The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-01-26

dens Of their taxations become proportIonately
heavier as gold goes down and our paper
money goes up. Our merchants, for instance,
since 1865, and especially for the last two or
three years, have been buying their goods
with gold at certain figure, and have been
selling them with gold reduced Eve or ten per
cent below the figure at which they bought,
thus bringing upon them heavy losses, until
now, when the downward tendency of gold has
reached point so low that they have but little
to fear on this score In their present or coming
purchases. So 1t has been and SO It is, more
Or less, from the Minnesota wheat raiser to
the New York longshoreman. The whole
people Of the United States, in short, since
1866 have been struggling to recover from the
wastages, extravagsness, and mutations and
speculalions and breakag6s Of the war until
now, when they begin to see their way clearly,
excepting the difficulties Of our heavy taxations.
How these difficulties have been and are
operating upon the public mind the State
elections Of last October and November have
indicated. The slipshod, haphazard and
underlined movement Of those so-called
revenue reformers" nobody could compre-
bend beyond the object of reduction Of our
taxes In some mysterious way, and yet those
revenue reformers" materially assisted In
turning Missouri upside down and played the
deuce with the calculations of the adminlstra-
ton even in Pennsylvania. Since the reas-
sembling of Congress this idea of reduction
of our taxes has been taking deeper and
broader hold upon the masses of the people.
They are beginning to perceive the injustice of
saddling upon the present generation-which
has had to bear the brunt of a gigantic civil
war-the debt incurred to save the Union and
to get rid of that old incubus Of slavery; and
they think that our posterity, with the great
blessings which, from this war, we shall trans
init to them, ought to pay share OF our
heavy bill Of COSTS We think so, too. And
this is exactly the point Of General Grants
great mistake touching the national debt-the
mistake which his fiscal secretary is pursuing
to the extremity of resisting the repeal Of the
odious income tax
We can tell Mr. Boutwell, and General
Grant and Congress and the republican party
that, upon this issue Of tightening our heavy
load Of taxations, including the removal Of
this odious inquisitorial income tax-yes, upon
this issue-hangs their destiny. 1t is the main
political Issue with the great body of the
people, and all other questions, st. Domingo
with the rest, are but side issues. Justice to
our living generation Of active men and
women who have done so much for posterity
demands great relief from these present dead
weights of taxation. The reduction, in this
view, would not be too much for justice or
sound economy if carried. In our internal and
external taxes, to the figure of one hundred
millions Of dollars, including the absolute
abolition of this most offensive of all our
taxes, the income tax, with the offensive
official Paul Prys who collect it. The Ameri-
can people have never liked the pryin2 national
census takers who come into their houses only
once in ten years. The census of 1910 had
much to do with that crushing defeat Of
Martin Van Buren,; and this Of 1870,
superadded to these income tax gather
administration, valuable to the govern
ment and to all the people as these census
statistics are. The income tax is particularly
obnoxious, in poking its nose into and making
public those very affairs of the citizen which,
in most cases, he does not care to make public.
It is an innovation upon the Americans idea
of his reserved private rights which he cannot
get accustomed to, but will abolish at the frst
opportunity at the ballot box.
We can also tell General Grant and our
trading and financial interests Of the country
expect from the present Congress large re-
duction Of our taxes, internal and external
that this reduction is the general impression,
aud that many business men are discounting
upon it in their calculations for the coming
spring trade. We expect that within few
days or few weeks peace will be restored in
Europe, and that with the restoration OF peace
will come large demands for our breadstuffs
and provisions from France and Germany, and
land and all the European Continent We ex-
pect from all this such an impulse to trade as
will bring to the Treasury greatly increased
revenue from greatly reduced tariff and
from great reduction Of our internal assess
ments. In any event, we are convinced, from
the manifestations Of public opinion all around
US, that the present administration and the
party il power, If they fail to tighten to a
realizing extent our present load of taxations,
will be ruled out Of power, and ruled out in a
sweeping political revolution, the consequences
of which may involve the extinction Of the
national debt and all its appendages as the
legacies of a radical usurpation condemned
by the sovereign people. This is the tendency
of Mr.. Boutwell's stupid policy of keeping up
our present budget of taxes in order to hurry