Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-11-10
THE DEPARTURE,


THE DEPARTURE.
Reduction OF Federal Taxation.
Since the restoration of National
the condition of the coun-
try has been such that there has ex-
listed patriotic motives for political
concurrence in regard to greater
unity, improved public and privats
credit, a more reliable currency and
increased general prosperity. Con-
corning the desirability Of each and
all Of these, there has been no diver
sity Of sentiment. Whatever conflict
of political opinion has obtained has
related to the best methods of secur-
ing them, and the happy results
reached, the vast advantages financial,
social and national gained, at least
such of them as are not directly at
tributable to kind Providence, are
due rather to combinations Of the
better and more conservative element
of parties than to the separate actions
Of either of them.
But with the acquisition of the
blessings enumerated there has arisen
q tendency to take up the scandals
and v~illainies of partisans, and make
access to positions OF emolument
hinge rather upon them, than upon
the Inauguration of measures advanc-
ing the general welfare. This is all
wrong. The details of populations
and official o~yer-reaching are neces-
sarily exciting. They arouse to the
pursuit, arrest and punishment of
those that perpetrate them but they
cannot and ought not, for heightened
periods, to constitute the basis of such
party organization, as is needed in the
close proximity of aim, which the
Republican and Democratic parties
have sustained and are still sustain
ing towards each other, and as the
democracy is the stronger of the two,
occupies more territory and attracts
10 its standards q majority Of the votes
cast at elections, and, as its princi-
pies are most in harmony with popu-
lar interests, it is eminently proper
for that party to initiate a decidedly
distinct and truly national policy.
The time, too, is unusually propi-
tlous for the commencement of such .
commencement. Congress is about
assembling, and when that body con
venes there will be the usual message
and reports. The papers will again
be filed with references to the reduc.
ton Of the principal and interest of
federal Indebtedness, the relations of
imports and exports, accumulations
of coin, the banks, the currency, tariff
and internal revenue, the Indians and
the army and the navy, from all of
which it will appear that notwith-
standing our enormous and, in many
instances, unjustifable expenditures,
more money than is necessary to
liquidate. even them. is being annu-
ally Withdrawn from the earnings OF
society. It will be then seen that the
federal tax-gatherers have garnered
in the Treasury, during the fiscal year
188O-S1, over three hundred and sixty
. millions of dollars, more than double
of what is necessary to carry on gov
I eminent and meet all annually accru-
ing interest.
This vast sum comes mainly from
internal revenu and tariff exactions,
excuses upon whisky and tobacco,
and duties upon imports, the former
having . direct and the latter such an
indirect Tearing upon industry, that
1t is impossible to estimate the dam
age inflicted by them, and which, in
our present condition of renewed
prosperity, reach such enormous pro
portions and receive such support
from manufacturing monoplies that
nothing short Of new and revolu-
tionary effort can reach.
Our whole system OF direct taxa
ton ought to be abolished, and such
changes introduced into the tariff as
will make the duties levied under it
correspond with the necessities of an
economically administered govern
ment. No country having a popula-
ton similar to oursh has ever sustained
such an annual drain, and but for
unusual hsrvests and unprecedented
foreign demand for our agricultural
surplus, it would have been impossl-
bic to have submitted to it thus far
without individual and universal
bankruptcy.
On Wednesday, of last week, Hon.
n. C. Brown, a prominent attorney
Of st. Louis, and at one time editor
and proprietor Of the Monroe County
appeal, then published at Monroe
City, vas shot by . drunken stock
man, on a train on the st. Louis &
San Francisco road, near Leesburg.
No. In 1873, MI. Brown represent
ed Monroe County in Legislature,
and during o session be filed the
pos,tion of speaker pro tenn. It 10