Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-10-14
THURSDAY, OCTOBER IA, 1897.
HOW WE ARE MIsGoVERNED.

HUW VT Ake MtS6UtEhNEU.
Says the Richmond Times: eve find
the following in the Washington Post Of
yesterday:
"'Canada is the place where your cash
balance goes good bit further than in the
United States, said Mr.. G. F. Trueman, of
Chicago, at the Raleigh. was in Toronto.
Ghis summer, and walked into very de-
cent looking liquor shop to get glass OF
whiskey. The stuff tasted all right, and 1
threw quarter in payment. The bar
keeper showed me over 20 cents, and ]
asked him if he hadn't made mistake.
He said no, that had been charged the
regular tariff. 1t was the first fve-cent
drink of whiskey l ever invested in.
:" 4 found out that in the came town the
price for whiskey, even in the swell estab-
lishments, was only ten cents per drink,
and Wondered how the natives would
stand the tax imposed in the high class
saloons Of this country. These low figures,
however, apply to nearly all articles that
you can think of. Clothing is only sbou.
half as dear as in the States. Looked at
purely from the standpoint of the con-
sumner, Canada is great country to live
in
without taking up the social and moral
questions involved in whiskey drinking,
the facts stated in the extract from the
Post, as bearing upon the general scale Of
prices in this country, may we'll cause
citizen of the United States to gnash his
teeth. Why should an American have to
pay twice as much for his clothes and for
everything he uses in his daily life as
Canadian pays, when they are, for practi-
cal purposes, nothing but one people with
an imaginary line separating them? 1t If
because, first, we pay tax of nearly $780,
600, 900 year i'll pensions, the great bulk
of which is fraudulent, and, second, be-
cause all imported articles are heavily
taxed so that New England manufacturers
may have monopoly of making what we
use. Comparatively small revenue is OBJ
tanned from the tax on imports, but the
tax enables the American manufacturer
to raise the price of his articles up to q
point little below what the foreign arti-
cles would cell for, if it paid the tax though
it goes into nc pocket Of the manufacturer
instead Of into the Treasury Of the Gov
\ eminent.
Why seventy millions of people should
permit themselves to be misgoverned as
the American people do, is one Of the
strangest things in the world"
The Tines loses sight of the importance
of two words in the first two lines it quotes
from the Post: "cash balance" The
trouble up in Canada may be the lack Of
a proper "cash balance" in the hands of
the consumer, just as it WAS in this coun-
try under the free trade or tariff reform
policy of the recent Democratic admins
tration. Seventy millions Of people per-
mitted themselves in 1892 to be gulled by
the free traders arguments for the "cheap
and nasty" and are now, after four years
of unmeasured business suffering, recover
ing from the effort to break down New
England manufacturers and build up Old
England manufacturers. When the ex-
perience of the four years. of tariff reform
are compared with that of the ten years Of
protective tariff embraced in the decade
from 1880 to 1890, We can only wonder
that any sane person will continue to talk
or write in favor offree trade. During the
ten years, from 1880 to 1890, the accu-
INFLATED wealth of the United States was
increased each day to the extent of two
and a half millions of dollars. During
that period We suppose the Times will say
the American people permitted Chem
selves to be misgoyerned." 1t was such
misgoyernment as swelled the cash bal
ances of consumers, and the kind Of mis-
government We are now experiencing. The
people rather like it, We think they are not
likely to be fooled again by the Anticipated
arguments of the free traders.