Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-05

this country is to be made wealthy by mean
of high taxation. Again, they have th
audacity to say that this tariff tax is not pai
by the consumers of the article which
taxed. Why, if the consumers of these tax
ed articles do not pay the tax, I would lik
to know who does? Do these projections
orators pay iti Do the manufacturers pa.
it? Who pays it, if the people who consume
the articles that are taxed do not pay it
No man can answer that question to th'
satisfaction"- Here a note to thu
speaker.]
| A POCKET PICKED.
Judge Thurman,-''Gentlem l an
afraid there are some high protectionists il
this audience, for note is sent up for me
| to read, as follows: IA lady has just ha6
her pocket picked, and she thinks it is these
high-tariff scoopers." I hope that high
| tariff fellow who has taken that lady s
money will be caught and made to refund
before he leaves Port Huron. Great
laughter and cheering.]
THE CONSUMER PAYS TIE TAX.
"Now, my friends, if you will reflect for
moment you will see that it is necessarily
the case that the tariff taxes are paid by the
consumers of the articles which are taxed,
and of all domestic articles of like kind
which are manufactured in the United
States; for it is curious fact, and one Of
the worst things about this tariff tax that,
while the government gets one dollar re-
sulting from the tax the domestic manu-.
facturer gets five dollars, as it is best esti-
mated, that never goes into the treasury at
all. [Great cheering.]
HOW 1T is DONE.
"Well, how does this happen? A man
called an importer brings goods into the
United States to be sold. He cannot sell a
yard or pound until he pays this tariff
tax. He pays the tax therefore, and then
sells to the wholesale merchant. Of course
he must get this tax back in the price for
which he sells, or he would lose money and
his business would break up at once. He
would stop it, and therefore he puts the tax
on to the original cost of the goods, and
with that price added and with the cost of
transportation and his reasonable CONNER
cial profits, he sells those goods to the
wholesale merchant. The wholesale mer-
chant sells to the retail merchant, and of
course this tax, which enters into the price,
continues in the price, and to it is added
the profit of the merchant. Then the retail
merchant sells to you, and of course he
must keep within this price, for otherwise
he would sell for less than he gave for the
goods, and no man of sense would do that.
Therefore the tax is in when the cloth is
sold to you, and you, in the price you pay
this retail merchant for the goods, pay the
whole of the tariff tax, the importers profit,
the wholesale merchants profit and the re-
tail merchants profit, besides interest on
their money. 1t is as plain as that two and
two make four.
OPERATION OF THE TARIFF.
"If I were schoolmaster and teaching a
boy ten years old and he could not under
stand that with ten minutes instruction
would give him up as hopeless idiot
Great applause.) Well, that is the fact in
respect to this. How much do they pay :
Why the amount of goods imported into
the United States-of dutiable goods-in
the year 1887, the last year for which we
have any returns, were in value $3.50, 1885,
322. The tariff duties collected were $212,.
032, 244. There were, therefore, int thai
single year, taxes levied on the United
States, by the operation of this tariff law,
of $212, ,032, 424, which went into the
treasury of the United States. But that,
as l have told you, was the least part ol
the burden. The domestic manufactures
| Of the same kind of commodities amounted
that year to IS, 1853. $40, 19l.
| ENORMOUS FIGURES.
| THAT is, in other words, to five thous
and three hundred and sixty-nine million
dollars, and as the price of those goods wal
raised by the tariff in nearly equal proper
tions to the price of the goods that were
imported into the country, the amount
which the people paid in these high prices
of what they had to buy and what they haG
to use, amounted to about ore thousand
millions of dollars, or to about five times az
much as the tax received by the govern
ment for the use of the government. Ii
other words, the whole country was taxed
about one thousand million dollars for thu
benefit of a comparatively small portion O.
the country. And that is said to be justice
that is said to be fair play; that is said t.
be for the benefit of the American people
Why don't they carry it out? Why dom
they, when they find in Port Huron law
yer-I think l may name them because
am lawyer myself-when they find one
the proceeds of whose profession don't af
ford him and his family a comfortable sup
port-why don't they tax you all for hi
benefit, so as to protect him? Or when the.
find a doctor whose income is not suficien
to support him or his family, why dom
they tax all the people of Port Huron il
order to add to the wealth of that doctor
And so on with everything else. VIII,
don't they do it? and yet they do tax
man, or did tax him, and do yet, prett,
highly sometimes on the medicine that b
is obliged to take.
TO ALLOW MAN TO SHAKE.
81 remember one of the most satisfactor,
votes that cast when in the Senate of tn
United States was to abolish the tax on qui
nine, SO that man with the fever and agu
could have his quinine without being robbie,
of his means of subsistence. Applause.
/ know there are few cases, but they ar
very few and exceptional, and not of sui
ficient importance to make it necessary TO
me to speak of them to-day in the limitet
time have to speak, in which the duty o
tariff tax is not all paid by the consumer
but they are 80 trifling in amount and ST
insignificant that it is not necessary that
should occupy your time with them. Th
principal, the general fact is, that this tai
(here the speaker was interrupted by cheer
ing and applause, which followed his pro
ducing a bandana handkerchief.) Well
gentlemen, this is good, honest hand
kerchief, and could have bought it goot
deal cheaper if it had not been for the tarif
tax. [Great laughter and prolonged cheer
ing.]
| HISTORICAL FACTS.
''Now there are men who say the con
i l. - 49, II boz tt,n