The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-12-16

more than one half has increased the wages OF
! labor throughout tho world has augmented by
/ at least n third the surplus which orr manufac
| turers can produce beyond domestic needs for
sale abroad. Prolonging without necessity our
4 wEr-tarin taxes raw materials. We have
been unGersold and excluded from foreign mar
ksts by nations not taxing raw materials.
! Despite their low Iriced, inferior labor and
I the high percentage Of labor-cost there
! fore included in their product, our taxed
raw materials and their iree raw mate
rails hive protected the so-called "pauper
/ labor OF Europe against American competition.
! Our increasing capacity To produce an indus
! trial slrplusHge has been accompanied by war
taxation exactly suited to prevent the sale Of
/ that surplusage i'm for ign markets. Out OF our
actual abundance this war taxation has forged
! the rumeht II our industrial and CONNER
| cial hutilation. Defeating our manufacturers
\ in their endeayor TO compete abroad with the
manufacturers of untaxed raw materials, IL has
set them on n ferocious competition ut cut
| throat lrices in oUr own home market, to which
| they are shut III, and for which their produc-
! ing powers increasing superabundantly.
! Long periods of glut and so-called oyerpro-
duction have alternated with brief periods Of
! renewed activity and transient prosperity
, like the pre- sent These prolonged war-tarin
taxes, incompetent and brutal scheme
81 revenue, fatal To the existence Of our foreign
| market, and disordery to our domestic trade,
have in the last resort acted and reacted with
most ruinous INJURY upon our wage-earners. As
the most numerous part Of our population, our
wage-earners are of course, the first, the last,
and the most 10 he affected by injurious laws
Every Government by true statesmanship, will
TAXES TO RETAIN.
Another proposal is to reduce taxation by cut
ting down the tax ON wisky, tobacco. and beers,
and removing the duty ON sugar. Nobody pays
tax ON tobacco except the consumers of to-
bacco. 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 diminish il. The
price Of sugar has fallen To an exceedingly cheap
rate Our own sugar crop is so very small n part
of the total amount Of sugar consume that
sugar ranks next TO articles wholly produced
abroad, like tea and coffee. in suitability for
taxation, ON the ground that it's consumption is
universal, that the tax is easily and cheaply
collected that the increased price paid by the
consumers is unconsidered trifle, and that
what is taken from the taxpayers goes into the
| taxpayers treasury. not into few private bank
accounts.
| Like the casting away OF the revenue from
coffee and tea in 1872, the removal of the tax on
sugar, which gives us our easiest and next to
largest single item OF revenue (Sj1 71s. 9i6 ut
annual cost OF less than ninety cents per head is
now pressed forward to avert the repeal of other
| taxes which are desired To operate an incidental
and private benefit by enhanced prices to the
domestic consumers of large domestic product.
These incidental and private benefits in fact
are subject to all the deductions have already
| mentioned. and are subject TO the chief deduc-
| ton that the endeavor to make our tax laws
| clude foreign competition in our home markets
promotes the success Of that competition,
| besides effeceually preventing the sale OF
our surplus product, oLr labor product, in for
eign markets. But the incidental benefit of the
Il
| under the harrow of beetsugar competition
and German bountcs, which have driven them
| 10 improved processes ana already lowered the
price of sugar more than the removal Of the
whole tax Is not got by excluding foreign sugar.
| for the great bulk Of our sweetening comes from
climates more tropical than ours Nor does it
prevent our sales in foreign markets of inn
ported sugars refined and increased in value by
the process of American labor.
DUTIES t. BE RENTED.
The taxes 70 be first RENTED are those which
hinder the sale Of SurnluS nrOf-
ucts in foreign markets. Their removal Will
set ca nital in motion by the promise of better
returns. enlarge the steady employment and
| increase the annual income of many thousand
wage-earners, whose prosperity will diffuse
prosperity. These taxes are the duties on raw
materials. and the most widely injurious Of
them is the tax upon wool. But the in
come N all the wage-earners in the United
States can be at once enlarged effec lively, GER
tainly, permanently, by reducing tie cost To
them of the great necessities OF life Our war
tariff taxes increase needlessly the cost Of
clothing, shelter, food to every family. Every
wage-earners expense, every taxpayers ex-
pense, for the clothing of himself and his family
is nearly doubled ut least in the Northern,
Middle, and Western States by taxation which
can now be RENTED, yet leave the Treasury
sufficient revenue.
The duty on raw wool procured for the Treas
ury last year only s., l26 los. The cost of wool
en- clothing for our 59,O00,0J0 people was thereby
| and otherwise enhanced many times more than
30 cents head, the only cost Of our s5l 77S,94S
revenue from sugar. Moreover, any tax ON raw
wool imported will always make domestic WOOL
raising II bad business for in our dry climates.
some varieties of wool required by the manu-
| facturer are not produced. The tax prevents
our manufacturers from competing in
| foreign markets with all manufact-
Trers who can ny untaxed g.. wool
| and export of competing woolens that require
| the use admiXture of non-American woods,
and restricts the home demand and the
gr- with Of the home demand, for domestic wool
thus making the export of our domestic wool
ems impossible, yet involving the enhanced
price Of foreign and domestic woolens This
petty tax of ,l2i.lOs on raw wool assists in
nearly doubling the actual cost of their clothing
TO the American people. with no real and no ill.,
| cidental benefit 70 anybody except the foreign
manufacturer.
| wooI. SHOULD RE on THE FREE LIST.
l respectfully recommend TO Congress that
States the boon Of untaxed clothing, and in
| order thereto, the immediate passage of an act
| simply and solely llacing raw wool upon the
| free list OF course, n repeal of the duty on raw
wool should he followed by but need not wait
| for, a compensating adjustment of the duties
| on manufactured woolens whilst our manufac-
turers learning the lesson that, with the
| highest paid and most efficient labor in the
/ world, with the most skilled management and
! the best inventive appliance they need fear
no coinpetiti on from any rivals in the world in
home foreign markets, so long as they can
| buy their woods Free Of every kind. But the
common daily clothing Of the American people
| need not he taxed therefore, it ought not TO be
taxed to free their ,othing of taxes will finally
| reduce, by half, their expense for one of the
three great necesSitieB OF llfe ana thus enlarge
honestly aud Justly the income of every wage
| Garner in the United States.
But this reduction of unnecessary aud injuri-
! Gus taxation is not enough, and will operate
slowly in diminishing revenue. Last years
\ import tax raw wool is little more than the
| mere growth last year Of our taxes from whisky.
| tobacco and beer. To make wool free of tax
| may actually work n larger loss of revenue by
| enabling our WOODEN manufacturers 10 under
| sell at n profit the foreign importers who
| brought in last year $40, $50 500 worth of manu-
| features of wool, from which got a tax of
| S21, 27S 52S. To say nothing of other taxes
| upon materials, there are several
hundred articles among the a. 2 articles that
we tax which ought ut once to be swept off the
| tax list into the free hst-petty, vexatious,
needless taxes. much enlarging the cost Of coll
| lecting the revenues from imports. l shall at
| an early day prepare and submit TO Congress a
supplementary report the collection of
duties. DANIEL MANNING,
Secretary of the Treasury.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.