Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1888-08-30

~ nsed nv them as tnelr wants requir'
81 90 their intelligence and honesty direct
I 4 asre = gentleman on the platform raised
3 an umbrella to keep the sun from TIT
/ speakers face, but was unable to do so.
] Judge Thurman-Well, never mind; thu
sun never hurt a Democrat anyway
I Laughter and applause.
Now. my friends, in the long political
life that l have led, have heard great
mary false pretences preached TO the peo
ME. great many intended to deceive
and delude them, bat in all my life have
never witnessed such audacity as l have
noticed this year on the part of the advo-
Gates of high protective tariff; never be-
fore. And there seems to be a singular
disregard of the truth that has suddenly
afflicted them. do not intend to call
people hard names. have all my life en-
deavOred to keep a civil tongue in my
head, and l mean TO keep it as long as
live, but l do say that some people some
times seem to lose their senses so that they
cannot see the truth and often unfortu-
nately cannot speak it. Laughter and
applause.
Now, iust think of it for one moment.
We ere told that high tariff makes the
country richer, as if it were possible to
make a country rich by oppressively taxing
its people. Applause Amt that new
way TO make a man rich? To run your
hand into his pocket and take out what
you find there, and that without any just
reason whatsoever for doing so? Is not that
a singular way to make anybody rich?
I Applause. I And yet that is precisely the
plan that these people tell US is the plan to
adopt to enrich this country; that this
country is to be made wealthy by means of
high taxation. Again, they have the audac-
ity to say that this tariff tax is not paid by
the consumers of the article which is taxed.
Why, if the consumers of these taxed ar
ticles do not pay the tax, would like to
know whe does. Do the protectionist or
ators pay it? Do the manufacturers pay it?
Who pays it if the people who consume the
articles taxed do not pay il? No man can
answer that question to the satisfaction
Here 8 note was handed to the speaker !
ALADY's SURPLUS REDUCED.
Judge Thurman - Gentlemen, l am
afraid there are some high protectionists
in this audience, for a note Is sent up for
me to read as follows: "a lady has just
had her pocket picked, and she thinks 1T is
those high tariff scoopers" 1 believe it
is, or some such word. hope that high
tariff fellow who has taken that money
will be caught and made to refund before
be leaves Port Huron. Great laughter
and cheering
Now, my friends, if you will reflect for
moment you will see that it is necessarily
the case that the tariff taxes are paid by
the consumers of the articles which are
taxed, and of all domestic articles of like
kind which are manufactured in the
United States For it is curious fact,
and one Of the worst things about this
tariff tax, that, while the government gets
81 resulting from the tax, the domestic
manufacturers get S., as it is best estima-
ted, that never goes into the Treasury at
all. IGreat cheering.
Well, how does this happen? A man
called an importer brings goods into the
United States to be sold He cannot sell
a yard or a pound until he pays the tariff
tax. He pays the tax, therefore, and then
sells to the wholesale merchant. OF course
be must get this tax back in the prices for
which he sells or be would lose money and
his business would break up at once. He
would stop it. And therefore he puts the
tax onto the original cost of the goods,
and with that price added and with the
cost of transportation and his reason
able commercial profits, he sells those
goods to the wholesale merchant.
The wholesale merchant sells to the
retail merchant, and of course this tax
which enters into the price continues in the
price, and to it is added the profit of the
merchant. Then the retail merchant sells
to you, and of course he must keep within
the price, for otherwise he would sell for
less than he gave for the goods, and no man
of sense would do that. Therefore the tax
is in when the cloth is sold to you, and you,
IN the price you pay this retail merchant
for the goods, pay the whole of the tariff
tax, the importers profit, the wholesale
merchants profit and the retail merchants
profit, besides interest on the money. 1t
is as plain as that two and two make four.
If were a schoolmaster, and teaching a
boy ten years old, and he could not under
stand that with ten minutes instruction,
I wonld give him up as a hopeless idiot.
IGreat laughter and applause.
WHAT THE FIGURES SAY.
Well, that now is the fact in respect to
this. How much do you pay? Why, the
amount of goods imported into the United
States-of dutiable gooGs-in the year
1887, the last year for which we have any
returns, were in value. $3.50, 325, 422. The
tariff duties collected were 1912 032, 424.
There were, therefore, in that single year
taxes levied in the United States by the
operation of this tariff law of 1912, 032, 424,
,vb;ch vent into the Treasury of the