Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-09-15

Inc bleSSeuneSS Oh the bounty.
There is no necessity for bounty on the
domestic production of coal.-Cumberland
News.
Why?
The answer from the Neps is
No one has asked for it.
That isn't much of a reason; how
ever, here is another:
1t would be an absurdity in legislation.
That is better.
But" strange to say
every interest connected with its develop
ment demands that it be protected from the
oppressive competition of foreign coal fields.
How sweeping that is, and yet how
discouraging
Millions of tribute for sugar, but not
a cent for coal
The JOURNAL takes no stock in the
Ne,os' first reason.
The second is just as true of sugar
as it would be of coal. All bounties
under a republican government are
"absurditles" whose complexion is
criminal.
The News, it is true, says:
Now as to who pays these bounties, or
duties, we say, as we have said before, it is
immaterial. When the country is prosper
ons; when every workingman, skilled and
unskiled, has profitable employment, no one
cares to inquire how, when, where or by
whom tariff duties are paid
But the United States Supreme
Court has declared that
To lay with one hand the power of the
government on the property of the citizen,
and with the other to bestow it upon favored
individuals to aid private enterprise and
build up private fortunes, is none the less
robbery because it is done under the forms
of law and is called taxation.
The Court does not say that such
enactments are "absurdities IN legis-
lation," but that
This is not legislation. II is decree under
legislative forms. Nor is it taxation
Because
Taxes are burdens or charges imposed by
the Legislature upon the property of persons
to raise money for public purposes.
But the Ne,cs has questioned the
right of coal to stimulation by bounty
by saying
l, No one has asked for it. and
2, 1t would be an absurdity in legislation.
The JOURNAL has held implicitly
and now avowcdly that if sugar pro-
duction is entitled to a bounty, coal is
entitled to the same thing.
For with a clearness that is unmis-
taxable the Court illustrates the News'
error:
If it be said that benefit results to the
local public of a town by establishing manu-
features, the same may be said Of any other
business or pursuit which employs capital or
labor.
How plain all this makes the danger
of fattenlng any industry at the ex-
pense of others9
How plain that such exercise of
legislative power in any ease is worse
than "absurd ~
How plain it is, too, that no "bene-
fits" may be, they are, after all, the
mere gildings with which stimulation
touches up transient conditions to fool
short-sighted economists with the no.
ton that all is gold that glitters, and
that permanent prosperity is founded
upon artificial, not natural conditions.
"A Correction and the Usual Questions.
Ridiculous! fla tariff on wool Imposed
the shame of coarse clothes upon everybody
unable TO buy fine Ones" we suppose free
wool will reverse the conditions, and place
fine clothes on all of us who are unable to
buy coarse ones. The one proposition is
about as sensible as the other. The fact is,
free wool will destroy the sheep-raising in
dustry without in the remotest degree affect
ing the price of wooden goods. Cumberland
News.
The JOURNAL ought to have stated
that better. Its paragraph should
have read:
1t is true the high tariff on wool was
equivalent to bounty, but instead of i'm
proving the quality of our clothes, as the
Ne~s says it did of sugar, it degraded it and
imposed the shame of coarse clothes upon
everybody at fine clothes prices.
Hence, as play upon words the Neaos'
turn is very good, but if free wool will
destroy the sheep raising industry"
why did not free hides annihilate the
cattle-raising Industry
Why, too, are shoes the cheapest
article of wear we have, and why are
they the most plentiful product of
American manufacture IN foreign
markets?
Or is there no "raising" analogy be.
tween sheep and cattle, and no wear
ing analogy between shoes and shirts9
The JOURNAL asks this last brace of
questions because the Nesos will have
to squeeze out of the quandary pre-
sented by some other than the want
of-analogy route.
Dangers of Decentralization.