The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-10-29

8af t1@hrN AA At1 nataAt anu NA4tltcl
have taken the form Of direct tax. raised
by the government. and distributed as a
premium to privileged industry. And this
method would certainly be at once more
Just, more economical and more legal.
More just, because if the tax PAYERS wish
TO give bounties to some of their members,
the whole community ought to contribute;
more economical, because it would Danish
many difficulties and save collection ex-
penses; more legal, becaus, these taxpayers
could see clearly into the operation aud know
what is required of them. Under the sys-
TEN of the Post, the people are made the
dupes OF an Illusion. They are told taxes
must be raised for the wheels of justice,
the army, the navy, the legislative
branches" etc. Now, you seek to dis.
burthen from its portion of the tax, first
one article, then another, and then third
and 50 on, always adding to the
burthen of the great mass OF the
taxpayers. II it eau be proved, says
an economist, that the increase
of price resulting from protection, falls
upon the foreign producer, there is some
thing specious in the protectionists argu-
ment; but il it be true, as it concededly is,
that the people must pay the taxes any
how before the passing of the protective
duty, and afterwards that this has paid not
only the tax required, but the protective
duty, wherein is tho advantage? The re-
duction of the tax from some . 800 articles
to only few, after the manner of Great
Britain, would save to us millions of
dollars annually to help pay the
taxes, to say nothing of the political cor
ruption which is resident in an army of
otllco.holders with such powers. But
again; Let us assume that we have tariff
for revenue only; would this not yield us
much as now obtained under the protective
tariff? True, under the present tariff the
government gets much, but the people pay
great deal more. In some ca.es the for
egn product is entirely excluded by excess
sive duty, and in these the people pay
much and the government gets nothing.
In other cases the people are made to pay
five and eyel tea times as much In consc.
quence Of the tariff tax as the government
receives from it. In round millions OF dol
.ars the MORRILL, tariff produced on 2,3l7
articles in 1868 and onward to 1878 rs fol-
lows: 10, 60, l02, 80, 49, l76, l6i, $50, l0i,
2O6, PIG, lsS, 1913, AS, Isl, 1870, or an average
for the sixteen years OF $liS 100000, or 1870
per capita on the averaged population.
Now ,~the annual average of British customs
revenue for the same sixteen years was about
30 cents less per capita on only 7 articles,
which necessitated but slight expense
for collection. Now let us see about the in
creased trade. AS m example, in 1870 our
whole import and export trade with Nene-
zuela amounted to S3,3i5, li5 she sending
to us nothing of consequence but coffee and
hides. In 1872 the duties thereon were
taken of. In 1876 cur trade with that
country amounted to 50, 200,99 an in
crease of nearly 200 per cent. The increase
OF the import of coffee and hides was over
800 per cent, while the increase of our
shipping in the trade to Venezuela
swellcd from 10 vessels to 1874,
and hands employed from 100 to ,25j.
IN tho increase Of our exports of tanned
leather, as a result, we find the difference
between S2,96i,OO0 in 1872, under taxed
hides, to S., 100 600 in 1876 under free hides.
And so it goes all the way through just as
illustrated in the familiar cases that ire
street ear companies take in more money
and clear larger profit at cents per ride,
than they would at 10 cents; TINT newspa.
pcrs sell moro numbers AZ cents per copy
than they would at 10 cents
Tho argument OF the Post is
unworthy of q school-boy or the mcrcst
tyro in economical science, or of common
sense in daily observation. A tax systcm
which takes 81 LOCO, 100000 annually from
the people to give $50 GOO. 600 and $3.50, 900, p
900 to the privileged classes is an iniquily.
Far different from that patchwork of folly
and abuse, the MORRILL, tariff, Il revenue
tariff would put duties on such articles and
to such amounts that the highest re-
Turns might he obtained with the
burden to the people. 1t would never
make the 20 per cent. of agriculture and
other unprotected industries pay l3 per
cent. tribute to the % per cent, OF protected
ones; nor make the $l,0O0,000,0OO invested
in agriculture alone pay the great bulk Of
the burden OF taxation to protect ouly ST..
5O0,00o,0oO invested in manufactures. The
, Post ought 10 he ashamed of its iallacics.
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HOUSES FOR WORSHIP.