Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-10-01

when congress, by taxation, increases
the price we have to pay for an article
necessary to our wants, it increases
the amount of labor we have to ex-
pend to procure the same thing.
Three pounds of wooden hosiery can
be bought in England to-day for 81,
or one days work. McKinley's bill
proposes to put tax of 200 per cent.
on that goods. 1t will then take SO
or three days work to purchase it
one days work to purchase the goods
and two days work to encourage the
sad and melancholy manufactures.
Four pounds of worsted underware
can to-day be bought in England for
81, or one days work, but when the
new tariff bill passes, with its duty of
III per cent, it will take two and
three-quarters days labor-one to pay
for the goods and one and three quar-
tiers for the benefit of the manufacture
err. One days work will now buy
one dollars worth Of student lamp
chimneys, but when the bill to check
importation passes, with its duty of
450 per cent, it will take five and
one-half days work-one to buy the
chimneys and four and one-half days
work to light the lamp of JOY in the
bosom of the lamp manufacturer, who
now declare an annual dividend of "a
per cent. net profits. One hundred
pounds of forged iron can now be
bought in Europe for 81, or one days
work, but when the new bill passes to
put 100 per cent. duty on it. it will
forge" two days work out of the
laborer-one to pay for the iron and
one to help the manufacturer to buy
a castle in Scotland or fortress in
Mexico.
These instances are to show the
effect of taxing all articles imported
into the United States. 1t requires
more labor to obtain the same amount
of every article upon which the tax is
imposed. Is that the way to increase
in wealth? And yet its advocates tell
us that taxing people is the way to
make them rich, and of course the
more you tax them the richer they
get. If labor creates wealth, and
we know it does, then it must follow
that the less labor that is required in
given time to procure given result,
the amount of labor that would be re-
leased to be employed in others pro-
auctions, and consequently the greater
the increase of production the greater
the increase of wealth. The price at
which the importer sells in the market
is the price at which the domestic pro.
Queer of the similar article sells in the
same market. There cannot be two
market prices for the same thing at
the same time and in the same place.
What amount of the $7,000,000,0 900.
of domestic produce bears the same
average enhanced of As per cent. it is
impossible to tell, but it is safe to say
one-third of it, and that the consump-
ton of the products of our domestic
manufacturers costs the consumer a
thousand million dollars annually
which is paid to manufactures to pro-
tect him against competition, and to Sc
cure him the enjoyment of a monopoly.
To pay this sum would require thou
sand million days work at 81 per day.
Placing our population at 65,000,000
souls, that would represent about 20,
100000 laborers, and at twenty.six
working days to the month it would
require two months work out of
every twelve by each laborer to pay
the debt which a protective tariff has
written upon the muscles of his arms.
He has to work more than one month
to pay the taxes placed on articles
which he must consume to live.
One month he must work for the
support of the government, and two
months to build up fortunes for its
favorites and castles for them to live
in.-Iowa Standard.