Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-03-20
LETTERS TO FARMERS.
A Few Facts About High Taxes on OH
Cloths and CARPETS.

A Few Facts About High Taxes ON OIL
Cloths and Carpets.
Nothing is more plausible for the ig
noraut or willy protection advocate:
luXuries high aud put moderate tax
on common necessaries.n Sometime
ago ! showed in the deadly parable
column that in the American tariff
system it is just the reverse. For in
stance, rich man who can afford Il
drink bottle of dear still wine, cost.
ing So or 81, will only pay tax of at
most 10 per cent, and on champagne
the average duty in 1856 was 90 per
cent. But the tax On castor oil was iu
1856 10 less than lS9.2S per cent. Per
haps | am wrong after all. There ma V
be greater luxury in castor oil than
III bottle of champagne or Chateau
1Quem. The latter may bring pain.
The former III general relieves it. /
am, there fore, puzzled how 10 class a
luxury or nee ssiiy.
Our friend, the farmer, who builds
new house (Which prut-cti0nists may,
first Of all, consider luxury may be
DESTROYS to put down some floor OIL
cloth, drugget carpet, and even a
tapestry carpet. Should the American
farmer entertain such q luxurious am
bition as using oiIclOth, he should GER
taiuly be made aware that this free,
rich and great country, imposes a
severe tax on such extravaganza, not
because there is heavy interest on the
national debt to pay, nor indeed, is
the tax wanted at all, as the country
is actually cursed with a surplus of
500, 900, goo annually, but simply for
the best otall reasons that there were
in 1850 the following hands employed
in the floor oil-cloth business, namely,
$50 men. ) women and 10 children,
and these received q total of S733 ,235
Of about So to the men. Hence the
duty on floor oll-cloth is 40 per cent.
In 1880 the value of fioor-cloth produc-
ed at home was S4,72l ,066 l dare say
it IS now at least $4,000, 900. The en-
hanced tax paid on this home made
product is at least s. 10000 and we
collected in 1856 duty of SllO, ,000, ,347
and the account stands thus:
Paid III 1886 Ia hame- made floor
cloth. .-.....-...... ...-........... 81 ,0cO
Paid to the Treasury duty on floor
CLOTH. .................... 11o,347
Total. -....................S1 81 ,610, ,347
With these little statistics before us
[ beg 10 call the farmers attention
who has built new house that if he
wants to buy $50 worth of oil-cloth
the tax thereon is about S14; or in 9TH
er words, he has to raise i73 bushels of
wheat at so cents a bushel to pay an
extra taxi on $50 worth of oil-cloth.
The value OF yard of floor oil-cloth
abroad in 1886 was 63 cents.
The next great luxury that the
farmers wife may desire for her rooms
is common drugget. Well. this luxu-
riOus article costs abroad 361 cents a
square yard, and the duty thereon Is
- cents per square yard, and in addi-
ton thereto so per cent. ad valorem or,
say altogether 7l.40 per cent. Should
she indulge in this great luxury and
need, say 100 yards only, she viii have
To pay an extra tax as near as pOssble
of S26. And her worthy husband will
have to raise 255 bu. of whe eat at so cents
per tushe1, not TO pay for any extra
value III the carpet, but simply for the
tax" There is at least one room left
which will be furnished with that
showey and lively looking carpet
known as tapestry BRUSSELS. The du-
ty on this goods was, in 1886, 59-46 per
cent. This carpet costs 6S cents a
square yard abroad. Shout. the farm
house parlOr need 40 square yards of
carpet, the farmer will pay an extra
tax Of S16.34 and raise 20 bushels of
wheat to pay the extra tax. Thus,
then, furnishing his house with The
cheapest kind Of fiOor-cloth and carp
citing, it costs him:
On floor cloth On tapestry.... 16 81
taX.-......-.Sli 100
On druEget~ tax 900 Total. @slG.34
This may in some measure look
small. But suppose there are Of the
5000, 600 900 separate farms now in the
country only : per cent. newly built and
rebuilt, that would be 100000 houses.
If each should pay this outrageous
swindling tax it would aggregate over
50, 500 900. That is, this good, solid
money is taken from the farmers with
out the least compensation to uphold
the so-much -lauded American home
system.
Before I conclude this letter it is
once more necessary for me (perhaps
for the hundredth timeJ to state that
nothing is more misleading than the
protectionist's irrepressible assertions
that goods. although highly protected
are sold here as cheap as abroad. L
was especially amused when this as
sertion was pointed out to me few
days ago in private letter Us to
tapestry carpets. Well, then, let me
demolisb this suppposition. There is
tapestry carpet, homemade, sold all the
way from Is cents to perhaps $1.25 a
ward; ell depends on quality.
The kind Of tapestry carpet sold here
for. say 50 cents a running yard, eau.
not be imported, as it is entirely pro-
hibited. Such a carpet, no doubt sells !
in ENGLAND for about is. Sd. runLing
vard. or 80 cents. The lowest duty on
tapestry carpet is 20 cents a square
yard, and in addition 80 per cent. ad
yalorem. Hence such carpet is en-
tirely prohibited. The lowest price
tapestry carpet that can be imported
costs in England about G8 cents a |
square yard, and the duty thereon is
"a SO per cent. In 1856 we imported
Isl. .826 square yards of this carpet
and paid a duty Of $50 35l on it, which
clearly proves that the consumers of
II pestry carpet OF better class, such
which costs IS cents abroad, whether
imported or homemade, has to pay