Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-10-09
SENATOR ooNKL1Ne's oLAP-rRAP.
[From tho n. Y. Nation, rep.I

tFrom the n. Y. Nation, rep.l r..rr
After long experience of the dis
ingenuousness with which statistics
are used in political controversies,
we can recall nothing which SUR
passes in hardihood the attempt to
-prcad the belief that the customs
duties levied at the southern ports
represent the extent OF the contribu-
ion of southern consumers to this
branch of the revenue. Senator
Coukling, of course, knows perfectly
well that the distributing agencies Of
.preign goods being mainly At the
north, the bulk of the duties paid by
the south are paid in New York,
Boston and Philadelphia He knows
also the southern contributions to
the internal revenue are not to be
measured by the amount of'ingernsl
revenue collected atthe south, inas-
much AS southern consumers repay
III the price of northern goods the
tax paid by the manufacturer at the
place of production. = He'i Knows,
iurther, that the exports and imports
1t nothern ports are made up in q
considerable degree OF articles J. Of
southern production and consump-
ton. We are not SO sure that he
knows, but we strongly suspect it,
that the falling of in exports OF COT
tor, i'll spite OF the rapid increase, OF
the crop, is largely due to Increased
consumption by home manufacturers
and that i'll this increased consump.
tion the south Itself has a respectable
share. His proposition that the south
cannot be safely intrusted with the
government because its mines only
produced in 1870 three and one-quar-
ter per cent. as much as the northern
mines, must surely be one of his rare
touches OF humOr. .-.- .. aar
We have taken it for granted that
the southern property holder is the
same kind of human being as the rest
of us, and has to be conciliated by
the same methods. We have thought,
therefore, that the denunciatory tone
Of republican platforms and speeches
ana article ever siuce 1860 was, as q
matter of practical politics, q great
mistake, and that, with more for
oearance of speech and more blind
:.ess to faults which were, in a NOV
lng world, plainly temporary, and d
little livelier perception of virtues
on our part, the owners of the com.
nerclal, financial, and industrial in
tcrests at the south might have been
largely won over into sympathy with,
If not active support of, the party at
the north which Is, in our ewes, uu.
questionably the guardian CT those
Interests all over the country. The
policy which has been pursued, how
ever, and of which Mr.. Conkllng has
been one of the foremost supporters,
has been that of organizing, through
ieierai agents, the uon-tax-payers of
The south against the taxpayers III o
political party, and preaching to
then at every election hatred and
distrust OF the very persons to whose
SIX Ill and Intelligence the south must
mainly look tor the revival of her
material prosperity. The mischief
thus done we believe to be incalcula-
Ole, and speeches like Mr.. Conkling's.
which have not even the excuse of
lanatlcal ignorance, casnot but great.
iy agsravateit, because they convince
the southerners that the republican
party Is determined to hate and pur-
sue them whether they present them
selves as tax payers or non-tax-
payers. aA! az
Ii the republican party should
father the senator's doctrine that
those sections OF the country which
have most capital and manufactures,
and the best mines, ought to have
most political power, and that the
distribution of this power, as made
by the federal constitution on the
basis partly of population and partly
OF historical unity, is III practice dan
gerous and Unfair, it will insure itself
as deep and swift damnation as over
took the federal party for sins much
less grievous.