The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-08-19
VINO PII.s THE TIRIPF T4X ?

MI. Mckinney In his speeches upOi
the tariff declares that it is not a ia,
upon the American consumer of i'm
ported goods but upon the foreignel
who exports them to this country
Mr.. Ct. NJ. Williams in the Baltimort
SIN explodes this fallacy in yer,
logical manner. He says if Mr.. Nc
Kinley's conclusions are true it would
be very easy fer our government tt
pay every dollar of its expenses with
out costing our people a single cent
and not only that but to collect at the
same time enough from foreigners te
make every man, woman and child il
the country rich. 1t seems str 'nge
too, that other countries, England
for instance, have not found ont and
adopted this get-rich-quick system in
stead of adhering to free-trade and in
viting everybody who has anything
to sell to bring it into their countries
and carry away their products in
exchange.
The writer cites the abolition of the
duty on sugar as an illustration of the
fact that the American consumer and
not the foreign merchant pays the
tariff tax, for it is well remembered
that when the duty of two cents a
pound was abolished the retail price
of sugar fell exactly that much and
has remained SO ever since.
One of the claims of protectionists is
that the Mckinley bill not only cheap
ems goods but increases wages. The
question is pertinently asked, if the
tariff really cheapens goods how can il
benefit manufacturers and enable
them to pay higher wages? Mr.. Viii,
liams also shows that the object of a
tariff is to prevent competition. By
the exclusion of foreign goods ouI
manufacturers can and do combine to
fix prices to suit themselves. 1t is moi
so with the farmer. The domestic de-
mand rarely affects the price of wheat,
which is regulated by the price abroad,
where it comes in competition with
wheat from India and other places,
raised by labo. costing from five to
ten cents a day. At the same time
the farmer is compelled to buy all he
needs in q home market, where there
is TO competition and where prices
are fixed at regular intervals by trusts
and combinations.
The remedy is pointed out 1t is tt1
change the policy and instead of vot-
ing for Harrison AID protection to
vote for Cleveland and reform. The
article concludes:
Republican policy has prevailed for
thirty years, and there has not been
a day in the whole of that time in
which the people, and the farmers
particularly, have not been promised
unbonnded prosperity as the certain
result of that policy. / put it to every
farmer to say if he remembers time
when his condition was worse than it
is II wv, or if he can recall an occasion
when he received any benefit from the
tariff? II the taliff has failed to bene-
fit him in the past, why should he be-
ieve it will do so in the future Why
should he continue to credit the asser-
tions and put faith in the promises OF
the Republican party when the ex-
perience of thirty years has proved
the one to be false and the other de-
lusive? Ordinarily patience is a
virtue, and it cannot be denied the
farmer has it, but there are times
when it becomes a crime, and one OF
those times is now here. Will he act
Mr.. Mckinley, the great exponent
of high tariff, has declared in sew
eral speeches that the Republican
party proposes to raise our govern.
ment needs by taxing other countries
seeking a market in the United States.
Senator John Sherman, equally
high as a Republican authority, in a
speech in 1867 said
II said it, and | stand by it, that as
general rule the duties paid upon i'm
ports operate as a tax upon the con-
samer. A few years of further expert
ence will convince the whole body OF
our people that system of national
taxes which rests the whole burden OF
taxation on consumption and not en-
tirely on property or income is intrin
sically unjust
Senator Plumb, Republican, like
wise, in 1888 said:
who pays the taxes When the
manufacturer of iron comes to the
Senate and says: i can live or car
make a profit, if certain duty is i'm
posed, what is he saying? He is sim
ply saying, if you give me certain
duty you put it in my power to charge
over that duty asan additional tax Oh
the farmers of the United States"
These are things for voters to think
about.