The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-08-16
WHO PArD me DEBTS


per head of the population.
If the Secretary of the Treasury would do
his plain duty, and apply all of the surplus
now in the Treasury, and not needed to pay
pensions to soldiers, to taking up the 1922
eoO,00O Of Al per cents. which are due and
must be paid in September, 1891, the debt
would average less than S14 per head.
Nobody has paid proportionalIy so large a
share of this as the soldiers who fought the
war through to victory. This Is easy to
demonstrate.
In the first place, in spite Of all their
boasting, the people who were in rebellion
paid very little of it. The greater part of
the money was raised by taxation on arti-
cles which were very little used in the
South. Let US take for example the internal
revenue receipts for the fiscal year ending
June %, 1866, which were $3109O6,98417,
or fye-sixths as much as the entire receipts
Of the Government to-day. This was raised
by q most searching and comprehensive tax
alton, which reached almost everything that
q Northern man used or wore OF had in his
house, while it left the Southerner compare
lively untouched, because he used so little
that was not made or grown or the land
upon which he lived. Look at this partial
list Of manufactured articles which paid
heavy tribute to the Internal Revenue Com
missioner:
Bilheads, cards, books, magazines, boots
and shoes, brick, draining tile, candles, car
riages, wagons, cigars, cigarets, clocks, cloth,
clothing, coal, candy, confectionery, adver-
tisements, cutlery, furs, furniture, gas, glass,
gloves, glue, gUnpowder, iron of all kinds,
lead. leather, lime, cement, marble masts,
spars, coal oil, lard oil, linseed oil, paints,
molasses, mustard, paper, pepper, photo
graphs, pianos, pickles, preserves, pins, not
teryware, repairs Of engines, ships, sails,
tents. ssleratus and hicarbonate of soda,
wood screws, ships, silver, slate, sandstone,
soap, starch, engines, steel, stereotypes,
sugar, thread, yarn, tobacco, turpentine,
umbrellas, parasols, patent medicines, per
fumery, varnish, soda water, wooden and
manufactures, stations jacks, incomes ex-
oeeding $500, slaughtered COWS, calves,
steers, sheep and swine.
Besides these there were taxes on the
gross receipts Of newspapers, toll-roads,
canals, express companies, ferries, insurance
companies, lotteries, railroads, ships, stage
coaches, steamboats,, teIegraphs, theaters,
auction sales, brokers' sales. There were
licenses for apothecaries, architects and civil
en- gineers, assayers, auctioneers, bankers,
billiard rooms, brewers, bowling allies,
brokers Of all kinds, builders and contract
ors, business men, butchers, circuses, claim
agents, confectioners, dealers wholesale
and retail,n dentists, eating-houses, ezhi-
billions, gift enterprises, horse-dealers, no
tells, insurance agents, intelligence Offices,
jugglers, lawyers. livery stables, manufac-
turers, miners, pedlers, photographers,
plumbers, physicians, real estate agents,
soap-makers, theaters. Then comes a heavy
tax on Iegacies, SUGGESTIONS, billiard tables,
pianos, gold and silver plate, gold watches,
yachts, etc.
The people of the South paid very little
Of these taxes, because Of their small con-
sumption Of the goods upon which the taxes
were levied. These were almost altogether
articles Of the higher and costIier grades.
which had no sale in the South. Nearly
half the people there were negro field hands,
and more than half Of the remainder were
poor and excessively ignorant whites, who
had no more use for bottle Of cologne or a
photograph-the taxes on which afforded a
large revenue-than an OK has for paper
collar They made their OWL clothes and
boots and shoes did not use even patent
medicines, but dosed themselves with de-
coctions Of YARDS .; and instead Of burning
matches, lighted their cob pipes with Goals
taken from the fires kept constantly burn.
ing on the hearths Of their cabins.
Take, for example, the single article o
the tax on manufactured clothing, rs pei
cent?. which in 1866 put s12 O27, 6gz.17 int
the Treasury, or more than 100000 {
month. The collections in the rebel State
were ss follows:
Alabama. .....-.................. 1892 As
Afzsnsas..............-..-. ia ST
Florida .s.,.r....
Georgia .............. ..........a. 9879 sc
Loaisiana-.......-. ..........-.-... 24lI7 81
@4lssi--i F'l-..-. ..-...,.-. ....s......
North CaroiiHa.-...........,.............. II6 "a
South rotiua..-......-. 4,Io2 Sc
s.4gz 81
1853 50
1854 II
West Virginia. 1927 II
ss472I 70