The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1886-12-18
ten millions OF revenue from two cents pound
tax on COlleo and halI rs much from tea

unbecoming even In public Officer at this time
10 recall certain responsible and specific pledges
IN respect to the sum and methods OF federal tax
atlon, subject to which the people of the United
states, in the exercise of lawful election, tool,
away the administration of this Government
from the party intrusted Herewith for quar-
Ter OF century and lodged II in other hands.
Public life will cease to be the ambition OF hon
orable and worthy men If the deliberate pledges
ana protested principles of political part are
not law for their leaders,"
The report then quotes the pledge of the
Democratic platform to reduce taxation, and
continues:
These pledges can never be fulfilled without
reform in the sum and methods of Federal
taxation. Nor can our country ever profit full
~ by It's incompatible advantages among the
nations OF the earth in population, peace, land
ana liberty, so long as we go on pleading infan-
cy and swaddle in MEDIEVAL rags its victorious
energies. IL Is these which need release and
liberty All our requisite ntaxation may be
made ON easy garment. We have made aprison
OF 1t, plaStered stiff with obsolete contentious
about protection and free trade.
Free trade accurately describes the inter.
nal commerce OF our States. 1t applies to the
commerce, one with another of no other great
and sovereign states. 1t does not apply to our
trade with foreign nations No man now living
will ever see free trade adopted by these
United States in their commerce with foreign
nations, for taxes on imports from the founda-
ton OF this Government have ever been one
chief source OF Federal revenue, and such they
will continue to be. They are taxes upon
consumption, like our internal-revenue
taxes; and the true ground OF
choice among articles suitable for taxation is
not the circumstance that they are produced at
home or imported from abroad, for neither the
producer nor the importer finally pays the tax
The consumer pays it, The place of origin
is no criterion. The place of collection is no
criterion. The place of consumption is where
duties as well as excise are paid at last, sea.
port taxes and inland taxes are alike in cost of
collection q $40 and 1910 per cent? and alike
in this, that although the importer or distiller
advances the tax, he reimburses himself in the
price to the consumer, who alone is taxed.
protection is also misnomer. 1t i'm
plies superiority elsewhere. That superiority
over any great industry Of ours does not exist
upon the globe. 1t implies infants here and
adults elsewhere. Such is not our reputation.
IL implies that amid competition universal,
where the fttest survive, we shall perish But
it is everywhere else believed that whenever
we shall release ourselves from bad laws and
enter that competition unmanacled rivals will
be distanced and our primacy established in
the markets and commerce Of the world.
HIGH WAGES TO AMERICAN LABOR.
Now, one proud fact attests ,he substance
OF our prosperity and Is the guaranty as we'll
as proof of our power to hold against all compe.
tition the markets of the United States for ey.
cry thing we choose to dig or fabricate or grow,
and to command and control for our surplus
products, against all rivals, any foreign market.
We pay to labor the highest wages in the world
Highly paid labor signifies the most efficient la
bor-signities that high wages are the most
profitable wages-signifes that the high rate is
earned.
Were trade as free with and within all the
unlimited states OF Europe as 1t is among the
United States of America the great surplus
products OF our industry, including the manu-
factured would have the pick of foreign mar.
kets Tor the reason that our labor, being the
most highly paid and insuring lowest per
centage of labor cost, would everywhere sur
pass rivalry. The low wages of pauper labor
signify least efficiency, which is but
another name for highest percentage of labor
cost in the product. Other things being equal,
1t is obvious that high wages can never be paid
unless it is profitable to pay them, and it can
only be good business to pay the highest
wages, because the efficiency Of those who earn
them vindicates its superiority by the reduction
of labor-cost in the product
High wages to labor and cheaper product
are correlative terms. Low wages to labor and
o costlier product are correlative terms.
The one implies the other wherever labor
completes with labor upon otherwise equal
ground, What pauper stands any chance
with the intelligent artisan? The
''pauper labor of Europe cry is buga-
boo, except that in truth, our war-tariff
taxes favor 'pauper labor at the expense of
American labor. Its products are not fenced
out by our tariff laws. They come in because
competition, even in our home market. BY tar
III taxes on raw materials we fence in our own
surplus products making them cost too much
TO compete at home and, of course, too much
to compete abroad with manufacturers from
untaXed raw materials.
THE BEST TAXES TO RETAIN
Another proposal is to reduce taxation by
cutting down the tax on whisky, tobacco and
beers and removing the duty on sugar.
Nobody pays tax on tobacco except the
consumers OF tobacco. They are willing to pay
for the luxury, and they ask no relief. Any
probable reduction Of the tax on whisky would
be more likely to increase the revenue than to
llnlnlsh 1t. The price of sugar has fallen to an
exceedingly cheap rate. Our own sugar crop is
20 very small part OF the total amount Of
sugar we consume that sugar ranks next to
ARTICLES wholly producted abroad, like tea and
,onee, IN suitability for taxation, on the ground
mat It's consumption is universal; that the tax
IS easily and cheaply collected; that the in
creased price paid by the consumers is an un-
considered trite, and that what is taken from
me taxpayers goes into the taxpayers treas
Try, not into few private bank accounts.
THE TAXES TO BE RENTED.
The taxes to be first RENTED are those which
prevent or kinder the sale of our surplus prod
lcts IN foreign markets. Their removal will
set capital in motion by the promise of bet
er returns, enlarge the steady employment,
md increase the annual income of many thou.
sand wage-earners. whose prosperity will diff
use prosperity. These taxes are the duties on
'aw materials, and the .ost widely injurious of
hem is the tax upon raw WOOL
II respectfully recommend to Congress that
,hey confer upon theWage-earners of the United
states the boon OF untaxed clothing and in
)rder thereto the immediate passage Of an act
simply and solely placing raw wool upon tho
Tree list.
"Of course repeal of the duty on raw wool
should be followed by, but need not wait for, n
adjustment of the duties on manu-
actured Woolens, while our manufacturers are
earning the lesson that with the highest paid
Ind most efficient labor in the world, with the
most skilled management and the best invent.
i've appliances, they need fear no competition
rom any rivals in the world in home or for
ign markets, SO long as they can buy their
vools free OF every kind. But the common,
laily clothing OF the American people need not
70 taxed
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
"Tne total ordinary revenues Of the Govern
nent for the year were 1896, 439 727, an increase
ver the previous year of ST., 749,020 The total
rdinary expenditures were $685., 034, 49, a de-
rease from the previous year of S17,743,796.
me receipts for the first quarter of
he present fiscal year were s94,045,5a2, !
nd the expenditures 10S,373, 500 The |
mount OF customs revenues received during !
ne fiscal year 1886 were 1892, 9O5 23 an increase
+ S11. 4Ss,0sl over the previous year. From in.
ernal revenue taxes the receipts were $116,- |
%, 936, an increase Of a. 3O7 210.
" The total indebtedness of the United States |
sovember ], 1885, less cash in the treasury was |
], So4,a47 ,97 showing reduction during the |
ear OF s95, 3O9, $50. The net balance in the |
reasury at that date was So, 1888 100. The net |
interest reduction was s. 2I9, 1884.
-
Heavy Failures in Frisco.