Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-23

LAX lS Ill Wuou buo ClOJu Is bOlu W yOu,
and you, in the price you pay this re-
tail merchant for the goods, pay the
whole OF the tariff, the importers profit,
the wholesale merchants profit and the
retail merchants profit, besides the in
terest on their money. If l were a
schoolmaster and teaching a boy ten
years old, and he could not understand
that with ten minutes instruction, l
would.
GIVE HIM UP
As hopeless idiot. Well. how much do
they say the amount of dutiable goods
imported into the United States in 1867
was in value? $3.50, 1926 1922. The tariff
duties collected were $212, ,032, 424. There
were, therefore. in that single year taxes
levied on the United States by the opera
ton of this tariff law amounting to
$212, ,032 ,424, which went into the Treas
ury of the United States; but that, as
have told you, was the least part of the
burden. The domestic manufacture of
the same kind of commodities amounted
that year to Sc, 1869, $40, 191; that is, in
other words. to five thousand three
hundred and sixty-nine million dol
lars, and as the price of these goods
was raised by the tariff in nearly equal
proportion to the price of the goods that
were imported into the country, the
amount which the people paid in those
high prices for which they had to buy
and had to use, was ABOUT one thousand
million dollars, or five times as much as
the tax received by the Government for
the use of the Government. In other
words the whole country was taxed about
one thousand million dollars for the ben
eft of comparatively small portion of
the country, and that is said to be JUS
tice; that is said to be fair play; that is
said to be for the benefit OF Americans.
Why don't they carry it out when they
find in Port Huron lawyer whose pro-
fession doesn't afford him a comfortable
support? Why don't they tax you all
for his benefit so as to protect him?
WHY DON'T THEY?
They do tax man sometimes on the
medicine he is obliged to take. re-
member one of the most satisfactory
votes cast when in the Senate of the
United States was to abolish the tax on
quinine, so that man with fever and
ague could have his quinine without be-
ing robbed of his means of sustenanca.
| have said the consumer pays the tax.
If you want Authority let me refer you to
men who have spoken on the subject.
First 1 will go back to John Quincy
Adams. In 1882 he was Chairman OF
the House Committee on Manufactures.
In report made by him he said: "The
doctrine that duties of import seem to
cheaper the price of the articles on
which they are levied seems to conflict
with the first dictates of common sense.
The duty constitutes part of the price
of the whole mass of articles in the mar
ket. It is substantially paid upon the
article of domestic manufacture as we'll
as upon that of foreign production. We
say so long as importation continues a
duty must be paid by the purchaser OF
an article, and the effect must be to in
crease the price of the article to the ex-
tent of the additional duty. We cannot
subscribe therefore to the doctrine that
duties or imports, protective or of our
own manufactures, are paid by the for
eign merchant or manufacturer" Presi-
dent Arthur, in his annual message in
1882, said: 81 recommend an enlarge
ment of the free list, that is of goods
that pay no duty, so as to include
within it numerous articles which yield
an inconsiderable revenue; a simpli6ca-
ton OF the complex and inconsistent
schedule OF duties upon certain manu-
factures, particularly those of cotton,
iron and steel and substantial reduc-
ton of tire duties upon those articles
and upon sugar, molasses, wool and
woolen goods" That is precisely what
the Mills bill attempts to do, and vet
those gentlemen who are bowling around
about the benefit of protection and the
evil that the Democrats are bringing on
the country, tell you that this thing
which President Arthur recommended
only 30 lately, is nothing but free trade.
There are more
AFRAID OF FREE TRADE
Than they are of rattlesnakes. I Applause.
The Mills bill calls for the most moderate
reduction of the tariff duties that has
ever been attempted. The average duty
levied under the present tariff is AZ per
cent, and under the Mills bill the aver
age would be only about 40 per cent.
The duty is taken off number OF articles
called raw materials, which are used by
manufacturers in the fabrication of their
products. And as they receive the
great benefit of having their raw materi-
ais free or with comparatively small
duty, the bill wisely provides that the
articles manufactured by them, when
brought to this country, shall
pay a lower rate Of duty
than they did before, but that
is nothing more than compensation for
taking off the duty flom raw material.
These advocates of protection are all at
once seized with wonderful solicitude for
the workingman, and they want high
protective tariff, not to benefit the capi.
talist, not to benefit the monopolist, not
to benefit the manufacturer, according to
their statement, but to benefit the labor
ing man. He is the man they seek to
protect. 1 would like to know how tax
ing laboring man on everything from
the crown of his head to the soles of his
feet is going to enrich him. Yet this is
exactly what the tariff tax does, and
they say it is for the benefit of
THE LABoRING MAN.
How is he to get higher wages? Be.
cause his capitalist employer will make
more money and can pay higher wages :?
DID you ever know him to do it? The
tariff has been raised again and again.
and have never heard of an increase in
the price paid to laborers. We have for
twenty-seven years had the highest tariff
we ever knew, and during that time has
the laboring man grown rich? Every
year we hear of strikes of the laborinr
men because they cannot live on the
wages they receive and avorv x,oor