Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-09-06
INDEPENDENT COMMENT.


Just rule of taxation, and expressed
the feeling of conscientious and intel
ligent Americans, in saying:
First, we tax the vices of the people, il that
term may be properly applied to some OF their
chews Of the Amer can people pay almost one
half of the taxes now collected under our in
ternal revenue laws
The wisdom of the tax, he said,
would not be disputed by any one.
Hamilton, advocating an excise tax
upon wines, spirits distilled within the
United States, teas and coffee, said
that they could better than most 9TH
ers bear high duties because they
were luxuries, and some of them in ex-
cessive use pernicious luxuries. This,
he said, was especially true of ardent
spirits, and added:
SHOULD the increase OF duties tend to de-
crease of the consumpt ion of these articles,
the effect would be in every respect desirable"
Mr.. Jefferson writes to General Sam
uel Smith in 1928:
~ shall bs glad, too, II an additional tax of
one-fourth Of q dollar gallon on whisky shall
enable us to meet all our engagements with
punctuality. Viewing that tax as an article in a
system OF excise, was once glad to see it fall,
with the rest of the system. which considered
as premature and unnecessarily introduced.
But the prostration of body and mind which
the cheapness OF this liquor is spreading
through the mass of our cit zens now calls the
attention of the legislator on a very different
principle. One of his important duties Is
guardian of those who, from causes susceptible
of precise definition. can not take care of them
selves. Such are infants, maniacs, gamblers,
drunkards. The last as much rs the maniac re-
quires restrict We measures to save him from
the fatal infatuation under which he is destroy
ing his health, his morals, his family and his
usefulness to society. One powerful obstacle
to his ruin by selr-indulgence would be price
beyond his com cetence. AS a san tary meas
ure, therefore it becomes one of duty in the
public guardians"
This is a Jeffersonian doctrine
worthy of the most respectful consid-
Grafton at the cross roads of both par
ties.
General Grant, in his second annual
message. said:
with the revenue stamps dispensed by the
postmasters in every community, tax upon
liquors Of all sorts. and tobacco in all its forms.
and by wise adjustment of the tariff which
will put tax only on those articles which We
could dispense with, known as luxures, and
those which we use more of than we produce,
revenue enough may be raised" etc.
Senator Edmunds, when it was pro-
posed to modify the whisky tax, said
that question of morals was involved
in the retention of the tax, and added:
THE true principle upon which taxation
ought to be imposed is to put the highest pos
sible rate on articles of luxury; and what
be more than this, an article the pro-
duction of which it would be a great advantage
to this country II it could be discouraged
stead Of encouraged, and leave the corn and
the wheat and the rye that go INTO you poison
to be fed to the children of the drunkard in
stead OF turned into liqu d and given TO h m as
drinks"
Senator Hawley said in Congress:
twill not vote for the entire abolition of di-
rect taxation, nor can the gentleman find q
wise government or wise head of finance in
any foreign country that is in favor of taking
all duties from whisky and tobacco They are
the legitimat to plumber of the tax collector, the
legitimate plum Ter of the exchequer in every
government of the world. They all get large
part OF their revenues from them We should
be UNNECESSARILY and insufferably foolish if we
abolished those taxes. am aga nst it,"
In the same year the Republican
convention in Maine resolved that:
1--WE are unalterably opposed to the abolition
or reduction of the internal revenue tax
liquors, and demand that all possible reduction
of taxation should be made on neccssaries, and
not upon luxuries."
Mr.. Emerson. in his essay on civil
cation, says that a wise government
puts fines and penalties on pleasant
vices, and added:
What q benefit would the American Gov
eminent, not yet relieved of its extreme need,
render to itself and to every city. village and
hamlet in the States If it would tax whisky and
rum almost to the point of prohibitionr
Mr.. Blaine, the chief authority of the
Republican party of to-day, agrees with
Senator Edmunds. He said last Deem
Der:
"Other considerations than those OF financial
administration are to be taken into account
with regard to whisky. There Is a moral side
to it. To cheaper the price of whisky is to in
crease ITS consumption enormously There
would be no sense in urging the reform wrought
by high license in many States If the National
Government neuiral:zes the coed effects by
making whisky within the reach of every one
at twenty cents gallon. Whisky would be
everywhere dist lied IL the surveillance OF the
Government were Withdrawn by the remission
of the tax, and Illicit sales could not then be
prevented even by policy as rigorous and
searching as that with which Russia pursues
the Nihiiists. It would destroy high license at
once in all the States. So long
there is whisky to tax would tax it.
The tax on whisky by the Federal Govern
ment with its suppress on OF illicit distilla-
ton and consequent enhancement OF price,
has been powerful agent in the temperance
reform by putting it Icyond the reach of so
many
These views, so far as they are
modern, were, until recently, Repub-
lican views. They were the views OF
party of moral ideas; of a party
which, perceiving the terrible conse-
quences to the individual and to
society of the unrestricted use of
ardent spirits, would limit the use by
high taxation. This has been the
policy of the Republican party. 1t has
asked the support of the friends of
temperance on the ground that it was
essentially temperance party, because
it favored high tax, in the form OF
license upon the sale of spirtuous
liquors. But its latest and strongest
declaration reverses its presidents. and
demands as remedy for the surplus
the repeal of the taxes upon tobacco,
and upon spirits used in the arts and
for mechanical purposes, and if despite
this, and while checking by higher
duties the Importation of articles pro-
duced in this country.
This is the way that the overpro-
tected manufacturers are expected to
.stake care of themselves" by contrib
uting money to the campaign expenses
of the party that preserves to them
| their bounties.
Mr.. Blaine talks in public for bun
combe. Mr.. Foster writes in private