The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1893-10-04
An Instructive Lesson.

| The arguments made by the manufac-
turers for a continuance OF their subsidies
have been heard time and again, and time
and again they have been refuted. What
the people now demand is prompt and
| vigorous action.
Taxation, tariff taxation, is today
cloak for the robbery of the many who
are poor for the benefit OF few who are
! rich. These few, as do a minority in the
Senate, seem to be doing all the talking.
But occasionally the people have an ad-
vocate to appear and protest against any
further subsection of the masses to the
classes Here is one case:
Among the articles in most general nse
are floor oilcloth, linoleum and mattings,
together with oilcloths in imitation of
leather and light oilcloths used TO cover
the table, shelf and stairs. They are
used in every house and cabin, either
| directly or as materials for the manufac-
ture of many articles used by the poor.
The existing tariff rates, it is shown,
compel consumers to pay exorbitant
prices for these goods-more than is right
and Just. On the oilcloths and linoleum
for tloors-stamped, printed or plain
and in all other oilcloth and waterproof
cloth not equally provided for, costing %
cents square yard, the duty is 40 per cent
of the value. That is to say, poor wom-
an buying sixteen yards OF 25-cent floor
covering would have to pay So 60 for it,
whereas without the tariff it would cost
her but ST. In other words, she is out
10 cents on every yard she buys. Fully
two-thirds of the floor cloth produced and
consumed in this country and all the ia
BILE, shelf and stair cloth are OF the class
costing 25 cents and less a yard, and on
all this quantity the tariff advances the
price by 10 cents yard.
Mr. Preston, OF Baltimore, appeared be-
fore the committee to call attention to
this iniquity. In his remarks he showed
that the materials of these wares, with
slight exceptions, are cheaper here than
abroad, and that machinery does nearly
all the work. They ought, accordingly
to sell lower and not higher than their
foreign competitors. Instead OF enhanc-
ing the price of the imitation leather
cloth entering into the manufacture of
children's shoes, hats, caps, travelling
bags, trunks, harness, ETC., they should
reduce it, Floor oilcloth is made OF coarse
burlaps, costing from to cents yard;
other oilcloths of a coarse cotton cloth
costing % and 3 cents yard. These
foundations" have applied to them
earths and clays worth ! to l cent
pound, and oil, gum and varnishes which
are extremely cheap. Recently invented
machinery almost excludes human labor
from the manufacture, The labor in a
square yard OF these wares is almost in
finitesimal, though 10 cents is allowed
for it by the Mckinley law. The bonus
goes to few wealthy firms and corpora
tons ant u7 ..gI.g e
Here is one iniquity; the tariff list is
full of them. It's time that these wrongs
should cease; that this plundering should
be forbidden. We 90 about it the wrong
way. Instead of calling for men to show
why certain taxes should not be rejected
we should force men to justify every tax
proposed, and to justify not from the
standpoint of the manufacturer at all, but
from that of the consumer.
Down with the riff!-Louisville Post.