The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-09-04


dig to get money to spend on some
other fellows wife and children. Quite
the contrary. And the reason | hate
the high protective tariff system-and
hate is the only word in our yernacular
that expresses my feelings towards it
the reason it is that when l have earned
one hundred dollars which | ought to
spend on myself, my wife and my chill
dren, the Dingey law takes tfty-seven
dollars of the hundred and gives it To
some tariff baron in the east that |
never saw, never expect to see and
never want to see, to spend on himself,
his wife and his children. If ever vote
or utter a word in favor of such unjust
and thievish system, may my tongue.
cleave to the roof of my mouth, my
hand forget her cunning.
| Individually | have more respect for
Dick Turpin, Paul Clifford and John A.
Murrell, who took money from travellers
at the pistols mouth than have for
4 those ingenious but timorous creatures
who fleece the people under the forms
of law"
Lord Chatham, the great and imperi-
Gus friend of American liberty, once
said: "Y ou can tax the roof from over
a mans head, the shirt off his back, the
bed from under him and the bread from
cut his mouth, if you will proceed by
indirect taxation?" A great truth, sure
as you are alive. And that is the secret
of the perpetuity of the tariff.
Who collects ii? Did you ever see a
federal officer collecting the tariff? No.
You have seen the collector collecting
state, county, township, school taxes
, and you know how much you pay. Blu,
who collects the tariff? | will tell you.
Every merchant in the land-and he
: does not want to collect it. 1t interfere;
; with his trade, curtails his profits, re-
duces his sales, but the government
| forces MIN TO collect it and then is toe
mean to pay him for his services. And
! you don't know how much tariff ta1
you pay. If when you buy bill o
. goods, you simply paid the merchan
for the goods and didn't pay him th
tariff, then when you walked out at tn
door revenue officer tapped you Of
the head and made you pay the tariff
r such Il roar would fill the land tha
? President Roosevelt would be compelle
y to call congress in extra session befor
e the election to repeal the Dingley bi
/. or the republicans would not elect
/ congressman this fall.
t 1t is said that experience is dea
school and fools will learn in no other.
n 1t is my firm conviction that if ever
!. American citizen could be compelled t
e go abroad and to return to the Unite
q States through the custom house, th
It Dingley high tariff law would be swep
e oil the statute books, for then the
v would haye what Othelo demanded
n the "ocular proof "--of the iniquities c
n the. system.
q will give you three illustrations gu
d of hundreds that might be cited.
l. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant-the Sol
e Of his father-is q believer in higl
It protective tariff, or thinks he is, whic!
y amounts to the same thing. Recently
S he came into the United States from for
4 eign parts. Now, be it known that
# under the sacred Dingley law, an Amer
s. lean returning to his native land is re
quired to make out list of things il
. his possession on which tariff ought t.
y be levied and to swear to it, Fred mad
n his manifest and then the custom hous
a officers opened his trunks, toused hi
y baggage and made him pay twentv-od
n dollars which he had not expected t
pay, did not intend to pay and Gen
d Fred-the son of his father-swore i
u was damned outrage that the Unite,
J, States government presumed that ever
L citizen who went abroad and returne
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