Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg Court House [S.C.]) 1877-1881, 1878-03-23
[coMMUNIcATED.]
Taxing Commercial Travellers.
Editor I rungcLuy1 Times 4:

Editor rang'b"ry Times:
AS the question Of taxing drum.
~mers is .now being discussed by the
newspaper press of the country, l beg
that YOU grant space in your columns
for the following well timed article
from the Mobile Register, journal
which thoroughly und.rstan Is the
wants of the South. What is appIicab
to Mobile is also applicable to Orange
burg and to all South Carolina.
Commercial travellers do not iniure
us, on the contrary their system
saves to our merchants their rxpcn- es
to New York as well Us their va!u.
able time. b 81 les they help our
hotels, our railroads. onribus pro
,prictors, liv-ry stables and the pub,
lie generally. Ittwoof the II ere to
come here where only one comes now
we would he the better OF for it.
The more Of them there are the cheap
er will be the bargains obtained from
them hy our merchants, and hence
the consumer in the end derives
benefits from the commercial trave-
Ter:
in looking around for subjects Of
tnxnllnn, crnl- legiS n.nrs in Snn.:!
ern cities have fallen upon the com
mrrcial traveller; bat u!n,s: inva-
rlably u short cxpcrscnc" has shpwn
that Il tax upon these tra rlcrs drives
them away, adds II .hing % the re.
venue, and is onl, surc.sstuI IN de.
stroyiny an important source of CON
.mercc and prosperity Such taxes
have been amD>t universally abun
dnneu. But Mobile now altcmpts to
derive All income by res"rtin. to this
unjust restraint upon commerce after
all the world has abandoned, de.
nonnced, and discarded it. y tax Of
so upon the commercial travel T.
drives nNay ninct nlhS of those wh F.,
have been III the habit oi'vi,;ti;ir No
bile an. spending ,,Eei, money with
uS. Last year over 500 90 were
lett in this ely by these travellers.
The hotels, the hack crivcr$, tie cat
Jug houses, the li7.rv stables. the
saloons, the boarding houses, the cir,r
stands, and other branches ofhusne,s
derived AZ income from these visits.
"ln n word, the money which won Ill
have . lccn carried 10y our merchants
to N"rtheru cities and spent there
was kept home, and III its place we
received Il like amount of money
from the agents Of outside merchants.
The system of commercial travelling
is now in practice all over the civi-
lizcd world. The manufacturer and
great merchant of the central empor-
iums now seek the provincial mer-
chant through their agents, and they
spend in Mobile, in their serch for
trade-in their hot rivalry for busi-
ness-thc vast sums which our mcr-
chants i'll days gone by were accustom-
ed TO spend in seeking the importer
and manufactures at his own door.
"Eridcntly il is not to our interest
to drive this tide oftravel from our
door. " G say that not one-tenth of
them can afford to pay the tax which
we impose. The rivalry is so hot be-
tween them, that the few orders with
small margins Of profits which each
receives, will not enable him to pay
the tax of twenty five dollars. These
travellers are generally Southern men,
who have secured places in Northern
cities, whose salaries are small. and
who, if they are compelled to pay
such license tax in many towns,
would be driven out of business.
"In order to collect tax ofpcr.
haps five hundred dollars, which is
as much ms this unjust license will
realize, We drive away trade which
leaves two hundred thousand dollars
upon our streets annually, and which
saves our merchants from spending
two hundred thousand more in North
ern cities
"liut this tax is not levied forre.
venue. 1t is levied admittedly for