The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-04-19
THE FARMERS COLUMN.

y sFsa
Edited By tie PioneeYs Agricultural
Correspondent.
A Tariff Tax Bears Hardest on the
Poorest.
We will take first On extreme representa-
tive Of the honest poor and the laboring class.
Here Is washerwoman whom know
personally. She has six children to support,
and raise to decent life; she must keep the
wolves Of cold and hunger from her lowly
door. She Is, Of all, the one whom govern
ment should aid and protect. Every man
with heart in him will gladly grant this.
No mar in the Northwest has task equal
to hers. She can earn over her wash-tub. say
$lper day. If she keeps we'll she takes her
dollar to the groceryman, laysit down, and
walks out with on alleged dollars worth Of
sugar. II is an open liel She walks out
with about 55 cents worth Of sugar. The
rest is tax, levied by Uncle Sam. A tax Of
As per cent upon the widow and orphan: 45
per cent tax on her days wages! Remem-
Der that
Now take another casa. A bookkeeper,
also known to me, who gets SIS per day for
his time He is vastly better off in every
way then the widow vastly better able to
pay taxes. els fair representative ofthe
great middle class. He takes his dollar to
the store, walks out with his IS cents worth
Of sugar lit matters little whether this is ex-
ao. rate, it is practically correct) Fut the
tax on his days wages, On him is only 81
per cent. Now, mark You these two stand
for ninety mine hundredths Of our population
As a.last case. take an extremt illustration
of the very rich, Mr.. W. W. Astor for in.
stance, with his $2O00O0,OO0. Let us say
his incme is $4,000, per day, or in that
neighboreood. It but half that amount it
would serve, our purpose quite as well.
He sends his servant for $lworth Of sugar,
pays his doll, walks ont with his IS cents
worth Of srgar. II is the same tax on all
alike. says your proteotonist theorist and
politicians. But now will someone kindly
figure out the per centage of the tax on him.
The mysteries Of calculus cannot do it. II
is SO in6nitesimal that It is nothing. Who
can deny it7 Who answer il: Note then
the result: As per cent. on the widow and
orphan, representing poor, the. laborer, the
toiling Masses, as an extreme case taken
on purpose; 81 per cent. on the bookkeeper
and all his mighty class; nothing on the
millionaire ard his class. -
And this the public quacks and charlatans,
the theorists who clamor for Perfection
falsely so called, and all the subsidized pri.
vate tar gatherers ofthe land. together with
the great host Of the honetIy mistaken voters,
this thay call ever handed justice.
What farcel what an outrage on sense
and fair play, and humanity! The poorer
the man the more cruelty the illustration ap.
plies TO him. There is no escaping that oon-
clusion. Il is an absolute, abysmal fact, as
plain as the Yellowstone Canyon 70 any
man who is not bound to deceive himself
And this Is the sort Of governmental taxa
ton we are voting to keep up in our lar d Of
tho free and home of the brave. What can
theoutc,me Of such system be eventually
bnt miliionaireism on the one hand and
pauperism Oh the other? Aud note finally
il this Is the fact ss to an almost purely re-
venue tax on sugar, tenfold worse it looks
and is when applied TO all the multitude o.
the non revenue taxes, the cxaction to pri-
vate parties as bonuses to them for coductine
II cir own business The moro protective
your tariff the worse it bears down on the
poor, the needy and the toiler. TIE poorer
the farmer the heavier the burden, And
this is the beautiful system Of indirect tax
alton. This is the way it does work, and
must worK eOrevsr Would it not be better
to put on simplesoul tax Of 81. 00per head,
which is oil governmentneeds Of US, snd so
tax rich and poor alike, as to amount, mil
.lionaire and orphan, just as we are now do
ing without reference to their ability to bear
the tax, and then sweep away everyone and
ali Of the outrageous exactions Of this wretch
ed injustice and delusion, called the Protec-
tive TaritI. IN, w. Farmer & Breeder.
Well might Hon. Mr.. Voorhees, in
his speech in the u. s Senate on
how farmers suffer from protection
say