Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-05-31
REVENUE AND TAXATION.
How the Mills or Any Other Free Trade
Law Would Affect the Country.

How the Mills or Any Other Free Trade
Law Would Affect the Country.
There are but two ways to procure
he revenues necessary for the main
Itenance of the National Government
One is to directly tax the farm land,
personal property, city and village
OTIS, and the little homesteads in the
same way that State taxes are levied.
The other is to collect on foreign i'm
portations tariff. or what may be
characterized rs '.peddler's license"
10 be paid by the foreign salesman be-
fore hawking his wares. The latteris.
N fact a small cash compensation for
the opportunities OF the market. Par
.ial free trade partially. and absolute
free trade wholly. give q proportionate
advantage to the European producer.
| The domestic manufacturer paws
home taxes on real estate, machinery
and stock. Pays to the town. pays to
the county. pays to the State. pays for
the working of the roads, the MAIN
tenance of schools. the support of the
courts of justice and all the machinery
Of the government of the State. The free
trader proposes wholly to denote, with
ont charge or cost our market advan-
tages. not to neighbor. whose pros
perity and gain become a common
benefit, but to trader across the sea
He further proposes to sustain. with
out expense. courts of collection, and
maintain law and order among the
customers to whom he sells his untaxed
goods In this way free trade is an
injustice. 1t lifts every burden from
the profit-taker and places it all on the
back of the buyer. Every mill or fac
tory built here. every living house from
the employee, every railroad (short or
long, used to move the raw or made
material. every open coal or iron mine,
every furnace for smelling ore or fus-
ing glass becomes and is a financial
honey-cell filled by the workers for the
sustenance of every member of the
hive.
If there is any business sense or rea-
son for us to give our advantages for a
mere mess of theoretical Golden Club
pottage?
The necessities of the Federal Gov
eminent call annually for over $685.
900, 600 for the payment of interest on
the National debt, the payment of
pensions, the maintenance of the navy,
the support of our frontier army
police. to pay the deficit of the postal
service, and the vast yet necessary
corps of Government officials, and
other in cidental needs of care-taking
of the interests of sixty millions of
people. Thirty-fve millions is about the
annual income from the sales of public
lands The remainder (S292, 900. O00)
is gathered, s120. 600. 900 from internal
revenue tax on whisky, wines, beer
and tobacco, and the balance on Gus
toms duties on the importations of
foreign goods. We buy annually S2l1,
600. 600 worth of foreign products. that
pay no tariff tax or duty whatever.
We bay SIC, 600. 900 of taxeless tea,
$50. 900, 900 of taxless coffee, and 81
600. 600 of taxless number in the log.
The Mills Tariff Reduction bill pro-
poses to take the tariff off Canadian
hay. sawed lumber and Canadian
wheat. 1t proposes to make wool free,
and with fanfaronade of Democratic
love for the working-man points, as an
assurity of its care, to the cheaper
coat, and cheaper carpet. made of for
eign wool. on foreign looms. Yet of
the S54, 600. 600 worth of wooden goods
imported four-fifths are of kind that
the iaboring-man seldom buys. The
working-man averages as his share of
the Federal tax. eight cents per person
q year; the balance, forty-seven cents. is
paid by the more dudeiSh consumer per
head.
The people of the United States pay
a tariff annually of $50. 100000 on
sugar. Sugar is not confined Oike ex-
pensive woods and silks) to the using
of a limited class. Every household
is, in proportion to its number, a con-
sumer. Due and honest regard for the
resources of the limited wage-earner
would call for a complete abolition of
this tax. a tax that averages eighty-six
cents for every man, woman and child
in the country. Sugar. however. is
Southern product, and needs Demo-
cratic protection. Wool is Northern.
and the farmer is again called. as in
the days before the war. to give way
to the planter.
Democracy dreams of a foreign mar
ket, contested for inch by inch by the
cheap capital and cheaper labor of
Europe. The policy of the Repub-
lican party proposes to make free only
such products rs we can not raise or
make. 1t proposes, before seeking a
foreign market. to care tor the nearer
and more certain one at home. to keep
active Our own papital and supnlv ep