The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-07-05
soMN TRuTHs.


SOME TESTED TRUTHS.
Seekers after truth and light on the
much vexed question of the tariff,
would do we'll to consider a few princi,
pies that are fundamental. They are
principles that have been tested by the
experience of all mankind.
1t is conceded by the highest author
ity to be found in the three leading
languages of civilization--English, Ger
man and ~French-that political cono-
my is a science. 1t has certain settled
principles that are recognized by all in
tel1gent governments.
What are those principles? First:
All tariff taxes are burdens upon the
consumers of the articles taxed. This
IS an axiom that needs no elucidatiOn.
Second: A taxation above the needs of
Government is excessive taxation.
From the first intelligent cOmprehen-
sion OF the workings of tariff taxes
Town to the present time, all statesmen
and political economists have condemn
ed excessive taxation as a burden. In
n country known to civilization, since
civilization began, las any school of
statesmen arisen TO contend that eXces-
s re or unnecessary taxation is a bene-
fl to labor. Never, until the birth of
the sO-called shibboth of monopolists:
protection for tine sake of protection
This new school of political ecOno-
mists, now in full control of the RepUbl!-
an party, take the position that the
+ u way 70 advance the interests of
labor is to tax it's earnings, tax every
thing labor consumes. Not for the
benefit of the National Treasury, (as it
conceded the Treasury does not need it,
but for the benefit of a favored lew
1t is proposed to regulate both prices
and production by the terrible eXpedi.
enC vt restriction in trade and COM
merCe.
The Hon. w L. Scott, of Penn, (him
self a large manufactured, fifty charac-
terizes this policy in his recent speech
in Congress. We quote:
"Our friends, the enemy, say, Yes;
let us build a Chinese wall around this
young and vigorous people, whose ca
ger enterprise already chafes under the
pounds of nature, and If we cannot
make it wholly i%mparvious let us make
it as nearly so as we can. Let us, if we
a not SO clear back to the barbarism
of China a thousand years ago, go back
at least to the feudal ages, when traffic
in almost every commodity was a mo.
nopoly farmed out by the sovereign,
and industry and commerce were alter
nately restricted and plundered under
the tariff regulations of rulers eX-
tremely solicitous for the interests of
the labor which thus furnished the pill
age. Mr.. Chairman, they are BOur-
bOnS, BourbOnS all, and of the denSest
kind. Their faces are turned backward,
not forward; they are looking through
the dismal shades of the dead past, not
through the glowing day of the living
present. Instead Of removing the bar
barOus artificial restraints imposed upon
The natural energies of the mass of men
by ignorance. rapacity and tyranny for
the benefit of the few, they deliberately
propose to reimpose them, to re-enchain
commerce, to re-shackle labor, and to
of natural traders by a system, consid-
ering the time and the conditions, far
more absurd than the Chinese wall"
These are burning words of truth.
Our Republican friends have doubtless
heard Of Gallatin, who was Secretary
of the Treasury for eight years under
Thomas Jefferson, and four years under
James Madison, and conceded to be the
ripest statesman and ablest financier
VINO had ever held the keys to, our Ma
tional Treasury. In his memorial Of
1882 he gave the country, out of his ripe
experience and profound reflection, the
following on the so-called Protection
policy:
"Let it be recollected that the system
is in itself an ~infractiOn of an essential
part of the liberty of the citizen. The
necessity must be urgent and palpable
which authorizes any government to
interfere in the private pursuits of in
dividuals, to forbid them to do that
which in itself is not criminal, and
do if not forbidden. The tariff system
is founded upon the principle that what
is true of all men individually is untrue
when applied to them collectively. We
can not consider the adherence of en-
lightened nations to regulations of that
description but as the last relic of that
system of general restrictions and mo-
nopolies which had its origin in bar
barious times. If the corn laws are the
most odious of those protecting no.
nopolies, it is because they enhance the
price of that which is still more essen
Tial than sugar, salt, clothing, or fuel;
and we may safely predict that their
repeal will he the first result of an i'm
proved representation of the people"
Aside from the evils growing out of
our present tariff laws, III taking the
currency of the people out of ciTcula-
ton and piling it up, as dead money,
in the United States Treasury, causing
a tight money market and restrict
ed trade, it has other features, full of
disaster:
1t taxes labor without protecting
labor.
1t taxes business without beneftting
business.
1t creates stagnation in all the ave-
nues Of commerce.
1t shuts out American products from
the markets of the world.
Last year W. paid into the National
Treasury $56,515, 601, tariff taxes on
sugar alone. OF the sixty millions of
Americans, dwelling between the two
oceans, every man, woman and child
paid a part Of that tax. Whom does it
protect? Let the champions of mon
opoly and sugar trusts answer?
And yet the great Republican party,
in National convention assembled, pro-
claim to the world that it favors repeal
ing the tax on tobacco for the benefit
of a few tobacco chewers, and allow the
sixty millions of American people to
pay the almost sixty millions of taxes
on sugar. This is only one of the many
gigantic ~iniquities that the Repub-
lican policy proposes to perpetuate.