The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1891-07-17


people their surplus earnings, whether
that be much or little, just SO long will
the return of prosperity be postponed. l
would not make financial reform wait
on tariff reform, but they should go hand
in hand, the one to cut out the eating
cancer. and the other to heal the
wound have so long heard the idea
OF relieving the people by reducing the
tariff ridiculed that | expect nothing
else from the friends and advocates Of
the monopolies and the trusts. 1t is
a familiar song to the people, but the
people are learning to associate cause
with effect. 1t has been argued for
years that the tariff is not a tax on the
consumer, and that it does not increase
the cost of articles on which it is inn
posed. Millions of money and oceans of
ink have been expended to give this
falsehood the complexion of truth,
and the muddy stream of corruption
still flows on. Eloquence and sophistry,
backed by prejudice and ignorance,
coupled with bribery and corruption,
have carried the day for thirty years,
but the light of truth is breaking on the
minds of men everywhere. Free quinine
and free sugar are beacon-lights Mr..
Blaine, with his policy of reciprocity,
has bored free trade hole in the bot
tom of the ship Protection that will sink
1t. Reciprocity in its practical applica-
! ton means free trade for the manufac-
turers with the farmers of South Amer
agricultural products That enriches
our manufacturers, but does not help
our farmers. Our farmers now want to
know why free trade with the European
countries which buy our surplus agri-
cultural products would not be good
| thing for them. One fact in the scales
of justice Outweigh thousand tictions
invented to overturn it. Listen! When
Congress removed the tax from quinine
it had been selling at from four to five
dollars an ounce. The price soon fell to
fifty Dnd sixty cents an ounce The
friends of monopoly have been explain
ing ever since that taking the tax off
had nothing to do with the decline in
price.
When Congress removed the tax from
sugar the consumer bought twenty
pounds Of grsnulated sugar the next
day for one dollar, whereas he could
only buy from nine to twelve pounds
before the tax was removed.
The friends of monopoly may sneel
at the idea of relieving the farmer by
taking the hand of the tax-gatherer out
Of his pocket, but his wife will tell him
that if it made quinine cheaper
and it made sugar cheaper to take of
the tariff tax, that it would make cloth
ing and agricultural implements and q
thousand other things cheaper to abol
ish the tax on them. The effect o
taking the tax off sugar is to leave ovel
$50 100000 year in the pockets of tn,
, people which before was paid to tn
} government for taxes. That is not mucl
, compared with the taxes which the.
} are compelled to pay on other things
but it will help some. 1t is estimated
that the people of the United State
, pay $1,000, 100000 annually as a gift t.
= the manufacturers besides the 1929, 600
( 900 paid as a tax to the government o
{ imported articles. Cut the tariff to
! revenue basis, and several hundred mi
0 lions OF this money would remain i
l the pockets of the people, instead c
0 going, as il now goes, into the pocket
= of the manufacturers to swell thei
( already overgrown fortunes. Such
policy would not make so many million
+. aires and tramps but 1t would max
B millions of people little richer, an
+. make many home brighter and happie
0 We might increase our circulation
s fifty dollars per capita or reduce it
twenty, and the operation of our tart
and other class laws would effect th
/ same result. The many would earn til
= wealth and the few would get It. I'll
n only difference would be that with MOI
t money the many would earn more, an
e get to use a part of it little longer, br
v in the end the few would get nearly a
!. of 1t. There would be greater activit.
J. better prices and greater general pro
q perity for time, but the law of unequ
II taxation and the operation of other cla
q legislation, with certainty as alnerriE
# as the fixed laws of the universe, woul
!. concentrate the wealth in the hands
q a few millionaires, and the sooner O.
re able them to count their wealth by IL
It billions. Our tariff is political Pa
d dora's box. 1t is the foundation of
o CLASS LEGISLATION,
le that curse of the people in all Cover
n, ments, and the most insidious and dea
d ly foe of republics. Glass legislation
d the prolific mother of those trusts, m
le nopolies and combines which Great,
"a | the million airna and tho fra mpr II III