The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-24
THE WAR TAX ON TEA.

Dec. is the 18th anniversary
of the famous Boston tea party" 1t
was a tea tax of pence a pound which
caused that event and led to the Ameri-
can revolution. Our colonial forefathers,
by the way, did not pay this tax for the
simple reason that they declined to drink
the tea.
The historic issue of the tea tax is now
again before the American people. When
congress declared war against Spain for
the liberation of Cuba it passed a war
revenue Dill which included a tax of 10
cents per pound on imports of tea. When
congress convenes, one week from Tues
day, the first measure it is billed to take
up is an amendment of the war. revenue
law with it's tea tax It is therefore
possible that congress may celebrate the
anniversary of the Boston tea party
by contesting again the historic issue Of
the tax on tea
The lines of the contest are apparently
already drawn At preliminary meet.
ing of the ways and means committee
of the lower house last Tuesday, 1t was
decided by the government majority that
the tea tax would not be touched for fear
of bringing UP the general issue of tar
if revision. Moreover, the presidents de-
termination to ask congress for an army
of 100000 for the ''pacif1catfon" of the
Orient would not permit the repeal of
the heavy revenue derived from the an
nual tax on 100000 pounds of imported
tea.
So in seeking Oriental trade we are
to maintain hostile tax against one
of the chief articles of that trade. The
revenue thus derived we are to use in
supporting an army to kill off the Orient
ais with whom we wish to trade. AS he
raises to his lips his cup Of war taxed
tea, the American citizen drinks to the
death of the Oriental producer. And the
tax paid by the American consumer up-
on his beverage is bIood-money for the
benevolent assimilation of the lives of
those whose toll has made the beverages
possible. Such is the irony of history
and "destiny'-or, as Mark Hanna phras-
es it, of "Christianization and civil
zation"-when the war-power and tax
power of government break in upon the
laws of humanity and commerce
The tea tax is a serious proposition
from an economic standpoint. 1t retards
and endangers an important trade. Our
Pacific trade more than that from any
other quarter of the globe, is one of bar
ter. Exports exchange for imports. More
than that, the building up of a Pacific
fleet depends upon cargoes both ways
Our present chief difficulty in marketing
American products in the Orient IS not
lack of demand for our goods, but boats
to ship them, and the browning obstacle
which confronts the boats is lack of re.
turn cargoes. The great danger to Puget
sound shipping is that boats bound
with American goods for Japan and Chi
ma are too often compelled on their re-
turn to go several thousand miles out of
their way and carry load of sugar from
Honolulu to San Francisco, or else have
no return cargo. Tea, before the tax,
formed one-fourth to one-sixth OF Ameri-
can imports from the Orient Indeed,
from China and Japan, tea constituted
one-third to one-fourth of the imports
for years. The tea tax has reduced tea
imports on the average very nearly one
third. The tea tax explains why our ag-
gregate imports of all goods from China
fell from So. 10000. in 1896, to $18,60O0oO, in
1899, instead of largely increasing, as
should have been the case.
Ten cents per pound may not srriks one
at first glance as heavy tax
although somewhat higher. than the
pence against which our fore
fathers rebelled. But 10 cents per
pound on the wholesale import price
is equivalent, as the treasury bulletins
show. to 20 per cent ad valorem; and it
is not necessary to demonstrate that
trade does not prosper against the prohi-
billions OF 20 per cent tax. 1t is there
fore no surprise that our tea traIe With
the Orient is not the commercial factor
that it was three years ago, or even
twenty years ago.
With tea on the free list, the net in
portations for consumption rose from