Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-10

have already an enormous sum
in the treasury, far more than
is necessary to pay the ex-
penses of the general government and
pay the pensions to deserving soldiers,
| and, as stated, that sum is increasing.
Something must be done to reduce the
amount of money collected. That seems
to be clear.
What would the people of Los Angeles
county say if the County Board should
each year levy rate Of taxes for county
purposes that would bring in $4,000 a
year more than is necessary to pay the
expenses of your county government?
Your people would say, truthfully, that
the County Board was robbing them.
Why? Because they were COM
pelling the people to pay more than
was necessary. The general government
is doing that very thing now, and
when Democrats attempt to reduce the
tariff from $47 to $42 on the $100 of i'm
ported goods, it is violently opposed by
the Republican party. and the cry of
"Free Trade'' is raised. All admit that
we must have tariff. There is no
question of Free Trade in it. Any intel
ligent man knows this. The cry of Free
Trade comes only from the mouth of the
scheming politician and the fool. The
question is, shall we keep up the present
tariff and collect many millions of dollars
more than is necessary, or shall we re-
duce the tariff on the necessaries of life
and keep the tax on whisky where it is
A good Presbyterian friend of mine
said, after reading the Chicago platform,
that he had always voted the Republican
ticket, but he could not conscientiously
indorse the free-whisky plank in tnat
platform; that he though it would be
better for the people to increase the tax
on whisky, and thereby decrease it's con-
sumption, and reduce the crstom-house
duties on such things as the people must
have and that contributed to their well
fare.
This is the view held by many good
Republican party. They say that be-
yond any question, the Chicago Conyen-
ton was controlled by monopolists. The
excuse is that they are keeping up the
price of labor by keeping high tariff on
salt, coal, woolen goods, lumber, etc. We
are now getting able to see the falsity of
this statement. The manufacturer goes
into the market to get his labor there is
no protection there. The pauper labor
of Europe is coming here every year by
the hundreds of thousands. The pro-
tected monopolist employs it, and if the
natural immigration is not sufficient, he
sends to Europe and brings it here under
contract system. The monopolist gets
his labor in the cheapest market in the
world, and still insists that his products
must be protected to an extent that often
amounts to prohibition of competition.
It, in that event, omount to robbing the
people, and the Government also. The
Republican party is pledged to this theory
of taxation. They have the cheek to say
they are protecting" the home OF the
American mechanic, when any sane man
can see that such protection will in few
years deprive him of his home. 1t is
stated, on good authority, that two-thirds
of the operatives in the manufacturing
establishments OF the United States are
foreign-bor people. A considerable
amount of them were brought here un-
der the contract-labor system above re-
ferred to.
From the above somewhat lengthy ex-
planation you will understand what my
views are on the tariff question. These
are not my views simply because l am
Democrat. They are my honest con-
victions. There have been several flop.
overs in this county go far, but nine
tenths of them are from the Republican
fold to ours.
In conclusion, 1 will say that I am for
Cleveland and Thurman and tariff re-
form, and not for Free Trade nor for free
whisky. JOHN SANDERS JOHNSON.