The daily gazette., 1883-02-22
- ME. azT1EDs FosTTIos.
The Baltimore "Day" Defends his Course

with Reference to the Match Tax.
'iSenator Bayard and the Match Tax" Is
the subject of long editorial in yesterday s
Baltimore Day. s'Something," says the
Dan, "of the spirit that animated a certain
malignant fool who lived In Greece more
than Z, 600 years ago to vote for the banish-
ment of Aristides, because he was tired Of
hearing him called sfThe Just" prompts the
persistent attacks on Senator Bayard Of
Delaware, having as their pretext the reten-
ton Of the duty on friction matches. OF
course it would be useless TO offer either
facts OF Arguments to such people," Then
follows statement showing that tine Dia-
mond Match Company Is not In any sense
Delaware monopoly. 1t then goes on to
say s -srit
And now as to Mr.. BayArd' s actlonin sup
port of this ''local interest" spread all over
the country. Long before there was amy
Diamond Match Company this tax had been
discussed by the Senate Finaice Committee,
and Mr.. Swift, along with other
manufacturers, been accorded hear
ing before it. The committee then ex-
amined the reports of the commissioner of
internal revenue and found that the tax on
matches netted nearly three and a-half mil
lions annually and cost nothing 10 collect
except for the paper and muctlage used in
making the stamps. As Mr.. Bayard is an
old-fashtoned statesman, who does not be-
lieve that "a national debt is q national
blessing" or that taxation is source of
wealth to the people on whom 1t Is imposed,
be necessarily recognizes every tax as q
burden, and that tax as best which
is an evenly distributed burden, resting
lightly and costing little TO collect. He had
been battling for years against high tariff
taxes on the ground that they bore hardly
ON some and lightly on others, were expen-
sive 10 collect, and were 80 imposed as to
cost the people, through enhanced prices,
from three 70 live dollars for every dollar
they put in the treasury. AS COM
pared with such taxes the match tax
struck him as an almost ideal one.
1t bore hardly on no one To the poor, who
are careful in small matters. the tax is an
almost imperceDtible tritie. Those better
off, who use matches as they do other small
things, with extravagant carelessness, pay
vastly more of the tax, and yet they never
feel It or think of it. In a recent speech
Mr.. Bayard thus stated his position;
81 said then and say now that when you
find a tax so fruitful of net revenue spread
all over the United States, paid by every
man, woman and child In the United States,
precisely In accordance with the amount
they consume, and YOU find that no one has
or can complain because no one
individually suffers, so equally Is the tax
distributed, and you find that every dollar
of the tax finds its way into the treasury,
let some one describe - me, If he can, q
more equitable and just feature Of taxation"
No one has ever met that challenge and
no one ever can.
The Day argues that these are good rea-
sons for Mr.. Bayard's position, and that it is
L. NN.aA & al
peach his motives, to meet his arguments,
that they accuse him of dishonorable in
terest.
The Day concludes eve refer to the
matter now because the clamor has recently
been revived by the adoption of an amend
ment offered by Mr.. Bayard to the
Senate bill imposing a duty of 35
per cent. on imported matches. 1t is
expected that the bill will repeal the tax we
have Just been discussing. The duty on
matches has all along been IS per cent, but
they were included under the head Of "wood
manufactures not enumerated" The amend
ment, therefore, makes no increase OF change
of any kind in the existing duty, and since
all the materials entering into the manufac-
ture of matches are subject to duty, no
possible theory of making tariff is violated
by placing a similar duty on the finished
product, But it gave the foolish and those
eager to pick flaws their chance Mr..
Bayard said matches" and Immediately
there was a sort of Pinafore chorus, "He said
matches p' aud with awe've-caught-the-m
we've-been-laying-f for air, the chorus con-
tinues. Reasonable men win pay but little
attention to the matter; but they may have
a curiosity to know what 1t is all about, and
we have told them. We presume Mr..
Bayard would not himself take the trouble
to do SO, and think it possible that had any
Of the yelping crowd attempted to question
him as to his motives, they would bave come
away singing Gilbert's text which we have
paraphrased literally and with exact truth. I"