San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-07-24
Pleadings With the Farmers.
From the Chicago Inter-ocean. |

particularly to the farmers OF that
State, that they should elect Congress
men and President who are in favor of
free trade, or of q measure so directly
preparatory to free trade as is the
Mills bill.
The pleas af the Herald are:
l. The people need cheap clothing.
2. The Republican party offers them
free whisky in lieu of untaxed
blankets.
8. Farmers who own but a few
sheep are taxed on their supplies to
afford revenue to large growers of
wool.
4. Mr.. Carnegie made a large for
tune in a single year from profits on
steel rails, and he did not sell these
rails to foreigners but to Americans.
5. There are 52s. 1902 people in Iowa,
of whom 4O7 oil are not protected but
robbed by high tariff.
Let us consider the pleas. 1.-THE
people need cheap clothing" What
is cheap? Mems suits can be pur-
chased at from So to $40, those from
$40 to $40 being tasteful in appearance
and endurable in wear. When were
they as cheap under low tariff? Never.
For how much less can they be bought
in England? There is not Is per cent
difference between English and
American prices. Indeed, certain
grades of wooden clothing are abso-
in London. But there is far
more than Is per cent difference be-
tween the purchasing power of the
Iowa farmer or laborer and he of
England. The Iowa man buys thrice
as many clothes as the Englishman,
and of better quality. But would re-
duction of tariff make the clothes
which the Iowa man wears any
cheaper than they now are? In 1860
we had low tariff, in 1884 we have pro-
tective tariff, but the price of Ameri-
can woolens is lower by 33 per cent in
1884 than the price of the imported
woolens which the Iowa man bought
in 1850, and he has much more money
to buy them with.
"The republican party offers free
whisky in lieu of untaxed blankets"
The republican party does not offer
free whisky, and there is no tax on
blankets, nor does the republican pro-
pose tax on them. The republican
party proposes in certain event
that of being compelled to choose be-
tween abolition of all internal revenue
taxes and abandonment of protec-
tive tarif-to do away with the tax
paid to the national government for
the manufacture of spirits. But 1t
leaves each state free to impose such
tax as seems best to it. If the tax
paid to the national government were
paid to the states, some Of them would
have no need of the taxes which they
now levy for local purposes on each
acre of land, each horse, each pillow,
each sewing-machine owned by the
farmer or his wife. State taxes would
be largely paid by those who elected
to pay them by the use of intoxicants,
instead of exclusively by those who
own property of any sort. Blankets
are not taxed. He who buys foreign
made blanket pays duty on it, toll
paid by the English maker for entry of
his goods to America, just as farmer
pays toll for entrance to a town by
way of turnpike. He who buys an
American blanket pays no duty or tax
of any kind. He buys it SO per cent
cheaper than he could have bought it
when foreign blankets were admitted
duty free, or at such low duties as
were nearly equivalent to freedom.
The American-made blanket which
retails at $500 is said to be equal in
quality and weight to that which
WHOLESALERS at $3.50 in the English fac
tories of Halifax or Leeds. Add ship
ment, commission, and retailers
profit to 81 80, and how much cheaper
could the English blanket be sold in
Des Moines than the American one?
Would the reduction be sufficient to
compensate for the ruin of great
home industry?
Farmers who own but a few sheep
are taxed on their supplies to afford a
revenue to large wool growers" How
are they taxed? Is there tax placed
Oh the horses, cows, money in banl-,
or the property of the small sheep
owner for distribution among the great
wool growers? Certainly not. There
is no tax levied for protective pur-
poses. Not a cent of tax for any such
purpose. The Herald juggles with the
word "tax,n as if it were equivalent to
"duty.n Now the difference between
"taX" and duty is that the former is
a compulsory, the latter, for the most
part, voluntary pay.Lent to the gov
eminent. There is property tax
which every one must pay who
owns property, whiskey tax
which every one must pay who
makes whiskey. There is a duty
on imported cigars, but he who
smokes homemade cigars does not
pay it. There is duty on imported
cloth, but he who wears American
made cloth does not pay it. And