The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-03-22


type and in the editorial columns OF the
IntelGgneer, of yesterday morning. II
contains such q handsome statement OF
q grave objection to the high tariff
policy which that paper has heretofore
so warmly advocated. that we cannot
refrain from congratulating it upon Its
conversion to more sensible views. ut
ii" says the Intslhgsnesr., "a fundamental
and grievous mistake for a government
to depend on import duties for the bulk
of its revenues. The duties are OF me-
cessity added to the cost of the goods to
the consumer and thus paid by him, and
therefore just a. much . tax on the
country as Il laid directly. If this were
the only feature Of the system, there
could be no objection. We might as
we'll pay the necessary taxes in this
shape as in any other, and as they are
generally paid unconsciously. it is less
Objectionable simply as a method OF
taxation than any direct system that
can be devised. The misfortune is,
though, that in relying on this system
for revenues there is 8 con-
slant temptation, necessity indeed to
stimulate importation; and in buying
foreign goods we are giving to Europe
an artisans instead Of our own the work
Of supplying our wants. We ara en-
ploying English factories and English
mechanics while American mechanics
are unemployed, and while many hun,
dreds ofthousands, ofAmericans are loaf.
ing idly in the great cities and towns, or
crowding the professions, or jostling one
another in poorly paid clerkships, or
starving or SHINING for lack of honest
work, who might have work in abund-
ance, those who choose in Thousands
of factories yet unbuilt, if the luxurious
wants of the people Of the United States
were supplied by labor of their OVID
soil instead Of by hands on the other
side Of the ocean. For that is what
results from the present system"
That's it, and we have often so con-
tended. This high protective tariff is
good for neither the manufacturer nor
the consumer. "To get more revenues
Congress stimulates imports; and the
more the country imports, the less de-
mand there is for American industries !;
the more idle hands are multiplied and
the sources of wealth straugled; the
more honest industry languishes, and
the greater the scramble OF people to
live on their wits and Of the misfortunes
of others; the more the country as a
whole gets in debt to Europe and the
more it neglects the real sources Of its
own prosperity"
The system thus crushes the manu-
facturer; and the duties collected BY
the Government OF necessity being
added to the cost of the goods to the
consumer" weighing him down with
an unnecessary and Gripping burden.
We most heartily agree with our con-
temporary in his assertion that "A sys-
TEN of revenue which leads to these re-
sults-which when most successful
| wounds the country deepest in its most
| vital parts radically, fundamentally
unwise and wrong"
We earnestly recommend the above
thoughts to both the workiDgmen and
to the manufacturers OF the city OF
Wheeling; and we do so the more cor
daily because they come from paper
which has heretofore favored a high
protective tariff. The editor is growing
older and, on this question at least,
more intelligent. We differ with him
in one particular. We do not believe
that taxes might as well be paid in this
shape as in any other. On the con-
trary, we believe it is the most objec-
tionable system of taxation that can be
devised. Under this tariff system OF
taxation. we are taxed upon what we
consume rather than upon our property.
And thus a poor man, struggling to
gain q most Indifferent living for his
family, may contribute more to the
burdens Of government than a million
aire who has his money invested in real
estate.
This is also, radically, fundamen-
tally uuwise and wrong"
The remarks OF Colonel Ben. WILSON