The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-04-19

places is owing to a defect in the law
or to some defect in the locality?
Mr.. Watson. I think it is owing to
defects in the law itself, because there
never has been an excise law that did
not give rise to the same trouble.
Mr.. Hopkins, of Illinois. Now, II
that is true
Mr.. Watson. I shall be compelled to
decline to be interrupted further, Mr.
Chairman. l do not want to go into a
general discussion of the subject now.
If gentlemen will have my time ex
tended, l shall be glad to ans Ter their
questions. l was simply combating
the ideal platform laid down for the
Democratic party.
Mr.. Hopkins, of Illinois. I do not
desire t break up the thread of the
gentleman's discourse at all.
Mr.. Watson. What is your question?
Mr.. Hopkins, of Illinois. l want to
ask you how you explain that the per
Centage of cost is so small in Illinois
and New York and other Northern
States?
Mr.. Watson. 1 explain that just as
l explain your collection, as an attOr-
ney, of 800, 900 in one amount for a
smaller percentage of cost than IN my
small town can collect claims Of $40
aggregating 800, 900. That is all.
Now, Mr.. Chairman, l want to come
to TIE system of taxation by custom
houses. Some time ago my colleague
from Georgia Mr.. Livingston APP
peared with certain other gentlemen,
DR.. Macune, I believe, and L. L. Polk,
before a committee of Congress to
argue a proposition that we ought to
have a system of warehouses built in
this country through which and by
which q system Of government dis
tributaries could be established, so as
to give the people some of the benefits
of their own financial system. That
proposition vas laughed out of court.
That proposition was treated as absurd.
Gentlemen said that to build ware
houses in 1900 counties would cost
$50, 600, 900.
| am going to cOncede, as a matter
of argument, that 1t would cost $780,
600, 600. | will remark. however, by
way of preface, thati it never was neces
sary for the successful operation of the
Sub Treasury system that we should
build warehouses at all; but, taking
the bull by his horns, and every inch
of his horns, let us see how that system,
that wildly absurd scheme (as its Oppo-
nents call it,, would compare with the
scheme which you have actually put
into practice to protect the manufac-
turers (as some say or tOcoliect taxes,
as others say.
Let us compare the two systems.
There I IN the neighborhOOd of two
hundred custom houses in this country.
Let us suppose that each of them cost
only $3.50, 900. then you have y,ur $50
0O0 00n already Cnnnt for hO1ISoC not
including a dollar for land. l am told
that the custom house of New York
alone cost ten or fifteen or twenty mil
lion dollars, and that the land upon
which 1t is built Is worth as much.
Mr.. BOutelle. [ thought it cost only
81, O0O, 600.
Mr.. Watson. Now. I will take the
system either way, take it for the col,
lection of taxes or for the protection of
industries, and | will show YOU that
your custom house system Is a more
wildly expensive system than that pro-
posed by my colleague from Georgia
Mr. Livin 5ston and demanded in our
ST. Louis platform. Take the State of
Georgia for illustration. We have a
house at Atlanta. Ia 1891 it collected
50, 900 and it did so at a cost of 81, 900.
At Brunswick, in the same State. they
collected 81 600 and it cost SIS, 900 to
collect it. Laughter.
At st. Marys, in my State, they did
not collect any customs duties at all
but there is $50 put down for tonnage,
and the cost of collecting that 800 was
81. 400. At Savannah, Ga, $50 900 was
collected at a cost of $15. 900. The
aggregate for the State of Georgia was
S75, 600, collected at a a cost of $25 600
say 333 per cent.
But this thing gets prettier the more
something more Of this matter. In
a cost of $50 600.
A Member. What State?
Mr.. Watson Virginia-the good
old State Of Virginia-the land of
knightly men and beauteOus m
That is what the tariff system did down
in Virginia. In West Virginia there
was collected 1894 How many men
got exhausted during that arduOuS
work [ do not know; but the cost of
collecting that amount was 81, 159.
That IS almost enough to conduct a
Congressional funeral. Laughter.
Now, take Florida. At Appalachicola
there was collected 81, 900, and 81, 400
was spent in doing it; and they con-
graduated themselves that they did not
spend more. At Fernandina some
thing over So, 1000 was collected, and
50. 500 was spent in doing it. At st.
Augustine there is a man who excites
my sy mpathy. He is the collector
there and collected Is cents for the
year 1891, and it cost him 81. 800 to do
it That is a literal fact, Mr.. Chair
man, as stated IN the official reports.
What on earth that lonely man does
for company while he is not collecting
that Is cents the Lord only knows.
Laughter.
Mr.. Chairman, 1 have seen with
many a sympathetic throb the express
sion Of hopeless WEAKNESS on the faces
of some of u employees about this
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