Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-12
A Worklngman's Question Answered.

''The Herald tells me that am paying
good many taxes that ought not to. Now,
I drive plane all day and have no time to
think of these things. come home tired
and don't feel much like reading book as
deep az a we'll. But if you will tell me how
this thing is perhaps I can get it into my
head"
Most certainly we will, and very inter-
esting topic you will find it. 1t won't take
you long to see that the republican policy
of higher taxation makes it harder for you
to get the comforts of life, or that the dem
ocratic policy of lower taxes is in the inter-
est of every laboring man in the country.
Well, you are carpenter with growing
family, perhaps. To begin, the first cost
of the house you hire is increased by a tax
on almost everything, from the foundation
to the iron gutter. That extra cost you
pay in extra rent, don't you? The landlord
is not phianthropist and wants fair inter-
est for bis investment. If his house costs
a thousand dollars more than it would if
the materialsswere cheaper, who pays the
interest on that Thousand dollars? Not the
landlord. That would be an Improbable
way to do business. You pay it, of course.
1t comes out of your wages. So you start
with burden.
Now, you want tools to work with.
Well, under protective system you pay a
tax on your saw, plane, chisel, hammer and
on the wooden box that holds them. Every
thing you use 10 your trade is taxed, direct
ly or indirectly.
You must have decent clothes. You
can't dress like European peasant. And
in this climate you need woollen under
shirts, for without these you will get pneu
MONA. Your wife, too, and your children
use up lot of flannel in the course of a
year. TO be thinly clad means sickness,
and that you can't afford. The undershirt
and flannel are taxed. You must have iron
and tin ware in the kitchen. You pay a
tax On these articles, and on the cooking
stove and on the dining table and on the
knives and forks and spoons and On the
tablecloth. You look through taxed pane
of glass, rock taxed cradle with your
baby in it, and when he is sick give him a
dose of taxed castor oil. If the little one
dies he is placed in taxed cofiu, and the
minister offers you consolation from a tax
ed Bible. Pretty nearly everything you
have either has tax on it or costs more
than it should because other things are tax
ed,
Now, then, you ask, What is the object
in squeezing SO much money from poor
people? Why, there is no good object, and
that is why we complain. The government
has its yaults full of dollars raised partly
in this way, and it doesn't know what to
do do with them. That is the surplus
which the country is talking about. 1t ID a
burden to tie government and burden to
the people-does no good to anybody, but
deal Of harm to everybody. Twenty
years ago, when the government was in
trouble, it needed that money. To-day it
does not need it, but the tax still remains.
Why isn't this tax removed by a reduc
ton of the tariff? That's the question.
The democrats say, Take it off. The re.
publicans say, Keep it on and make it
higher. You are to choose between the
two.
The combines, trusts and monopoliss are
benefited by higher taxes. How do they
affect you?
You have not a difficult problem tc
handle, you see. Ifyou want to pay more
for the necessaries of life the republicans
will accommodate you, and you will vote
with them in November. If, on the other
hand, you believe that these necessaries oil
life should be supplied to the people of this
country at the cheapest possible rate you
will deposit your vote in democratic
ballot box.-N. y. Herald.