The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-10-02
ENEMY OF PEOPLE.
A High Tariff Inimicable to the We'll
fare of the ToiIing Masses.


Beginnine with the most mportant |
campaign Of 1876, when Samuel j.
Tilden was elected President and |
cheated out of it, have been a con-
slant writer against a high robber |
tariff tax upon the American people
Nothing in the political history OF
this country is more Infamous and |
oppressive than the Republican sys- |
TEN of robbing millions OF people |
for the special benefit of few thous-
ands. suppose have written hun
dreds Of articles upon the high tariff |
system. | made special study of it
in 1876, and since then have read
much concerning it. The whole
theory is of the devil, and is based on
immortality and pillage. Writing of
Rob Roy's Grave" the famous
Scotch thief, as good an outlaw of as
daring mood" as England's famous
man. Robin Hood, which for par
ticulars read SCOTS delightful Ivan
hoe" William Wordsworth put the
robber system, be it on the highway
or by act OF the Congress, by risking
of life or robbing by law, in this
wise:
The good old Iule
Sufficeth them, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the
power,
And they should keep who can"
am not going into an elaborate
discussion here of this system of
plundering by aid and cOnnivance Of
legislators. TO discuss the tariff sat
isfactorily, clearly and thoroughly
times within two or three years
shown how very wrong and rascally
is the present Republican very dras-
tic tariff We feel, as | have often
20 nted out, that it forces American
taxpayers to buy home productions
at higher charges than foreign nations
pay for the very same American pro-
ducts, is at once an outrage and an
offence against common sense and or
binary fairness. But SO it is.
The difference is most manifest.
Years ago-some four or five-an oili
Ger of the United States army, of the
engineers department, published an
article in a Northern monthly (the
New York Forum, believe it was)
setting forth that he bought for the
United States Government, in New
York, of manufacturers, a complete
outfit for an international railroad
survey Of instruments of all kinds,
including Surveying instruments,
guns, pistols, picks, axes, etc, and
found that 1000 miles away, in a
South American city, he could have
purchased the very same Instruments
for from 20 to % per cent. less than
Uncle Sam had to pay for them right
at homo.
The following recent illustration Of
the shameful discrimination against
home folks we clipped not long since
from the Raleigh NcUS and Observer.
1t is but small sample of inequal
ties and iujustices, but how signiii
cant and damniug:
"An American who needs type
writer these days must pay 500 for
machine that is sold to "A foreigner
for sos. In buying wire nails he
pays 1926 per key. The American
woman who purchases q sewing ma
chine pays $40 for it, and the same
machine is sold to her European Sis
ter for S17. The American retailer
pays $3.50 per dozen for shovels, the
price of which to the European re-
taller is $3.50 per dozen. If you
want an alarm clock You must pay so
cents for it, but an European gets it
for 30 cents. These are the prices
specified on the discount sheets of
American trusts as charged respec-
lively to American and European
buyers
And yet the Republicans desire
above all things to retain as fixed
curse this system and robbery and
oppression. 1t is the mother of all
trusts. How can any fair-minded,
honorable man favor the Rob Roy
system of ''stand and deliver" is a
great mystery to the people who
are neither robbers nor fools. In
1876, Mr.. Tilden made very able,
thorough, systematized fight against
tariff for robbery, and achieved a
splendid victory Since then. the
game of plumber by taxation and
favoritism has been played in far
more bold and destructive way. The
present Dingley monster Of robbing
is much higher in its demands upon
the peoples pockets than the tariff
system operating in 1876, against
which Mr.. Tilden waged so success
full a war of destruction. The average
of the present Republican drag-net is
over 90 per cent.-really about 60 per
cent. | think-and it should be cut
down to not more than so per cent.
with another reduction of 10 per cent
ahead. The great Henry Clay, the
illustrious Wing leader, and known
as the Father of the American Sys-
tenn" was satisfied with a tea tariff,
for he said that no country could
stand, as a permanent system, one of
higher average than 20 per cent. A
high tariff tax is nothing but re-
morseless, unsatisfying robber, and
is the greedy enemy of the people at
large. 1t should be slaughtered in
the house of its friends.
There are taxes under the Dinglev
tariff, the one now enforced, that
reach more than 100 per cent. In
deed, there are some articles that fall
but little below 200 per cent The
subtleties, the receptions, the mis-
statements of protection advocates
are numerous, bold, preten tious and
have been often exposed. So long
ago as the great British economical
writer, Adam Smith, it was shown
conclusively that a protective tariff
was wrong, that it really hampered
the production of wealth, that it fos-
tered favorites, and that it was the
genuine enemy of labor. After one
hundred years it is now better under
stood, and men of ability and decided
information and high sense OF NOR
ality, attack the system of high
tariff as immoral, as hostile to the
people at large, and as unequally dis
tributed. If it is a good system, a
right system. a benevolent system