Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-12-31
THE "MoRE-TARIFFn BEGGARs.

~ AOAS :AIAA - ~ AOA(A AA n
THE "MORE-TARIFFn BEGGARs.
From the Chicago rimes.l
Mr.. John Roach has not gained the
equation of 8 lunatic. All his &C.
quaintancos regard him as quite sane.
More than that, all the noble army OF
bsggars for more tariff, most Of W HON
are not among his acquaintancss, be- |
iieve him to be very sane. The
ground for their belief is that Mr..
Roach shares their great admiration
of tho marvellous and really super
natural blessings which have been
poured out upon the American peo-
pie by the protsctive-tariff mode of
taxing everything they eat, drink,
wear, use or In anywise consume.
In his speech at the recent SYM
postum of more-tariff beggars in this
city. Mr.. Roach set forth seme of the
wonderful benefits the Americans
have gained by taxing themselves for
their mutual aggrandizement, and
suggested some others which they
might gain BY taxing Themselves
some more. The first blessed pro-
duct of the taxing process which
struck him was Chicago. "What
would Chicago be tp-day," he asked.
''if it were not fofIsson aud the use
made ofit ?" Chicago is one OF tho
results of. iron and the use made Of
it. But, where would the iron be if
1t were not for the tax on it-a tax
repeated every time the form. of the
iron is changed, that is. every time q
use .is made Of it2 Mr.. Roach has ne
doubt that it would still be in the
mountains Of Pennsylvania, in its ma
tive ore. No use would have been
made OF it. The results OF iron and
its uses would not have appeared.
Chicago would not have emerged
from the imperceptible into the per.
ceptible. 1t would be nowherel
Iron is product of taxation. A
tax on iron caused men to dig the ore
from the mountains. smelt il, fashion
IL into thousand forms for a thou
sand uses, to enhance its value, at an
enormous cost of labor. But how
came the Americans to have 80 many
uses for iron7 Easily enough. 1t
was by taxing themselves.s One use
of iron was in the making of ma.
chimes. By laying . heavy tax on all
machines and utensils Of iron, they
created the use for iron required to
make them. Another use of iron was
to build railroads. 1t was created by
taxing railroad iron. A dozen years
ago steel rails cost in England $50 q
ton. The Americans could not afford
to pay 80 high a price for them. But
they could not be made in America
at lower price, because the Ameri-
can demand tor them had not been
increased by laying heavy tax on
theml Accordingly. congress passed
law that everybody using steel rails
III America should pay a heavy tax
Oh them, This measure of superna-
tural wisdom had two astonishing
effects: l, 1t sreated great demaud
for steel rails; 2, it reduced the price
of them from $50 to $50 ton, in-
Guiding the taxi Mr.. Roach appears
to have no doubt Of this. At all
events, he stated it In his speech az o
fact.
1t has been sometimes said that
railways were the making of Chicago;
but Mr.. Roach understands better
than that. He does not stop at the
proximate, but goes to the ultimate
causes of things. What wss the pro.
ducing cause of the railways2 If il
be said it was the demand for the
transportation of things, the true an.
aver is only moved further back.
What caused the dem and for trans.
portation? Obviously, taxation or
the things to be transported, as vel
as on everything used or consumed
i'll the appliances of transportation
was the primal cause. Taxation OF
iron produced the demand for Penn
sylvania iron ore from which. to pro
duce- the iron to be taxed; for the
coal, coke, aud limestone used il
smelling the ore. Mr.. Roach did no.
limit himself to assertions, but CAV,
statistics-fgures that "won't lie,'
In 1870, we dug from the iron minel
5, $685. 215 tons of ore, and used, il
smelling it, 10000 tons of lime
stone, 100000 tons of coal, ant
100000 tons of coke, thus making
more than ten and q half millions o
tons for transportation produced b,
the tariff taxatien in that year. Thl
amount has increased every year. Ii
1880, the amount of transportation o
iron ore, coal, coke aud limestone
produced by the tax on pig-irol
alone, amounted to "a total of Owe
2S,OOO,OO0 tons, required to get tn
: ore into pig-irou," II to this wer'
added the total tons of trsnsporta
ton produced by the tariff on irol
and manufactures of iron in all othe
forms, people who have hsrboret
doubts of the efficacy of taxation q
} means of making taxpayers ricl
would probably be astonished.
= "Shall this transportation, show
to be so immense, be done in thi
; country or foreign one2" This i
} what Mr.. Roach wants to know
, what would be the loss to our In
laud carrying trade if this vast freight
age from the mine to the furnace wer
. shut off, by a tariff for revenue only
/ which would not tax iron for th
. purpose of increasing the colsump
, tion and production Of itf Obvious
ly, 1T would be prodigious; woul
stop the building of railroads, an
ruin some of those already built
reducing the supply of things fo
transportation. To keep up the sur
ply OF commodities for transports
tlon, the taxes on them must be KEEP
q up! To increase the supply of freight
So as to require more railroads, col
a gress must put on more tariff NJ
!. Roach ia not a pig-irou producer, b
is ship.owner. The pig-iron ma
wants more taxes on iron 10 increa,
the consumption of iron. Mr.. Roac
J. wants more taxes on every sort {
commodity to increase the quantit
4 of things TO be moved. According [
Roach. moving things is wealth
therefore, the more moving the MOI
> riches. There used to be a homel
saying that three movings were equ,
n to fire; but protective tariff ha
1t appears, proved the contrary TO /
true.
e And yet, notwithstanding his b,
lief that commodities for trauspo
+ tstion are increased by taxing then
It the high taxes in this country O
commodities ofevery imaginable kin
l. and description DO not appear
8 have furnished all the freights Nj
Roach would like for his steamship %
r Why is it so? The English press, /
y says, frequently tsunt US about OF
@ ''sirkly commerce." He will not d
ny that our insignificant commerci
e marine, which would do no credit
q fnr, I,