The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-16

gain was for the farmers of Georgia ana
the neighboring states. The greater depth
of water enabled the employment OF large
vessels at lower freights. In cotton the
saving has been equal to cent per pound
as European freights are now half PEN
ny or one cent lower than they were IN
1872. So that with a million of bales of
cotton passing annually through the port
of Savannah there has been a saving in
freight equal to So, 100000 annually. Every
dollar of this saving goes TO the cotton
farmer, because the price on the planta-
ton is always the price at the mill minus
the expense of the transfer from the farm
to the factory
"This Illustrates the effect which a
home market created by the buying of
neiehborhood factories would have upon
the price the farmers would receive for
their cotton, because as the home spin
ners pay less freight or none at all they
can afford to pay more for their cotton.
1.-THE constitution OF Georgia forbids
any discrimination in taxation and 1t Will
REQUIRE an amendment TO the constitution
to permit exemption. Can anyone object
to such a constitutional amendment? No
taxpayer is interested except those in the
county or municipality DESTROYS of secur-
ing manufactures. If the taxpayer there
decides that the establishment of the fac
tory will help his county or town sufh-
GENTLY to warrant granting the exemption
he will favor it. If not. he will oppose
it. The decision will be made by local
option and that is the essence of democ-
racy.
ut may be class legislation and opposed
to the theory upon which taxation is bas-
ed but if no one can receive any pecuniary
harm except the taxpayer in the county
or municipality and he consents and If the
state taxes are benefited by gthe new cap
ital to tax and if the municipality is BEN
Gifted by employment given to its citizens
and those who, attracted by the factory,
become its citizens and is benefited by the
wages of these employees spent in the
county or the city and if the neighborhood
is benefited by more consumers of its food
products and If the country is benefited
by a home market for its cotton, why
should legislators hesitate to give an OPP
portunity to the voters of the state to act
upon such an amendment? ] am opposed
to the amendment to include exemption
from state taxes, because 1t strikes at the
root of one of the ideas involved in the
resolution, which Is that exemption from
taxes should only be conferred by the
localities where manufactures are to be
established This idea is the reverse of
the principal of a protective tariff
THE protective tariff levies a contri-
button from all consumers for the profit
of the manufacturer and those who supply
his raw material. The exemption by a
county or a municipality takes nothing
from any one without their consent, and
those who consent do so because they ex-
pect to get more indirectly than they give.
In addition to those locally interested the
producers of cotton near. but not imme-
diately at the factory, share in the in
creased price paid for their cotton, al
though they may be outside of the town
or the county granting the exemption, and
who thus contribute nothing directly or
indirectly to the economy of running the
factory"