Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-09-20
ExoRBiTANT TAXATION.

ExORBiTANT TAXATION.
Republican Letters Admitting That La-
Dor Is Not Benefited bysProtection.
The case Of the high takers stands
on the baseless assumption that high
taxes are beneficial to labor; that with
out high protective taxes the country
and all its industries would be ruined.
This claim for protection is an after
thought. When the war tariff was
laid no one made the pretense that 1t
would benefit the working-man. 1t
was known that it wonld injure him.
Even its author did not conceal the
fact. and its most ardent advocates as q
war measure merely were free to say
that with the war ended and the need
of extraordinary devices OF taxation
no longer urgent it would be repealed,
as matter of course. The protection
to-labor idea came only at the eleventh
hour, when some new trick was neces-
sary to prolong system which COM
mon sense and common honesty had
doomed from the first.
Furthermore, the Herald has said
that the men who most loudly declare
that protection is of value to the
working man are either ignorant or inn
moral that they do not know, or,
knowing, willfully pervert the truth.
1t would seem that the validity OF this
could be established by
reference to the Ingalls, and Foster let
tiers. What says IngallsP Speaking
of Republican Presidential candidate,
he writes:
My impression is that Alger or Gresham
comes nearer filing the bill than any OF the
others, and with some fellow like Phelps, Of
forces OF the East and get contributions from
the manufacturers and Wall street.
This was the private letter Of one
high taxer to another high taxer-of a
man who knew that protection bene-
flied only the manufacturer and who,
writing to another having similar
knowledge, made no pretense of any
thing else. In public both ingalls, and
the man who received his letter will
assert that protection makes wages
high, and that it is supported by them
for no other purpose.
What says the Foster letter? Quot
ing a United States Senator, it goes On:
I was solicited to contribute to a protective
tariff league, and replied that If the manu-
facturers of the United States In their associ-
ated capacity were an eleemcsynary institution
would vote to give them a pension, but that
did not propose myself to contribute money to
advance the interests of men who were getting
nrQaftpQ11u or a
most directly important benefits, OF the tariff
laws. am in favor of protection; not pre-
cisely the kind we are having, but might be
willing to keep even that rather than not to have
any, but am sure can get along without any
OF it fully as well as the manufacturers can,
and If they think the Republican party is going
to maintain high protective corps for their
benefit, and the men who do the work in that
party are going to keep up the expenses of q
campaign out Of their own pockets, leaving
them to reap the fruits of the tariff policy with
out any deduction for the political expenses,
they are greatly mistaken. understand that
in a general way the manufacturers of New
England have been more liberal IN their con-
tributions than those OF Pennsylvania. In fact,
/ have 1t from the best possible source that the
OF Pennsylvania, who are more
highly protected than anybody else, and who
make large fortunes every year when times
are prosperous. practically give nothing toward
the maintenance OF the ascendency OF the Re-
publican party. OF course shall not violate
what consider to be proper principle of &C.
ton; but ii had my way about 1t would put
the manufacturers of Pennsylvania under the
fire and fry all the fat out OF them.
Addressing a manufacturer, Mr.. Fos-
ter, who is chairman of the Republic
an League of the United States, says
the above:
These are strong words, and bitter, but they
are true; and 1t now remains with you and
your associates to determine whether they are
to be reiterated after the campaign is over and
protection has, through your apathy, been
struck its death-blow. If you give US the means
to win the victory we will do it Are you WILL
ing?
These letters have not been denied,
and can not be. They are genuine. If
they do not give away the entire pro-
lection case; then no case conceived in
wickedness and bolstered up by false
hood and conspiracy ever was given
away. The protective tariff is a mo-
nopoly device for the enrichment of
the few at the expense of the many.
This much is admitted in private by
it's own defenders. What course is left
to honest and self-respeoting menp-
Chicago Herald.