Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-01-14

excluding them or inducing smuar,ino.
This was founded upon the admitted maxim
/ of political economy, that taxes should be
assessed upon those best able to pay. This
applied to wines, liquors and cigars, sup
posed to be superior in flavor to the domes-
tic articles, and to Silks satins, broad cloths.
and innumerable articles of dress. orna'
ments, porcelain paintings, glass ware, and
the like. As to all these articles the price
was q matter of indifference to the con-
sumner, and this was very much like that
fixed by the manufacturers. This was the
policy of the present tariff, and it had oper-
ated even better than he hoped. The value
of such articles imported was not less than
$40, OO, 600, and the duties collested on
| them not less than $780, O0, 600, nearly one
third of the whole amount collected. II
certainly could not be said of these duties
they imposed burden upon those who con-
summed domestic products as well as upon
those who consumed imported articles (usine
| the presidents language). On the contrary,
these duties had imposed the chief burdens
of taxation of on articles of voluntary luxury,
and had still melted American artisans and
mechanics to compete in those branches
of industry with the skilled artisans of Eu-
rope and Asia. In this way remarkable
progress had been made in those produc-
tlons, and porcelain, tableware, ornaments,
clothing decorations and enamelled furni
ture, and a number of other things of taste
and refinement had been brought within the
means of the mass of the people. To re-
duce the duty on these foreign Injuries
wonld be to transmit the burden of taxation
from those who now bore it willingly to the
shoulders of the people. If the object were
to reduce the surplus revenue, what better
mode, he asked, could be suggested than to
repeal one-haf of the duty on sugar, and
thus directly relieve the people from the
taxes on an article in most general use and
now bearing tax of 50 per cent. No such
suggestion was made by the president or the
secretary of the treasury, and he Mr.. Sher-
many did not care to explore the reasons for
their silence.
He believed in protecting all home indus
tries, without respect to the section, or to
the place, or manner of production-whether
on the farm or in the workshop, but if pro-
lection was not the object of the law, and if
the surplus revenue was the great evil
relief % to oe1 the people why By reduce gce
ton of the tax on sugar. Still in view of
| the hopeful prospects of producing sugar
from beets and sorghum cane as we'll as
from sugar cane he would not cripple that
industry reducing duties except by giving the
producers of domestic sugar bounty equal
to the reduction of the duty on the imported
article. But it was not of the duties on
food that the President complained as "vi-
cious, equitable and illogical source of taxa
tion." The duties of which he complained
were those for the benefit of manufacturers,
and he urged especially ga reduction of du-
ties imposed upon raw materials used in
manufacturers or their free importation"
The great body of crude articles imported,
which entered into the process of domestic
industry to the value of 100000, 900, were
of that class was so unless it competed di-
rectly with the development of American re-
sources. Duties averaging 50 per cent we're
now levied upon such imported articles val
ued at fifty-nine and half millions, and
which yielded a revenue of $1,912, Co., 600.
The chief of them we're agricultural pro-
ducts, wool, fax, hemp and other textile
grasses, hops, bristles and seeds valued at
thirty-fve million dollars and yield
80 per cent. The remainder was chiefly
metal coal and marble of the value of
$22, 600 and yielding $9,25O,0OO. These
IMPORTS come into direct competition with
he production of nearly 2,0OO,O 900 farmers
and of hundreds of thousands of laboring
men. This moderate protection given to
the labor and capital employed in mining
point of assault by the president, and all
free trade set upon the protective policy. 1t
was the citadel of his message. The same
rule had been applied for the benefit of the
farmer, the miner and the furnace owner as
we'll as the manufacturer, and whenever that
rule was departed from the whole system
would fail. The principle of protection de-
manded equal benefits and burdens. The
burden was protection to labor, not capital.
No reason could be given why wool should
be made free and wooden goods
should be protected, and if the labor
of the former in producing the wool was not
protected against undue competition with
Australia, or Buenas Ayres, then cloth
should not be protected against the COM
petition with the looms of Manchester or
Lyons. If there were low duties on iron
iron and steel in its forms. The farmer
performed as valuable labor as the artisan
and the rights of every producer should have
equal and just consideration without fear or
favor, and yet the president had selected
that class of productions under the
name of "raw material for
destruction, and had especially selected
whole argument rested on the allegation
that the price of wool was increased to the
extent of the duty and that, but for the duty
the merchants could buy this wool cheaper
in South America and Australia. This ar
gument was fallaceous because the destruc-
ton of the wool industry in the United
States would at once advance the price of
wool in foreign markets. But even if
the arguments we're true, it would
apply as well to all domestic
productions and to all manufactures.
Wool was completed article of the farmer,
just as cloth was of the manufacturer, and
as the coat was of the tailor, and the objec-
ton that the duty on wool raised the price to
the consumer applied as well (if true) to the
duty on cloth and on every article on the
list. The all sufficient answer was that it
the production by the manu-
facturer, of cloth and the variety of articles
produced by Americans, competing with
foreign labor. This diversity of production
Injured to the benefit of all classes of the peo
pie at present and was due to the enormous
growth of power and wealth Of the republic. |
He regarded the home production of raw
material as even of moro importance to
There was but one rule |
which had to be applied to all industries i'm |
Ill 4Lok 30 10 oil