River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-06-07
TAXATION AND REVENUE.
now the Mills or Any other Free Trad
Law Would Afeet the Countrx.

now the Mills or Any other Free Trade
Law Would Anect the Country.
There are but two ways to procure
the revenues necessary for the main
tenance of the National Government.
One is to directly tax the farm land,
personal property, city and village
lots. and the little homesteads in the
same way that State taxes are levied.
The other is to collect on foreign inn
portations tariff. or what may be
characterized as ''peddler's license.
TO be paid by the foreign salesman be-
fore hawking his wares. The latteris.
in fact. small cash compensation for
the opportunities of the market. Par
tial free trade partially, and absolute
free trade wholly, give proportionate
advantage to the European producer.
The domestic manufacturer pays
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
ofthe government of the State. The free
trader proposes wholly to denote. with
out charge or cost our market advan-
tages, not TO a neighbor. whose pros
perity and gain become common
benefit, but to a 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 employe, 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 filed by the workers for the
sustenance Of every member of the
hive.
II 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 tho Federal Gov
eminent call annually for over $780,
600, 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 incidental needs of care-taking
of the interests Of sixty millions of
people. Thirty-five millions is about the
annual income from the sales of public
lands. The remainder ($292, 000 000)
is gathered, 1920, 600, 600 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 $2ll,
O00. 600 worth of foreign products. that
pay no tariff tax or duty whatever.
We buy SIC, 000 600 of taxeless tea,
$50. 600, 600 of taxless coffee, and 81
000 900 of taxless number i'm 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 n 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 $54. 600. 900 worth of wooden goods
imported four-fifths are of kind that
the laboring-man seldom buys. The
working-man averages as his share of
the Federal tax, eight cents per person
year; the balance, forty-seven cents, is
paid by the more dudeish consumer per
head.
The people of the United States pay
tariff annually of $50. 600. 600 on
sugar. Sugar is not confined (like ex-
pensive woods and silks) TO the using
of limited class. Every household
is. in proportion to its number. con-
sumner. Due and honest regard for
the resources of the limited wage
Garner would call for a complete
abolition of this tax. a tax that aver
ages eighty-six cents for every man,
woman and child in the country.
Sugar. however. is Southern pro-
duet, and needs Democratic protec-
ton. Wool is Northern. and the farm
er is again called. as in the days be-
fore the war; to give way to the
planter.
Democracy dreams of foreign mar
ket, contested for inch by inch by the
cheap capital aud cheaper labor of
Europe. The policy of the Repub-
lican party proposes to make free only
such products as we can not raise or
make. 1t proposes, before seeking a
foreign market, TO care for the nearer
and more certain one at home, to keep
active our own capital. and supply en-
| ployment to our own labor Judge
GROWERS POSITION.