The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-09
THE CRIME OFTARIFF
HISTORY OF INDIRECT OR CROOKED"
TAXATION.

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Relieved and the Poorest Compelled
TO Pay Tribute Out of Their Misery.
Taxes upon Consumption.
The great crime of our tariff is that
which is inherent in every tariff. 1t is
the most ingenious and effective means
ever devised for the plumber of the poor
and the enrichment of the rich. do
not now refer merely to direct robbery
of the poor for the benefit of the rich,
through so called protective and pro-
hibitory measures. | refer to the whole
system of indirect taxation, which is
founded upon tariffs and could not ex-
list for a day without them.
Indirect, or, as l always prefer to call
it, crooked taxation, was invented in
days when the mass of the people had,
as a famous bishop boastingly said,
nothing to do with the laws except to
obey them" 1t owed its origin to the
grasping desire of despotic governments
and their agents to eXtort as much as
possible from the people. The wealthy
classes had d power Of resistance which
made it dangerous to push them very
ldI. lIlt tdASdtllCItlS dllcilIIttu W SOl-
lect direct taxes from the people at
large, but found the task too laborious
and costly: just as in Boston today the
collection of poll taxes from the poor
costs more than the entire receipts from
the poorer classes. Then it occurred to
them that, by taxing the food and cloth
ing of the people, they might compel the
poorest to pay tribute ont Of their misery.
AS soon as the new idea was put into
practice it was found that taxes upon
consumption were productive of far
greater revenue, with far less resistance
upon the part of taxpayers, than any
form of straightforward taxation which
had ever been tried. So it was very ac-
ceptable to the taxgatherers.
After a short experience of crooked
taxation rich men everywhere realized
that it relieved them from most of the
burdens of government, and as they were
public administration they insisted upon
the abolition of direct taxes and the sub
stitution of crooked ones.
Taxes upon food, clothing, furniture,
buildings and other necessities of life,
whether levied by a tariff upon imports
or a tax upon home productions, are
what are known in economic science as
taxes upon consumption, and it is in
evitable that such taxes should be paid
principally by the poorer classes and
only to a trifling extent by the rich. This
is easily understood upon a few mo-
ments' reflection. If bread is taxed lhe
10000 families who own half the wealth
of this country cannot eat more bread
than 10000 day labOrers' families. if as
much. The 10000, 900 families who own
less than o~ne-quarter of the national
wealth will pay 800 times as much of the
bread tax, in proportion to their means OF
payment, as will the 10000 favored ones
A hungry newsboy will pay as heavy {
bread tax as II northumberland.
What is true of bread is true. to
slightly less degree, Of every other thing
which is made the subject of crooked
taxation. 1t will be said that ~luxurie.
are taxed and that such taxes are paid
only by the rich. But the amount OF
taxes which are or can be collected upon
pure Injuries, used only by the rich, il
r~idicuously small compared with the Ell
tire public revenue. What are called lux
uries are used largely by the poor, ant
the attempt sometimes made to justify
taxes upon the poor sewing girls ribbons
gloves, bits of lace and tiny ornaments
as superf1uOus Injuries, is an act OF
purse proud arrogance and impudence.
There never has been, there is not o
and there never will be any system Of
taxation upon consumption which doe
not bear ten times as heavily upon tn,
great mass of the hard working peopl,
as it does upon the rich and prosperous
OF which does not bear a hundred or
thousand times as heavily upon day la
borers and sewing women as it does upoi
the m~illionaires.
The result is, of course, that the small
savings of the hardest working class ar,
J almost entirely swept away by crooke,
taxation, while the savings of the yer,
rich are almost entirely untouched
Year by year the concentration of wealth
in few hands goes On at ever acceleratins
pace. THOMAS q. SHEARMAN.