Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-10-10
The New Federal Tax Bill.

| The new Federal tax bill which increas-
es the tax of every man and woman in the
United States, is now law 1t is bill
Which in effect separates the people of the
United States from the rest of the world
| i'll trade, and taxes them for the benefit of
a selected class. We give some views about
it which should be read carefully:
The Opinion of a purely Commercial
Paper.
[From the N. Y. Commercial Bulletin.]
From the inception of the measure, we have
regarded its discussion as virtually useless.
All fair discussion of it has been syStemati-
cally excluded from the House OF Represent
tatives, and the interests most directly con-
| cerned in it have been treated with such
evidence of foregone conclusion that they
have largely desisted from protest, which they
knew would be of no avail. The bill is from
beginning to end AN exclusively party scheme,
deliberately, inhexibly and irresistibly forced
upon the country by disciplined and terror
lied Congressional majority, at the behest of
wealthy industries who, in consideration of
this service rendered, have contributed funds
and influence for carrying the elections in the
| Interest of the party now in ascendency, or
more correctly of certain party leaders. 1t
will stand upon the statute book as the gross
est and most corrupt exercise of legislative
power ever perpetrated in the history Of the
country, and as the signal monument of a
point of departure at which wealth and cor
rupt politics joined hands in an alliance for
defeating public opinion i'll the Government
of this nation. Its significance is that capital
has become omnipotent in politics; and that
controlling politicians stand ready to use
| that instrument; and meaning that, how can
it mean less than the COZ popatla has been
subjected to the power of an autOcracy of
wealth?
Great as will be tie revolutionary effects of
the bill upon large industries directly and
upon still greater interests indirectly, yet far
more important to the future of the country
is the precedent by this bill established of
governing by corrupbing elections and SUBJ
sidizing Congress. Palliate the thing as best
we may, it is a deliberate and broad invasion
of the fundamental principles of American
Free Government; and those who are respon-
sible for it are prepared to follow the revolu-
tionary departure into whatever it may lead.
We have no question but that the common
sense of the people will undo the injury to
material interests inflicted by this measure
the moment it is found possible to escape
from the trammelS that now control the law
making power; and when that period arrives,
nothing will be more reasonably expected
than a rush to the opposite extreme OF COM
mercial legislation. For it is to be renem-
bered that the measure has not been desired
by manufacturers generally, nor even by
maj ority of them; OH the contrary, there is
verV large proportion OF industries to which
ing the cost of partly manufactured raw mate
rails on which they are vitality dependent.
The same industries are surprising the con-
sumptive capacity OF the home market, and
nsasst have relief from tariff taxation in order
to find an outlet for their ever-increasing sur
plus of production. A point has been reached
in the development OF our manufactures at
which these two sets OF industries divide into
distinct classes, which even now, and much
more under the Mckinley bill, must stand
directly hostile to each other, the one repre-
Sentiug the effete errors Of our past CONNER
cial policy, the other the genius and irrepres=
sible energy OF American enterprises.
The effect Of the bill therefore can be neither
more nor less than to create transient arti=
fetal expansion i'll favor OF one OF these class
es, with Il corresponding repression upon the
other; and with half the Industrial class thus
committed in interest to lower duties, the
overthrow of the protective system will inc
vitality be fastened to its doom, and Ameri-
can enterprise be allowed fair field the wide
world over. Other side movements, such as
the significant demand for reciprocity
trade idea of commerce with foreign countries
without the obstacle of duties-and the grow
ing hostility OF the farmers to policy that
taxes without protecting them. such moves
ments may contribute very materially to the
early oyel;thrqW Of tho Mckinley nolstrous
monstrQs;ty; but the change, as we have many
times prophesied, will come chiefly through
the manufacturers, and mainly those of New
England, WHOSE Experiences aux ilectSsltles
have at last compelled them to Judge dispas-
sionately between the merits OF natural ba'
sis OF industry and an artificial one.
A Talk with the People who will sell
goods under the New Tax,
from the Baltimore sun October 7th.
While interviewing merchants in every
branch of industry, a Sun reporter found much
opposition to the bill, and gloomy prsdi lotions
for the future were given freely, Strikes