The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-03-08

exercise. For Great Britain her revenue
system seems to me an exhibition OF states
lmanshp Of the highest order. The members
OF parliament receive no pay for their serv-
Ices. but her cabinet ministers-the adv
of her majesty, who are ex-ofilcio members-
receive large salaries, rs do her judges and
other officers Hers is not niggardly gov
ernment, but il is not wasteful. The rich
taxpayers have much to say about the pub
lie expenditures, and they are careful 70 see
to il that they are neither instructed nor
extravagant.
OUR STATE, CITY AND COUNTY TAXES.
This revenue system, admirable AS II is for
Great Britain, is not suited to the United
States. Our government while govern
ment of the people and for the people, and
sovereign in the exercise OF It's constitu-
tionai powers, is also government OF states
Each state is entitled to two senator's IN the
Federal congress and at least to one repre-
sentative and 10 as many more as u Is en-
titled to by its populations; so that the little
state Of Delaware and each Of the states re-
Gently admitted into the Union, with It's
single member in the house, has the same
numerical strength in the senate that the
great state of New York has with its thirty
four members. Each state has also govern
ment OF its own-a governor, a legislature
. supreme and other courts, ami gu officers
which are nt.,ied to perform official duties in
independent states. Except so far as the
powers of their legislatures are limited by
the Federal constitution they are sovereigns,
Each has the power 20 determine what shall
be the qualification OF voters and the manner
In which elections shall be held, each has the
power to contract debts for internal i'm
provements and for other purposes.
Each has OF course, power 10 tax Tor the
support of its state government. BY each au-
thority is given to its cities and counties to
levy and collect taxes for the payment OF
their current expenses, and so freely is this
authority exercised that in some states the
state, county and city taxes amount to near
lly per cent upon all real and personal prop
erty. A large part Of the personal property
escapes taxation, and the real estate may be
undervalued; but taxes are heavy in oil the
states, in some burdensome If to the state
and county and city taxes the indirect taxes
10 which consumers are subject by protective
duties upon imports were added, it might be
| taid that there is no civilized nation in the
world in which the aggregate OF taxation is
so high as in the United States. 1t might be
said also that there is no other country so
| able to bear 1t,
Now as states, counties and cities are sup
ported by direct taxation upon lands and per-
sonal property, and these taxes are rs heavy
as large part of the taxpayers are able to
bear, the Federal government must be main
ly supported by duties upon imports Taxes
upon incomes have been resorted to and might
be again in periods of emergency, but so diff
fcult was il, and would be again, to make
such taxes equal, where incomes are so uncer-
tain and are so easily concealed, that it may
be regarded as n fixed fact that neither in
| come taxes nor taxes upon the states will he
again resorted to by the Federal government.
1t therefore follows that upon import duties
must the chief reliance Of the government for
revenue be based.
| WAY FREE TRADE Is IMPOSSIBLE.
| Considerable revenue will, rs heretofore, be
derived. under an internal revenue system,
from taxes upon domestic manufactures, es-
pecinlly whisky and tobacco, but the main
reliance Of the government must, as has al
ways been the case, be upon tariff, and as
the public expenditures are large and are
more likely to he increased than diminished,
the tariff can never be low one, Besides,
the people willingly bear taxation upon what
much higher taxes if directly assessed.
Free trade may be among the things hoped
for, but il is one that never will be realized
by the people of the United States. Every
intelligent man in the United States knows
this, and yet there are men in high places,
and managers of influential public journals,
who speak of those who favor a reform OF the
tariff as being free traders or tariff smashers
| A. cr.,,, Iu.l IN ify thara
must be a tariff, il is of the last Importance
that it should be so framed as not to be I'M
necessarily burdensome upon consumers nor
at war with useful branches of domestic in
dustry, nor IA bar to free exchanges with for
eign countries. 1t has been clearly shown by
the advocates of tariff reform that the pres
ent tariff is not of this character; that it Is
unnecessarily burdensome to the great body
Of the people; that it is at war with many
branches of domestic industry; that it is a bar
to international trade. 1t was created as
war measure, in great national emergency,
to strengthen the credit of the government,
and to secure large revenue These objects
having been accomplished, it should long since
have been subject to thorough revision to ac-
commodate it to the changed condition of the
country.
| The question, therefore, whlch Tor years
has demanded, and now imperatively de-
mands the attention Of congress is not be-
tween tariff and free trade, but whether the
tariff should be- mainly for protection or
mainly for revenue; in other words, whether,
in the imposition of duties revenue should he
the object and protection the incident, or
whether protection should be the object and
revenue the incident, AS my opinion upon
this great point has been fully and frequently
expressed, | am not disposed to repeat 1t.
would only remark in passing that as large
revenues must he derived from duties upon
imports il will be very difficult 50 to modify
the tariff that it will fail to be protective. l
proceed, therefore, to examine what Mr..
Blaine says about the effects of tariff iegila-
ton upon the public welfare, lie takes
broadly the position that not only has the
country been prosperous under protective
tariffs, but that the reverses to which 1t has
been subject in its onward and upward career
have been, with a single exception, the legit-
innate consequences Of an abandonment of the
protective policy. To prove the correctness
Of this statement, he refers 10 the period in
which these reverses occurred.
THE REvKRsEs OF 1917.
or these rayprsps | have only To say that III