The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-04-29
How the Farmer Is Taxed.


1872, and the leaders of the party have made
Senator Morton, of Indiana, chief engineer to
direct the campaign. The first order Morton
issued TO the faithful was. that it was absolute
~ essential to the success of the campaign that
the questions of finance and internal and tar
III taxation must be kept out of the contest,
and that the battle must be fought again on
the niger or Southern question" as he calls
1t. That is, whether the southern white peo-
pie are to be treated as still rebels, and de-
prived of all part in the government of their
states; or whether the white people there
after six years of humiliation. shall be raised
toan equality with the niger and scalawag
And for fear the northern people might get
SICK OF this continuing to punish the white
people OF the south, anel say it was about
time to quit i: and "ict us have peace Nor
ton also commanded that the southern white
people are again to be goaded INTO acts OF
violence by recognizing hell among them
through the passage of the infamous ku.klux
bill, which he quite sure can be so used by the
=
make it easy to turn the thoughts of the peo-
pie during the campaign wholly to the
south and away from the important bat dan.
gerous questions of finance and taxation.
This was MOrton's decree, and this was the
whole motive for the passage, by the obse-
quious majority in congress, of the infamous
ku.klux bill.
But Morton's whole plan Of the campaign
is based on the assumption that the people are
fools. The game of manufacturing ku-klux
outrages in the south to influence northern
| elections in the interest of treasury robbers
and tariff monopolists has been played once
too often already. The people Of the west, in
particular, ought to begin to understand it,
Paying double price for everything they
consume, and getting half price for what
they have to sell, is too serious bushes to
be longer overlooked and neglected, for the
sake of keeping Sambo and Cuffec in trim as
voting machines.
| That our farmers may have some idea of
what the present system Of taxation is that
grinds them so sorely, We copy the following
from the New York Free Trader, remarking
that partial comparison we have made of its
figures with the tariff law shows it to be
rigidly accurate:
The farmer rises in the morning, puts on
his flannel shirt, taxed seventy five per cent,
and his trousers sixty per cent, his vest, taxed
sixty per cent, and his overcOat taxed, cloth
sixty, buttons forty, braid sixty, lining sixty,
and padding, one-hundred and fifty per cent ;
draws on his boots taxed thirty-fve per cent,
puts some coal taxed sixty per cent, in his
stove taxed fifty five. with stove-pipe taxed
one hundred and fifty per cent sits down to
his breakfast from plate taxed forly-fve per
cent, with knife and fork, thrty-fve per
cent, seasons his food with salt taxed one
hundred and eight per cent, and pepper one
hundred and twenty, reads the Free 7rader-
paper twenty, ink thrty-tive, and type twenty
five per cent.,-puts on his hat taxed seventy
per cent, can smoke an Havana taxed one
hundred and fifty per cent, bitches his horse
shod with nails taxed sixty seven per cent, to
pillow forty-fve with chains one hundred
p, with harness thirty five buys goods for his
wife, taxed at the following rates a handker
chief thirty five, shawl at one hundred, wooden
dress one hundred, hat forty, stockings
seventy-five, umbrella sixty, rice eighty-two
sorp seventy, candles forty, paint twenty five
starch fifty needles twenty-five, thread seventy
three, pens seventy, gloves fifty, books twenty
five; then gets ballot and votes under the
'old flag taxed one hundred per cent, for a
Free Trader candidate to congress.
He sees his grain going east on rails taxed
$4,000 per mile, in iron cars taxed fifty per
cent, drawn by locomotive taxed ferty-iive
per cent. Heart sick, he takes last look at
his tools taxed from thirty five to one hun.
dred and fifty per cent, and finally wearied
with thinking how the tariff robs him, he
goes to his bed made of wood taxed twenty
per cent, draws over him sheet taxed fifty
five per cent, IA blanket taxed two hundred
and forty per cent, and takes dose of aul-
nine taxed forty.tve per cent. Finally he
yields the unequal struggle and this is the end ::
His fate is recorded on marble taxed at seven
ty per cent, and he goes to that happy land
where tariffs are unknown.
The worst part of it is that of all this enor-
nous taxation not one-fourth goes into the
national treasury, but goes directly into the
pockets of eastern monopolists and horde of
tax gatherers and revenue thieves.
|
When the Illinois legislature recently ad-
journed, it left about 90 bills which it mad