. A thousand laborers
in a large establishment, if each is the
head of a family of six persons, pay
on the average to support their rich
employers $52, $50 every year-a very
decent income for the concern. Why
should they be taxed to make rich en-
ployers still richer? Every dollar of
this enormous exaction for the sup
port of pet capitalists and favored in
dustries ought to be restored to the
people from whom it comes and to
whom it belongs. They earn the
money, and have a right to buy where
they can buy cheapest. Government
steps in, tells them that they shall not.
buy the cheap foreign article, forces
them to buy the product OF protect
ed factory sold at an artificial price,
and thus robs them of a part of the
value of their earnings. Sweep away
this system of wholesale plumber, and
then is removed burden amounting
in the average to S52,3S for each fam
lily of six persons. ora4s
Then remains tax of sS43,26 to
each family, which goes to support
the government and to pay the inter-
est on the public debt. a wise, econ
omical, and honest administration
may still farther reduce that burden
by cutting off wasteful, fraudulent or
useless penditures.- World.