The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-01-03
The Tobacco Tax.


The Cincinnati Gazette makes some just
comments upon the tobacco tax and she
demagogtsm which affects to support
system which shall not tax the poor and
the laborer. The average tax upon tobac.
60 Ia "a cents per pound, and estimating the
average value Of the crop In the leaf at 10
cents per pound, this Is a tax at the rate of
BIO Per cent. But taking the crop Of Ohio
which Is coarse and cheap--at the average Of
scents per pound, the tax is about 800 per
cent, This Is the sort used by the poor
man and the laborer, and they are therefore
the especial objects Of excessive taxation,
Notwithstanding the demagogues are always
talklng about shielding them from taxation.
The Gazette justly views the question as
follows:
is tobacco luxuryf II IS thing OF
Eeneral use among the laborers. Ii 1t Is q
luxury 1t Is workingman's luxury. 1t is
well known that soldiers In the army and
cooVtcts In the pcnitentiaries will give up
tea, coffee, and sugar, rather than tobacco.
W hat right has any one to say that this Is
not q necessity, but vicious indulgence,
70 be taxed by way Of penaltyf People
have the right to use every moral means to
discourage the use OF tobacco, and they
who are undefled by 1t ought to labor
against It; but the Government has no
right to regard it as either luxury or vi.
cious or Injurious indulgence. 1t has no
right to regard it as anything but source
OF legitimate revenue, and as subject to the
general system of taxation, whose aim is to
ralss the needed revenue with the most
equitable distribution OF the burden. Is a
q ortin oil f,f SxEJ oh
the common laborer and the poor consumed
sast year over % ,000, 900 pounds, mn equita.
Gle distribution Of the burden Of taxation,
or can 1t be defended on any rule Of mere
political economy?"
And yet there Is movement on foot to
abolish classification and the two rates, and
to tax all tobacco "a cents per pound
This would put the tax upon the poor
mans tobacco at eight hundred per cent
The classification is great evil, but witt
Its abolition should be q reduction OF the
tax to something like reasonable average
We do not hope ut very early day fel
justice to the products of a comparatively
small part of the United States. The weak
are generally wronged, and in dividing out
the burthens of Government they are sure
to be saddled with more than their share
But we may hope for diminulion of thu
weight put upon that industry employed
In the raising and manufacturing Of to
bacco.
There Is no justice in making the dis
tinction between one kind Of labor and al
other In this country. Tobaccois SO uni
versally used shat it cannot rightfully be
put under the ban. The abolition Of thu
use Of 1t would beget revolution; and the
subjecting it to eXorbitant impositions |!
wrong to the labor employed in Its pro
duction, and denuncation of habit that
Is universal. No Government is justified
IN thus burtheninR the industry of one par,
OF the country more than another. Nothing
but the weakness in comparative numbers
Of the tobacco growers prompts the Gov
eminent to visit this injustice upon them
1t Is an act of partially and oppression
which finds no justification in any principle
Of fairness and equality in the dispensatior
of the benefits OF Government.