Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-10-30
Higher Taxes, Higher Prices.

The Chicago Herald has free tongue.
Here is plain, vigorous English:
The Republican high takers. willing sarv-
ants of monopoly, admit and. in fact, point
to the matter with pride, that slight in
crease In the tariff upon wines and cigars
has increased their price. They deny, how
ever, that large increase in the tariff upon
most OF the necessaries of life has increased
or will increase their prices at all, and in the
same breath they also maintain, contradic-
torily, that tariff is not tax; that the con-
sumner does not pay IL, and that the foreigner
does pay il.
The Herald imagines that vast amount
OF popular ignorance concerning taxes and
tariffs will be dissirated If the article in
another column of this issue showing the
position taken by American wholesalers and
manufacturers relative to the infamous Nc
hinley bill shall be as widely read as it de-
serves to be. In this article the Herald pre-
sents few OF the circulars received by one
great retail establishment in Chicago from
eastern wholesalers and manufacturers en-
gagged in almost every line of business.
Every one of these circulars calls attention to
the passage of the Mckinley bill, to the in
creased tariff tax which trade of all sorts
must bear and to the fact that prices to the
retailer must be Immediately advanced;
What does that mean2 Does it mean, az
the Tom Reeds and the Jim Blaines and the
Bill McKinleys declare, that the foreigner
pays the tax, that there is no tax, and that.
even If there is tax, the consumer does not
pay it? 1t does not.
1t means that the eastern wholesalers and
manufacturers pay the tax and add it to the
price OF their goods when sold to the retailer,
and the retailer must and will pass the tax
along TO the individual purchaser. Here we
have the whole thing in nutshell. Here is
proof that the tariff is tax, proof that it is
paid originally by Americans, proof that it
is added to the price by the importer. proof
that it is passed along By him to the whole
saler and proof that the wholesaler passes it
ON to the retailer. The increased price now
attached to every useful or necessary article
IN the stores reveal the indubitable fact that
TINS tax, increasing slightlyin magnitude as
lt is passed along, rests at last upon the
shoulders OF the American people.
Could infamy go deeper than to deny these
self-evident truths and to seek by faisehood
and sophistry such as Thomas B. Reed utters
daily to convince the people that such sys-
tenn as this is in their interest? One of the
saddest sights that confronted the old-time
anti-slavery agitators was that of negroes SO
stepped in the degradation and ignorance OF
bondage that they knew nothing Of freedom
and did not care for it. IL it possible that a
large portion of the American people can be
Kept longer in such mental and moral dark
ness that even when proofs of the Injustice
that is inflicted upon them are presented to
them they will, like the slave, still prefer the
bonds OF the oppressor to the liberty that is
offered to them?
A party never maintained more immoral
propaganda than that which is now the hope
of the Republicans. It rests upon the denial
of self-evident truths. Its foundation is the
hopeless ignorance and 0redulity of its vic
Tins. Its progress will mark the intellectual
and political decay of the American people,
as its effective overthrow will indicate their
reinvigoration and rejuvenation.