The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-08-05


ry service of fifty-four years ago, and
! think little, if any more, infirmity
than is usually found in men of the
age of the claimant"
The Great American SwindIe.
II. S. Moore in New York Times.l
The great stump speaker of forty
years ago generally began his har-
angue with: "This glorious country
is only in its infancy, yet we. have
longer rivers, higher mountains, loud
Or thunder, forkedr lightning and more
money than England dare have, darn
her" If the aforesaid stump speaker
still exists in the far West, he may add
with great complacency: And a
higher tariff than all the nations in
the world dare have, darn them"
What an outrageous, miserable, OPP
pressive swindle our present tariff is,
can only be well understood when
certsin items are taken up and anaiyz-
ed Let me show the shameful tariff
robbery on q simple article of dress. |
In 1885 this country imported q, 1884,
SS2 square yards of a cheap kind of
mixed wooden and cotton dress goods, |
which every artisans wife and chill
dren and every farmers wi,e uses SO
extensively, better known as alpaca,
balmoral, or under any other name. |
Well. the cost of this goods abroad
was 81 AIS, ,3l3, which was as near as
possible 153 cents yard. Now, our
benevolent tariff, concocted, of course,
for the benefit of our working classes
only" has placed duty of cents
per yard and in addition thereto 30
her cant ad valorem. and the cense-
puance was that we exacted a duty of
s.. 3l3a5S on the %. 332 962 wards of
49,. ~ nc naor os oosaibIa I'M oants
Soo'o' I " ~ - -. -. tod
Isl cants a su,lare ward. of course
- i, ,,,,oh IF th;s uoods r,ada hare
There Is nhuch VI oiiis S'o"o S,IH ~ :
norted Any how we tax the wearer
VI - 80 - EN-, 81 son onn "a
anu d. -, ~, -
SHeh na;i,ioDa;ra not GO, ,na ,s,a,i.
~ w 'n1 nn,,i,tinn Int sctuaIIy tho
u S. t ,,noSt ;na;,,s,,t ',.,o,.I.,y =, the
ne.y ~ Of ,,s inoL ,t tpiS tariff
,i,' ,,;.,as;o,a,sIv Tha srt;cla
uu ~ Hr T ha"s namaJ - onIv a dagree
M battar than Common calico. IL is a
Do..e .'e;~e,.a af w>,,J and cotton and il
M .,l..',. t"o 80 g., o,,r nnr,horn ond nortb.
,nes,arn ciinoats Heaven Knows IL is
not a Inxurv becsnse the price abroad
10 orlv III cents and a whole dress at
that nrice would only be 81 SO or so,
.ssuminp that ten s,Iuares suffice for
a drass. Vet we exact on this Sl.5O.
f;rst coat .xactlv 81 as for duty. But
thars ia anothsr nhase to this legal
rnbherv Whatevsr enhances the fist
cost of goods. also. in proportion, en-
L.noos the nrofit thereon Thus for
instanca.
~ -. -, ods s,., .o.. N5o
profit thereon before il gets to the consumer
20 per 30
ro..,v;,ho,, d,,v sI8I
On the other hand:
10 yards DRESS first 'Sg @
~ naty .cn, ..r,i;; on s5 5S 81
POI -
Total .sSOd
And we find that on account of the
tariff the cheap and almost indiSpens-
able dress of the farmers and work
ingman's family is enhanced 81 26 on
an actual value, including profits, OF
81 80. Now, when l show up q tariff
swidle and tariff robbery of, for i'll
stance, 1l6 per cent. On horse shoe nails
am at once confronted by the federal
tariff Barons with the fact that We use
comparatively little and import only
$4 900 worth q year-the latter owing,
of course, to the fact that we make
importation prohibitory. But here in
this dress goods case we actually dc
import some $500, 900 worth annual.
Iy, and we de most shamefully tax the
poorest and most needy of the popu
Iation with $4,000 that goes into
the Treasury, and perhaps with $3,-
OOO, 900 more that goes into the pockets
of the feudal tariff Barons.
| l have often stated that the ances
tors of the tariff were first the robbel
BarOns of the Rhine, who used to take
| toll on bOatlOads OF merchandise that
went up and down the river. The il.
Iustrious house of Hohenzollern take
their name from the original tariff
Invention. These feudal Barons had
a castle on the Upper Rhine, and by
putting q chain across the river, they
exacled this toll. Hence their name
of Upper (Rhine} toll takers. Later
on-about the fifteenth century-the