Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-06-26
HOW THE TARIFF TAXES.
NO. III.


II has been said that death and taxation
are the Inheritance Of every mortal and that
neither can be escaped By poor humanity.
The abuse Of the latter should, however, not
be permitted and as far ~ possible nsads to
fall, like the dew Of Heaven, upon all alike
and in equal and exact proportion. Taxation
should be strictly confined TO legitimate pub
lie purposes and not prostituted 10 the en-.
richmsnt of private individuals. We must
and should pay for the protection offered by
government, but not for the protection Of
certain Glasses; and taxation is certainly not
made more sndurable to know that its great
est burden falls upon persons of moderate
means and upon the poor.
That the tariff tax is not for the support
and benefit of the government, is freely con-
ceeded by Mckinley and his fellow monop-
olists in Congress. It is boldly and i'm
pude 1tly asserted that this system of robbery
is for the ''protection" of certain classes,
who, for some inscrutible reason, have been
made the wards Of the government and re-
ceiye more careful guardianship than even
those who imperiled their lives for the coun-
try. Protection, either. in the form of boun-
ty or of an indirect tar upon necesssries and
raw materials, is simply scheme to enrich
certain corporations and men for partisan
purposes at the expense of consumers. 1t
creates wild scramble by all conceivable
Industries to tap some vein of the public.
The greatest absurdity of the advocates of
protection is the claim that the tariff is of
benefit to the farmer and the laborer. The
farmer is told that he has tariff duty on
wheat, eggs and cabbage. How much of
either commodity is imported About
900 bushels of wheat, and this for seed, up
on which the farmer himself must pay the
tariff tax. The importation of eggs and cab
bage is Ridiculous. The farmer, and soon
the manufacturer too, must find a foreign
market for his products. II may not be
without interest, says an exchange, to scan
the direction of our foreign trade. By the
last report from the treasury we sold abroad
of cattle to the value of $25. .673, 1866, of which
Great Britain took $24.612,5l3, and all the
rest of the world only 81, ,060,s53. OF canned
beef we sold Sc, 026,9 $40, of which Great Brit
ain took all but 81, ,2s9, ,2O7; of fresh beef we
sold $13, ,OO2, 7l3. Of which Great Britain took
all but 81, ,05S, ,423; Of salted beef we sold $3,-
Ss9, ,735, of which Great Britain took all but
81, ,109, ,454; of pork products and lard we sold
81, ,744,S ,SS1, of which Great Britain took $4S,-
800. .40S. Those ''British raupers" are
pretty high feeders and rather good custom
ers.
England threatens retaliation by assessing
an import duty on American products if the
Mckinley bill should become law; and
France has already replied to this Chinese
wall measure by placing prohibitory duty
on Indian corn, and Canada will probably do
the same thing. Mexico, also, will levy an
export duty on silver and lead ores in order
to force the removal of American smelling
works to her side of the Rio Grande. The
retaliatory legislation commenced by these
nations will probably be followed by
others, and concerted effort be made to
punish our people for the folly of their legis-
lators. 1t is the natural thing to do. II
England were to prohibit the importation OF
American wheat there would arise demand
in this country for retaliatory prohibition
of some British articles of commerce which
find market in this country. There would
be war of tariffs which might be followed
by war of arms. One would be almost as
destructive as the other.
How about the farm laborer? How has his
wages been effected by thirty years of pro-
tective tariff? According to the protectionist
theory they shonld have been maintained at
least, if not advanced, but the facts show
that the reverse has been the case. The fol-
lowing figures of the average wages paid to
farm hands in the sections and during the
years indicated are taken from report No. 81,
issued by the statisticisn of the department
of agriculture in May, 1883:
1886 1888
Eastern states. 1880 S26 0a