The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-05-12
From the New York Evening telegram
A People fairfield and Taxed 10
Death.

From the New York Evening Telegram.l
A People Tariffed and Taxed to
Death.
Mr.. E. Watkin, member OF the
British Parliament, liberal-minded
and a large-hearted man, wrote a letter
recently to a friend in Manchester
which found its way into the newspapers
and contains, in reference 10 America,
some few truths that are worthy Of a
little consideration He says at the
nresent moment there is no country on
earth where the workingmanis so thor
oughlv robbed to feed the hungry man.
ufacturing capitalist-no country in the
world where taxation is so excessive
and so arbitrary-no country in the
world where the extremes of wealth
and poverty are more marked in all the
great cities Y' No one will attempt to
dispute the first statement contained in
this sentence. The workingman, no
matter what his wages, finds himself
fleeced of his earnings on every side in
the task of seeking to support himself
and his children For the calico his
wife puts in her dress, for the cloth he
puts in his coat, and for every native
manufactured thing that enters into the
domestic use and consumption Of his
family, he pays the American manuiac-
turer tax of one hundred per cent.
above its legitimate cost. This tax he
paws under the name OF a tariff, which
is nothing more than an arrangement
by law which might declare there shall
be just so many grocery and dry goods
stores in every town, and they shall be
allowed to charge exactly what they
please. No competition is to be permit
ted. Our manufacturers are OF such
exotic quality that the breath OF for
eign rivalry in these markets would
shriyel them up like leaves IN wlntry
weather. A grand experiment Is being
made in the interests of the great Amer
lean nation, and every American work
man is expected to lend helping hand.
Ii is to try if we cannot have cotton and
other kinds of mills the same as
England has, and as it would never pay
to get them up as they do in England,
we must have a national subscription,
to which every man, woman and child
is bound to contribute. 1t is called
tariff, and it has become such a bore
and such fraud upon the people, that
only for certain infamous combinations
and wholesale acts OF bribery the
legislation which upholds it would
long since have been altered.
The tariff which keeps New England
uabobs in purple and fine linen robs the
poor man to protect the grossest kind Of
monopoly, and would never be tolerated
in any. other country with fewer re-
sources and less abundant wealth.
When times grow dull, when the price
of labor falls considerably below its
present high standard, when living will
be as anxious a concern to the poor
man here as it is to the poor man in
England, we may expect such degree
OF serious attention directed to the I'M
uuities of the tariffas will make the cot
ton lords of New England less easy in
their consciences. As for excessive and
arbitrary taxation, Mr.. Watkin in no
language could exaggerate its character.
We are simply taxed to death. What
matter if we had a man in the Treasury
who knew the A, B, Cot finance, and give
some equivalent for our money, but we
have not Boutwell, before he was APP
pointed to the important trust he now
holds was nothing but little tricky
caucus politician who, through the evil
influence of Ben Butler, got the post Of
Secretary of the Treasury at time
when Grant, batled in the effort to get
A. r. Stewart confirmed, was glad to
take hold of anybody to till the holes in
his Cabinet.
We are taxed to death that Grant
NAV contrive an electioneering dodge
to swindle the people into the belief he
is reducing the national debt at railroad
speed. He is reducing the debt, we
admit, as a man might reduce himself
to fighting weight 10y starvation in place
of exercise. Wait for the good time
coming when men OF breadth and
brains take hold of the helm and alter
the sailing chart