River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1897-06-17

| Inherent lOcaiiJleS 50 ulferSe-0ften
antagonistic: the uncertainty of the
effects of definite rates upon the
industry taxed; many indeterminate
questions involved, the results OF
which are speculative, make a tariff
| the complex and intricate question
arising under the government to
formulate into law. 1t costs money,
a thousand million dollars annually,
TO administer the Government of the
United States. 1t is the policy of
Craftsmanship to levy this money in
such manner as TO equalize the
| burdens Of taxation, or TO impose the
greatest amount on commodities
other than necessities. 1t is conceded
by all parties, we think, that luxuries
should carry disproportionate bur
den, and necessities as little as possible
in symmetrical adjustment Of
schedules. This rule holds good both
with reference 20 the tax on imports
and on domestic industries. Imported
iewelry, silks, liquors, tobacco and all
other goods and commodities that
the majority of people, especially the
wage earners, can dispense with, are
heavily taxed. So under the internal
revenue laws, spirits. malt liquors and
tobacco furnish nearly all the revenue
secured from taxes under these laws.
A tariff for revenue only might be
more readily determined upon than
one embodying protection to home
industries, but no party has succeeded
in the exploitation of a tariff on the
lines of free trade.
The democrats organized the Fifty
Third Congress upon the professed
determination of formulating tariff
with protection left OUTPUT after a
most bitter squabble of months and a
disruption of the party they passed a
bill which Bourk Cochran declared in
the House of Representatives to be
measure with more of protection than
the law it superseded, and president
Cleveland, the great apostle of a
tariff for revenue only refused to APP
prove, characteriZing it as measure
secured through ''perfidy." General
Hancock, nominated by the democrats
to the presidency of the United States,
made the assertion that 1.-THE tariff is
a local question" For this statement
General Hancock was subjected to
ridicule. And yet, there is sense in
which it is a local question. While as
a whole, as body of specific items
formulated into law, it is Of national
interest, the details of the law are
applicable not TO the whole country,
but each has feature peculiar to
definite industry which is largely, and
maybe wholly, local in application.
Coal, iron ore, lumber, cotton, rice.
cane sugar and many other articles
are produced only in definite and
special localities. And what makes a
protective tariff most difficult to
arrange with general satisfaction is
the fact that the protection Of a
certain industry often works to the
injury of all not engaged in this
industry. Its claimed that a tax on
wool for the benefit of owners of sheep
raises the price OK clothing. The
Western cattle owner demands tax
on hides the Eastern shoe maker
objects to it as he must pay more for
his raw material. So the adjustment
OF a protective tariff must be largely
a matter of compromise, setting of
one industry over against another
with an amount OF protection that
will equalize among all in the law.
The local politician advocates pro-
lection to that industry which affects
him fayorably and deprecates a tax
ON what he buys. Consequently there
is howl in every locality against
those imposts of the tariff that seem
to affect it adversely. Then it comes
to be a question of combining the
maximum of revenue with the mini
mum of how"