Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-09-06

Is much audscity as ,ticed this year on
| the part Of the advocStes Of . high protect
i've tariff. They seem to have been sud-
denly afflicted with q singular disregard
CT the truth 1 do not intend to call peo-
pie hard names. have all my life kept
civil tongue il my head, and I mean to
keep it as long as live; but do say that
some people sometimes seem to lose their
| senses Or they can not see the truth, and
often Unfortunately can not speak it.
Laughter and applause
ABSURDITY OF HIGH TARIFF.
Just think of it for one moment. We are
told that high tariff makes country
richer. as if it were possible to make
country rich by oppressively taxing its
people. Amt that new way to make
man rich, to run your hand in his pocket
and take out what you find there-tlaugh-
ter]-and that without any just reason
whatsoever for doing 500 Amt that
singular way to make anybody rich? And
yet that is precisely the plan that those
folks advocate when they tell US that the
country is to be made wealthy by means Of
high taxation. Again, they have the au-
dacity to say that this tariff tax is not paid
by the consumers of the articles which are
taxed. Why, if the consumers of taxed
articles do not pay for the tax, would
like to- know who does! A voice: $50
would l." and cheers.] Do those protec-
ton orators pay it! Do the manufacturers
pay ita Who pays it, if the pcsple who
consume g the articles that are taxed don't1
Can any man answer that question to tho
satisfaction Here Judge Thurman was
interrupted by the presentation of a note.
He looked at it a moment and said: I
am afraid there are some high protection
lists in this audience, for a lady sends
me this note to read to you.
A lad has just had her pocket
picked. She thinks it is high tariff.
Laughter Well, hope the high tariff
man who has taken that lady's money will
be caught and made. to refund before he
leaves Port Huron. Laughter and APP.
plause.l Now my friends, if you will one-
fleet for q moment you will see that it is
necessarily the case that tariff taxes are
paid by the consumer of the articles which
are taxed, and all domestic articles Of
like kind which are manufactured in the
United States Itsis curious fact, and one
of the worst things about this tariff tax, that
while the Government gets 81 resulting
from the tax, domestic manufacturers get
S. as it is best estima.ed, that never goes
into the Treasury at all. How does this
happena "A. mah called an importer brings
goods into the United States to be sold.
He can not sell a yard or "a pound until he
pays this tariff tax. He pays it. therefore,
and then sells 1T to the merchant. OF
course he must get this tax back in the
price for which he sells or he would lose
money. His business would break upeat
once. Therefore, he puts the tax on the
original cost Of goods, ard with that price
added with the cost of transportation and
his reasonable commercial profit he sells
the goods to the merchant. The merchant
sells to the retail merchant, and, OF course,
this tax which entered into the price'con-
stinues in the price and to it is added tne
prOhks off the merchant. Then the retail
mereha INT sells to you and of course he
urst get in. this price, for otherwise,
he yvoTle sell for less than he. gave
/ for the goods. end mo man would con-
sent I'd do that Therefore. the Tax is on
when the cloth, for Instance, is sold to you
| and in theeprice' you pay this Sretair mer2
chant YOU also pay theswhole Of the tariff
tax, the Importers profits, the wholesale
merchants profits, and the. recall mer,
chants profits, besides the. interest oon'
their money. 1tois as plain as that two
and two make four. If 4 was. school
| master and. q boy Of ten years cofado not
understandt that after ten minutes teachs
ing l would give him UP as a. hopeless
idiot Laughter That isthe fact'in re-
spect to this branch of subject. Now, how
much do you paya'e The amount .of dntis
able goods imported into the United States
in 1887 was. in value $3.50, 100000 in round
numbers. The duties collected on these
goods the tariff tax-was s212, 00o 600 and
fraction. Therefore. in" that single year
"a tax was levied 0on the people Of the
| United States by tho operation of this tariff
| law of s213 100000 and fraction, Which
went into tho Federal Treasury. But that,
| as have told you,a was the least of the
| burden. The domestic manufacturers of
the sa me kind eof commodities amounted
that ye ar to s. $780, 900, 900, and as'the price
Of those goods was raised by the0tariff in
nearly or equal proportions to the price Of
goods that were imported, tho amount
! which the people paid by reason of these
! high prices of what they had to buy or had
to use amounted to $1,000. 900 900. That
| is about five times as much as sSne tax re-
| ceived by the Government for the uses of
the Government. In other words, the
| whole community was taxed about 81 900, >
| 600, 900 for the benefit of comparatively Q
| small portion of the community. AMI that
| is said to be just; that is said to be fair
play; that is said to be for the benefit Of
the American people. Why don't they
carry it out furthera When they find in
| Port Huron a lawyer-I speak kindly of q
lawyer because am a lawyer myself-the
proceeds Of whose profession do not afford
| him and his family comfortable support,
| why don't they tax you all for his benefit
so as to protect him. When they find a
doctor whose income is not sufficient for
him self and family. why don't they tax all
the people of Port Huron in order to add
to the wealth of that doctor. And so on
with every body else. Why don't they do
it'll Because they know perfectly well that
the people would not stand it. And yet
they do tax h-an, or did tax him, and do
yet, pretty highly, sometimes on the medi-
cine he Is obi yed to take.
THE BANDANA IN SIGHT.
remember that one of the most satisfac-
tory votes ever cast in the Senate of the
United States was to abolish the tax on Qui-
| nine. so that 9 man with the fever and ague
might have his medicine free. [Cheers.
I know there are a few cases, and they are