The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-05-05
VOL. XXIII.-NO. 20.

inspectors, aud other officers, which is
menace to our politics aud the purity of our
elections. But this is an objection which
may be removed without repeating the sys-
TEN. OF all the modes of taxation yet devils.
ed, the existing internal-reyenue tax is the
least burdensome to production, and it is one
Of which consumption makes but little com
plant. The demand for its repeal originates
with those who would retain high import
duties and continue the onerous protective
system. These newly discovered friends of
the agrieulturist, who tax sugar, iron, cloth
ing, and almost every article of daily con-
sumption, in order to make whisky and tobac-
do free, represent the grower of the latter as
demanding the right to sell his product at
any place and to any purchaser without the
surveillance of the Government. While that
principle of free trade is not disputed, it must
not be forgotten that the grower of tobacco
has always demanded State inspection laws
for his proteetion-laws which require that
tobacco be sold, inspected, and stamped from
State warehouses.
The repeal Of this tax would not put one
penny into the purse Of the grower, while it
would destroy to a very great extent the value
OF the brands" which have been established
with great care, labor, and expense by the
manufacturers. When the sale of manufac.
tured tobacco in packages is no longer reauir-
ed by law, every grocer and dealer can sell
tobaccos of each brand from the same
barrel under the counter, all the peculiari-
ties, virtues, and preference which years of
care have given to certain brands will disap-
pear, and loss and ruin to follow to the manu-
iacturer, in order that protection may keep
up the price of iron and steel, of blankets,
and wooden goods, and all the other neoes-
saries of life
| In considering the reduction which the re-
| peal of the internal-revenue tax will make in
the receipts of the Government, there is a
peculiar pertinency in the question of the
Secretary OF the Treasury:
Is it the part of craftsmanship TO give up reve
uue so easily collected. to unaecustom our people
to its payment, and to do away with all the maehin-
cry for its collection, when, unless We more
favored than other nations Of the world there will
come day when it will all be needed?
This need was felt at the beginning OF the
war of 1872, and expressed by Mr.. Dallas,
the then Secretary of the Treasury. In his
report on the finances for 1915, he says
1t certainly furnishes lesson of practical policy
that there existed no system by which the internal
into action when the resources of its external
merce became incompetent to answer the exigen-
eies 81 me ne. Inc exisen9e 81 suen system
ments of the war; might have preserved the public
credit unimpafred, and would have rendered the
pecuniary contributions of the people more equal
we'll as more effective. But owing to the want of
such system, a sudden and almost exclusive resort
to the public credit necessarily adopted as the
chief instrument of finance.
1t was again felt in 1861, when millions
were added to the cost of the war by the
want of proper internal-revenue system;
and similar losses will occur if war should
again find the Treasury dependent solely on
customs duties for revenue. That risk it is
gravely proposed to take, in order that the
consumers of spirits and tobacco may be
| freed from self.imposed tax which burdens
no industry and binders no prosperity.
| The annual customs revenue of sos, 000,-
600, as estimated by the Secretary of the
Treasury, imposes upon each one of our 3d.
DOC, 0OO-of population an everage customs tax
of 1898, and upon each family of five per.
sons 1885. These seemingly small amounts
come from the homes of the working people;
they lessen the sugar that would sweeten
their beverages; they compel the patches
which dis6gure their clothing; their effects
arc to be seen in the broken and mended
implements with which labor delves for daily
bread; and they may yet cause to be inscribed
or these walls that we have been weighed in
the balance and found wanting in proper
care and regard for the peoples hardshps.
The people whom | represent will make
any necessary sacrifice to maintain unimpair-
ed the credit and honor of the Federal Gov
ernment but having in the last twenty-five
years paid their full proportion of the taxes
which resulted in surplus, the total of which
is officially stated to have been 81 ,49l ,845,>
953.l2, now feel that the time has come 10
draw the line for home and family, ancrhence
they are in hearty accord with the President
in his earnest effort to abolish unnecessary
taxes and prevent the increase of harmful
surplus. The issue made by the President is
in no sense a party one. His Republican
predecessor earnestly recommended reduc-
ton of taxes and surplus; four Secretaries of
the Treasury-two Republican and two Dem
ocratic-having urged the same wise meas
ures. The platforms of the Republican and
Democratic parties have alike declared for
and committed those parties to reduction OF
taxes and return to an economical expendi-
ture of the public funds. Unfortunately the
country is on the eve of Presidential cleo
ton, and there are those who seek TO throw
about protection glamour to deceive tho
people into the belief that the rate of wages
will be lowered by reduction of taxes. The
danger that confronts wages does not come
from reduced taxes, neither does it proceed,
as | have heretofore shown, from competition
with the pauper labor of foreign countries,
but rather in the continuance of q system of
taxation that pours into the Treasury immense
sums for which there is no legitimate out
let, turks the danger, threatening alike to
labor and to capital. This danger TO the
prosperity of the country has been brought to
the attention of Congress by the President
and his Secretary of the Treasury. Public
opinion, as voiced by almost every newspa-
per, recognizes and admits it.
The exigency is not denied; only the RENE
dy is in dispute. On either side of that dis
pute the two great political parties of the
country are aligned. The Democratic party
would reduce the revenue by lessening the
tax upon food, clothing, and other necessa,
ries of life. The Republican party would
effect such reduction by curtailing the tax on
spirits aud tobacco. Upon the issues thus
joined the Democratic party is ready for
trial, before Congress first and the people
afterwards. [Applause.
During the delivery of the foregoing speech,
the hour having expired,
On motion of Mr.. Springer by unanimous
consent, Mr.. Shaw was granted leave to con-
tinue until his rOmarks were concluded.