New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-11


sufficient to outweigh the many advantages OF
a tax on a luxury, paid by the consumers OF
the luxury, that is to say, by the rich whom IL
is practically impossible to tax in any degree
proportioned to their means. We here beg
leave to introduce passage from MIR. John IL.
McCullOch's treatise on Taxation, in which that
distinguished authority denOunccs the present
English tariff as unjust to the poor:
Consumption duties have ceased to be general and are
now Il s6o) unfortunately restricted to few leading ar
tices comprising Of the principal necessaries an"
lxrres OF the ab0ing poor Mr. McCuoch mere reIers
to tea coffee sugar and tobaccoD So striking ana iho
mentous change cannot fail to the public atten
ton and m is 10 be feared. gfre rise TO oeg una.
IL 10 essentially partial and unfdr. And such pehei
will be better founded than it s at all desirable IL shonu
be for while we admit various Injuries or the rcn anu
the great including the reehche Wines at very low
duties and many more comprising, among Others inc
finest laces reirets porcelain table cloths carpets.
silks gloves ornamental furniture bronzes &c Tree Oh
all charge. lay heavy duties on the tea ana sugar.
which are indispensable to the laborng poor ana heavier
still on the tobacco the spirits, and the beer winch con-
sute their Injuries. Is IL TO be supposed mar sue"
uoiiey should be considered by the bulk Of The people as
Other than unfair and oGensiref system Vi
this sort Is sure LATER To be denounced rs
scanalos abuse, sacrifice of the interests OF inc poor
to those Of the rch-[raxation and Fan'!g, 81 etioh'
y. 229.
Mr.. McCulloch will not be objected to as
not enough of Free Trader, and neither
will Lord Overstone. The latter, in a speech
delivered in the House of Lords against
the proposed treaty with France, March ID,
1850, made similar objections to the admis-
sion of French silks, kid gloves, and other
articles of that kind duty free, while high
duties were maintained on tea and sugar,
"the prime articles of consumption OF the
"casses living upon wages" Before con-
Guiding we must point out the absurdity OF
many dosmatical Free Traders in perpetual
" lamenting over the "prOhibitory duties"
and the monopoly" of the home
manufacturer. The articles to which
these phrases can have any application are
utterly insignificant and in fact entirely un-
known to us. OF silks, as we have seen, two
thirds of our whole supply is imported. The
barbarous system of prohibitions ana monop-
oics denounced by Adam Smith never existed
in the United States, and some manufactures or
this country would perhaps suffer little from
the adoption in our legislation OF this prncl-
pie of Adam Smiths: by removing all pro-
"hibitions. and by subjecting all foreign
manufactures to such moderate taxes as IL
"was found from experience afforded upon
"cach article the greatest revenue to the pub
"Tc. our O,rn wOrLnea might still hare a con-
"si,lcrablc advantage in the home market and
"many articles, some of which at present al
"fOrd no revenue to Government, anu Othcrs
"a very uncomfortable one, might afford very
"great One.r From the foregoing passage,
which may he found in Book ", Chapter H. OF
"Thc Wealth of Nations" it appears that
Adam Smith did not regard the incidental pro-
lection afforded by duties on manufactures as
a valid objection to the imposition OF such dii-
ties. The truth is that both ProtcctiOnists and
FIea Traders Overratc the advantages which the
tariff brings to the home manufacturers fact
which appears from the little harm which
the home manufacturer suffers when
duties are equally reduced. If the duty
brought him clear bounty equal
to the tax levied at the Custom house, as tho
Free Trader absurdly maintains, how could
the manufacturer get on just as well with one
half the bounty, IA IN repeated instances he
has done ! The explanation is that all taxes,
especially those imporlcctly collected, have
some effect in raising general prices, and there
fore, the cost of production, thus for time
encouraging impOrtatons and Gscouraging cx-
portations, an evil which goes on until the
necessary equilibrium is rcgained through a
disastrous convusiOn. OF this truth the his
tory of the United States since 1850 affords
striking illustration. "Tho great evil of taxa
ton is to be found" says Ricardo, "nOt so
"much in any selection of it, objects as in
"the general amount of its effects taken col
effectively" From this evil the manufacturer
does not escape, and he is just as much pro-
tectcd by the lcsscning of the taxes he midi
rectly, and often unconsciOusy, pays as by the
increase of the duty on the article he pro-
duces.