The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-03-20
TAXES.
Tariff Reform Demanded by Every
Consideration of Honesty.


from the Speech of Senator Beck, of Ken
lucky.
II this is a country OF equal rights in the
eye of the law, If equal and exact justice is
TO be done TO all men, each should be re-
quired to contribute to the support of the
government in proportion to mis- means and
the amount of property 1t protects for him,
just as stockholders IN corporations pay ex-
penses in proportion to the amount OF stock
held by each. Waving the oppression of
our internal revenue system on the producers
of taxed articles, repeat that the tax falls
more heavily on the poor than on the rich.
The choicest Madeira and sherry, the richest
Burgundy and the imperial JOhanne; berger
which the rich enjoy pays a tax OF 40 cents
on the gallon, or less than 10 per
cent. of its value. The whisky which.
lheir coachmen have to drink when
they ape the vices of their masters is taxed
400 per cent. The choicest and most costly
cigars whether domestic or imported, pay
no more tax than the cheapest and poorest,
and are generally struggled with the conni-
vance OF our coast guard, so that they pay
nothing. The $50 check pays the same
stamp as the $4,000. The match box is
used more in the cabins of the poor than in
the palaces of the rich, and the patent medi-
cines are specially imposed upon the people
who can not afford to employ a doctor.
These things, with some taxes on banks,
which borrowers have to make good, COM
prehend about all there is OF internal Teve-
nue., which produces llS,000000 annually.
When we turn to the tariff the same con-
dition of things is found. All or near
IL all the items of its long list are ar
ranged for protection and not for revenue;
while all cost the consumer the foreign
price with the tariff tax added, less than
fifth OF the tax paid by the people reaches
the treasury; the lions share goes into the
pockets of that class of gentlemen who are
protesting against tax on the incomes they
derive from such protection. The petition
l read from shows that oaly I6 600 men paid
taxes on incomes over $1,000, and that most
of them were in the eastern states, in the
great manufacturing protected sections of
the country; the men who, think, above
all others, ought to furnish aid to the gov
eminent when the oppressed poor can no
longer bear the burden.
The tariff, as | said, has taxed out OF
ext tence the ships on which the Yves.
tern farmer relied to carry his sur
plus product to foreign markets, aud
it reaches all the necessities Of
lite and the necessities OF business. The
coarse blanket, The salt, the sugar, the cloth
ing, the tools and the medicines which all
must have stand prominent in the list, with
the usual partial exceptions. Sugar from
the Sandwich Islands is free because few
American gentlemen own all the sugar plan.
tations of any value there. The people at
large get no benefit, as the owners put the
price TO the point of competition with the
imported and hesyily-taxed article. And
salt for the eastern fisheries is free under
pretense of aiding an industry which pro-
duceS sailors when we have no ships TO sail
But the details OF that system are too com
plicated to illustrate by items. 1t makes but
little difference TO gentlemen like these who
object TO the income tax ii they do pay $50
FOR a coat that can be bought for SO in any
other country. That is perhaps not an
hours income; 10 some of them not the in
come Of a minute; and they make il up by
being protected themselves in other ways-it
may be by receiving from the government
as national bankers CURRENCY at l per cent.
to loan To their neighbOrs at TO- or in some
OTHER equally profitable form Of subsidy.
But il is another and q very different thing
when the laborer who has nothing bus his
head and his hanos to rely on for the support
of his family. when the millions OF people
like the small producers of tobacco of whom
1 have spoken and whose condition l have
shown, who have nothing TO protect and can
not be protected, who are happy when they
can earn "A dollar for ten hours OF
hard labor, have to paw $50 for a coat
worth $40. Ten days Of their toll has
gone to enrich the men who object To pay
an income tax on wealth thus obtaIfed.
This is neither fancy nor exaggeration.
Labor is taxed 10 death; poverty bears the
/ burdens OF government; wealth and prop
erty escape; the cost OF production is enOr.
mously increased, and che wages of labor
must be raised 20 meet the enhanced price
of the necesssries of life or the workman
can not live. So that we are excluded from
all fair competitions in the markets of the
world with people who are not so taxed.
We are compelled to produce everything we
have 10 sell ct the highest cost, and sell it in
competition with so called pauper labor. and
buy all we are compelled to have at an aver
age of A per cent. whether il is produced
at home or abroad, more than it is worth in
open market.
Many OF our distinguished eastern. states
men and financiers have for months been
contending that the example of England,
the leading commercial nation of the world,
in making good her gold measure of value,
ought to be, indeed must be, followed by us
because of her controlling influence in
regulating standards of value and determIn-
ing what should be the yard stick. the pound
weight, the bushel measure of commerce.
! hope they will see with equal clearness the
wisdom OF her policy in abrogating her
antiquated navigation and tariff laws; in
buying her ships as she did from us when
We could build them, where they could be
( bought cheapest aud in furnishing her
mechanics and labOrers with the cheapest
food and the cheapest clothing; in proclaim
ing her equality with all nations in any
contest for supremacy. If we do that this
generation will not pass away before our
position in 1900 is not only regained but our
supremacy on the land and sea will be
established aud acknowledged.