Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-09-16
The Tariff Tax on Salt.

Il ANooAA OhO NOOU VI tuOOC OIlluSO HhlCb
sustain human life? / know of no
clearer case of outrage upon the people
of the United States than the tariff tax
of twelve cents per cwt. on salt.
Need it be said that salt is a necessi-
| ty? All know it to be. The farmer
needs it all the seasons for his live
stock; the housewife three times day
during the entire year in the kitchen
and weekly at least in making butter,
while the butter and cheese makers
use millions OF pounds yearly.
Nature provided it in abundance in
this country; indeed, SO plentiful is it
in the Western District of New York
that it is quarried and hoisted to the
surface at cost Of fifty cents per ton.
Not all of the salt we use is pro-
duced here. Somewhat less than half
of the salt consumed here is imported
from across the ocean.
| The owners of our salt fields have
| told our law makers that unless a tax
is placed on foreign salt to compel our
people to pay more for salt made here,
they will 60 out of business, and that
would throw laboring men out Of WORK
| etc.
This is simply a threat; as they would
do nothing of the kind. But suppose
they did go out of business, ETC., what
proportion Of our people would be
affected The number of persons en-
gagged in salt production, Owners and
wage workers. compared with the
number engaged as meat cures, but
ter and cheese makers, not to speak of
| farmers who use salt, is as one to
twenty thousand, and where one dollar
is invested in salt production more
than one hundred and twenty dollars
is invested in creameries, cheese
factories, in meat and fish curing, and
63,000,000 people would get salt
cheaper for all their needs.
Justice is not done when the in
fluence one ONE dollar invested in
business is greater than ONE HUNDRED
| AND TWENTY DOLLARS invested in
another business, nor when one man
engaged in one line of work is more
powerful than twenty thousand men.
AS result the many are taxed for the
benefit of the few.
| The tariff tax on salt is twelve cents
per cWt. or 1856 cents per barrel (280
lbS.) | care not whether the salt pro-
| ducer here adds the tax to his salt, it
is an unnecessary tax and hence an
Unjust tax. l give you the words of
the salt makers at Syracuse, New
York Up. 1903 Tariff Commission) to
show you that they say it costs lis
cents per bushel to make it, that five
bushels or barrel costs SIS cents,
that barrel costs Is cents, total cost
1875 cents. This is the fine boiled salt
that comes to us in sacks and for table
use and for packing butter on the
| farm.
It costs your merchants ONE DOLLAR
AND NINETY-FIvE CENTS per barrel of
280 lbs. Is there no room between
1875 cents and $1.95 for the salt pro-
ducer to put on tax of 1876 cents
You may depend upon it that men
who have power will use it.
The point to lay hold of is that
under the tariff law our meat and fish
curers import Turks Island and other
grades of foreign salt not found here
at all, as it is cheaper for them to buy
foreign salt, pay the duty and when
they export the meat and fish cured in
foreign salt, go to the Treasury of the
United States and get back ninety
nine cents of each dollar that they
paid as tariff tax. But the farmers
and the men who make butter and
cheese using foreign salt and who pay
the duty on 1t ARE NOT ALLOWED TO
DO THIS when they send their butter
and cheese abroad though it may be
on the same vessel and to the same
port. The Democratic Mills Bill put
salt on the free list to remedy this
wrong, but protectionists would not
hear to it; they had the power and they
used it to defeat the bill More than
this, Turks Island and other grades of
salt not found here are said by butter
and cheese men to be best, especially
when they sell their products in foreign
markets in competition with butter
and cheese from countries which use
this foreign salt.
This foreign salt does not compete
with any grade that we have here.
Where then is the justice of taxing our
people million dollars, as we did last
year? If our salt markers do not
produce this grade of salt no tax can
protect them. No one can defend
tax on salt when this country is so rich
in salt deposits that can be so cheaply
worked, nor do we need a tax on
foreign salt when nature gave us the
protection of three thousand miles of
water. Respectfully,
| F. M. DYER.