The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-04-15
THAT FREE gBREA KFAST-T ia BILE
ta, ySWINDLh.

terest of refiners. Democrats propose tp
dispense,with this increrse Of Tux by re-
storing the duty upon the importation olI
ociiee and tea, and thereupon the prepos.
ferrous "free breakiast-tabe" cry was
again raised. We are exceedingly ans
ious to have Judge Kelley's "horny' PALM
ed mechanic" and the granhers of the
South and West who are sometimes
taken in and done for by this ard similar
cries, lcok into the matter for themselves,
and to that end we lay some simple iig'
ures before them. Haf''
Mr.. Morrill,, of Vermont, who engin-
eered Mr., Dawes bill through the Senate,
his advocacy of this ineffective
and iniquitous measure by some curious
He said:,
"There was one fact stated by the SEN
ator from Missouri, and partially assent
ed to by the Senator from Ohio, the
Chairman of the Committee on Finance,
that | must contruvert and roDnl; ana
that is, if we impose these increased
duties upon sugars we raise the duty uplo
So so or 100 per cent. That is an utter
tallacy and, as | understand it, wholly
without foundation. Look at the present
prices of sugars. You find to-day that
sugars, clayed, No II, bring in our mar
ket 81 cents per pound. They are only
taxed q cents Dor pound, or about 20 per
cent. of the home valuation.
When you come to the lower grades you
find that the prices OF the lower grades
are utterly inconsistent with any Idea
that they have paid II duty Of 50 or w
per cent. 1t is an absurdity to suppose
any such thing, 1t may be possible that
on some very inferior quality tanE-Uot-
tom sugar or low grades dirty sugars,
such as are sometimes brought from In
dia, where there is scarcely, perhaps, a
difference between such sugars and mel
eda, they may pay Il higher rate; Old the
ordinary rate Of duties imposed by tie preSeW
tdrt' on common sugars IS not 0ver S0meVhere
about 333 per cent."
MIR. Morrill, made this statement in spite
of his knowledge OF an QWctdL estimate
from the Bureau of Statistics which places
the average percentage oldulies ON sugars
at about 81 per cent. But The actual per-
centage is much higher than that, us can
easily be shown. The average duly upon
all grades of imported sugars was Il little
over q cents per pound before this new
tariff was laid. The average price per
pound of the l60OO,OOO pounds Of sugar
imported in 1874, was SO cents 4 pound,
and, consequently, the average duty was
81 per cent. The additional 70 per cent.
added by Mr.. Dawes tax bill will raise
this percentage above 10 per cent. So
much for Mr., Morrill's trustworthlness.
Mr.. Dawes proposed to get So,2OO,OIO
increase ofrevenue by his 20 per cent adj
dilion to the sugar duty. The horny
palmed mechanic" and the oppressed
farmer ought to see how much tins addl'
ton to the revenues of the Government
will cost them. The country consumes
now about 2,0O0,0000O0 pounds Of sugar
of all descriptions per annum, including
home made. This is about 5O pounds per
capita. The average price OF sugars III
tins country, as they went to consllme"s
before Mr.. Dawes tax bill was passed, was
about y cents per pound. But the addi-
tiOnal tax of 20 per cent. which the Gov
.ernment lays against the goods at their
uoId value iii the foreign port must be
paid by the consumers upon their retail
price in the grocery store ut home. The
Government realizes by this tax 20 per
cent. of q cents 0.626 cents on each
pound Of sugar imported. The consumer
pays, oA account OF this tax, 20 per cent.
of II cents, or cents pounG on each
pound of sugar consumed. In other
words, this is a tax OF Sl.5O per capita to
enable the Government to raise what
could be raised by direct tax Of 70 cents
per capita. ...
We consumed last year coffee enough
to pay the revenue $8,4U0,O0O on a duty IT
3 cents pound, and tea enough to pay,
with duty OF 10 cents pound, SlO,5OU,-
600. Consequently restoration OF the
duties on tea and coffee would give us Il
netinurease of the revenue to the amount
of nearly $4,000, 900, at a gross cOsl t. the
people of Sl0,OUO,0OO, or 474 cents per
capita. Instead Of this our wise legisla-
tors, believing in a free breakfast table,
compel us to pay $l.5Oa head for the sake
of supposed increase OF So,2OO,OOO in
revenue. They give us an annual boon
of AZ cents in the matter OF tea and coffee,
and tax us $l.50 extra to sweeten them,
besides doubling The cost OF our whisky
ii we are of the persuasion OF that ancient
Irish worshipper immOrtalized by Sam
| H., tcly ~ N tnu
But, while the people will have to pay
their full proportion VI this ridiculous tax
the Government will not gain its $S ,2OO,-
600 increase of revenue. by any means.
The consumption Of sugar is regulated by
the price, and decreases in proportion as
the duties are laid upon it. The Huctua-
tions in the consumption OF sugar are,
indeed, a remarkable witness to the i'm
potency of stupid and barbarous legisla-
ton to effect increase OF revenue. In
1860, when sugar was free of duty, we
consumed 304 pounds per capita. lii 1861
duty was land averaging cent pound.
The consumption fell OH liz per cent. In
l863-64 duties were still further increased
to an average i'll excess Of cents pound,
and the consumption fell off until il
reached the minimum of Il pounds per
capita in 1864. Under lighter duties the
consumption has steadily increased, and,
in spite of dull times and financial disas-
tiers, we now use more sugar per head
than we ever did before. This does not
suit Mr. Dawes who believes in sinking
fund, and he wants us to 60 back to our
per capita of q pounds, which would
give an aggregate importation OF S0O,OOO,-
GOO pounds and yield revenue at In
creased rates of $20,OO0,0OU, against $40,
100000 at former rates.
-, -, n - ..I l