The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-08-23
a Clear and Telling Speech.

a Clear and Telling Speech.
Judge Thurman, candidate for Vice
President, opened the campaign at Tole.
do, Obio, on August 20. After express.
ing his qualification at his cordial recep.
tion Thurman said:
"Now the few remarks that shall
make to you will be confined to single
topic-not that there is but one thing that
might attract your attention in this
campaign or that might not be we'll spo'
ken of, but there is one transcendant
theme, about which 80 much is said, so
much is written, 40 much is printed, that
people are eager to learn exactly what is
the truth.
81 refer to the tariff question, as it is
commonly called. Now / presume that
there is no man in this vast audience
who does not know what is meant by the
word tariff, or the term tariff law
And yet it can do us no harm, and may
lead to precision of speech and to com.
prehension of what have to say, if |
begin by definition of what is the tariff.
tariff, my friends, is nothing else in
this world than a tax levied by the
General Government upon importations
brought into the United States for sale,
| the effect of which is to raise the price OF
all domestic commodities of the same
nature made within the United States.
s.This tax is paid by the consumer of
the article. When your State tax is
levied it ia levied on property: it is paid
by property. A man of much property
paws much more than man of little
property: and man ofno property pays
none at all.
"But the tariff is q tag that is paid by
the consumer of 80 called protected arti
cles. BE pays it, not to the tax.gatherer,
not to any officer of the Government, but
he pays it in the price which he gives for
every protected article that he buys. Let
me suppose for instance, by way of illus.
tration, that an importer purchases in
England thousand dollars worth. No,
I wont take 80 much as that: l will say
enough cloth to make suit Of clothes for
a man.
'sHe pays for 1t then, say $40. He
brings it to the United States. Before be
can even get it out of the custom House
at the place where he lands, he must pay
on that tax called tariff, and the
probability is among the enormous rates
in the schedule on woollen goods, that
he will pay tax of not less than 60 cents
on the dollar. Thatis, that he will pay
six dollars tax on ten dollars worth of
cloth that he has bought. Then it has
cost S16-that cloth has.
Nov If any man who imports that
cloth sells it to a wholesale merchant,
he must, of course, put the tax that he
pays on to it in price, otherwise he would
lose money By the operation, and 30
when this importer sells to the wholesale
merchant be charges him SIG for that
which cost him originally but $40. Nay,
more, he charges him SIG and his
mercantile profit on the IS tax as we'll as
on $40, the original cost of the goods.
The wholesale merchant sells it to the
retail merchant, and the retail merchant
sells it to his customers.
"Of course this price with each
merchants profit continues and is in the
goods when they are sold to the
consumer. So that by the time one of
you buys that cloth you find you have
to pay for. it from GIG to $40, perhaps,
not less than $40 for that which
originally cost $40. So here has been
tax imposed on the consumer which
amounts in effect to nearly or quite AZ
much as the original cost of the goods.
.Now, my friends, this is so true that
there is scarcely thing that you wear
the price Of which is not increased by
this tariff tax. There are men audacious
enough to say-men who are advocating
high protective duties of tarifs-there
are men audacious enough 10 say that
high protective tariff is for the benefit of
the laboring man.
"Why, in the name of all that is
common sense and reason, how can
laboriDg man be aided by tax that
begins with the crown of his head and
extends to the soles Of bis feet, (applause
and laughter; that taxes him on his
hat, taxes hin: on his shirt, taxes him on
his coat, taxes him on his pants, taxes
him on his underclothing, taxes him on
his stockings, and taxes him on his shoes,
and even TO the little necktie that is
around his neck, it levies tax upon it.
How in the name of Heaven can it
be that laboring man is benefited by
such o tax
No, my friends, of al humbugs by
which men ever were attempted to be
deceived, this humbug of the laboring
man being benefited by high protective
tariff is the greatest ever I heard Of
"Ah, but, says some one, it enables
the manufacturers in this country to pay
higher wages to their hired men and
therefore is a benefit to them My
friends, did you ever know any manu-
facturer that paid higher wages to his
hands on account of an increase of tariff?
IF you did you have met with something
have never seen.
"There is q man named Bsrnum in
this country, great Snowman, man
who has gathered together in his show
more curious things than perhaps can be
found in any other single place on the
face of the earth, but among all his
curiosities be has never found such
curiosity as manufacturer who paid
higher wages to bis hands because Of the
raise in the tariff. Laughter and ap
plause.
May, that is not so at all. do not
want to speak harshly of manufacturers,
but..they are human beings like other
human beings. But must pass on.
"Another one of the receptions Of the
tariff orators, or high protection theorists,
is to say that the consumer does not pay
the tax. I have shown you how he did
pay it in the price that he gives for
articles, but want to ask any man who
tells me or tells you that the consumer
don't pay the tax, if he don't pay it, in
Gods name, who does, who does pay
it9
"How comes it that the goods that
cost but $40 before there was any tax
upon them, after that sells for the price
OF $40 and the tax added, and merchants
~.nGt rnon fhot If fhot ia not u1ti m to1u