The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1904-01-07
Protection" Enables Favored
Few to Collect Tribute From
Those Least Able to
Pay, He Affirms.
NEW LIGHT ON OLD SUBJECT.
The Reverend ]. c. Hogan, Of Balti.
timere, Asserts That Excessive
Taxation Brings Hard Times
and Never Benefits Masses

| 4 z
House, Elm avenue. discussed tn
"Tariff" in a recent sermon, an
threw some new light on an old sui
! ject. He said:
Legislation which involves justic
and injustice is a moral question
and the tariff is question of thi
kind. The prophets are full OF DE-
nunciation OF unjust taxation, II
such passages as Isaiah iii, IA, l5
and Isaiah <, 1, 2, will prove.
"This subject has occupied a larg'
amount OF attention at the nationa
capital and throughout the countr!
the past week, and yet there is prob
ably no subject about which so littl
is really known as the tariff. Blu
how can a man be holy Or rightsou,
in relation to tariff duties and legis
lation unless he understands the tar
if question.
| What is the tariff? In this country
in has come to mean tax levied Oh
imported articles. But tariff for SO
called protection and tariff for rev
enue are frauds and decisions
Money that is placed in any mans
pocket by legislation must come out
OF the pocket OF some other person
Legislation produces nothing, blu,
only changes conditions. If we levy
a tariff tax upon one class Of our
people for the benefit OF another
class, is the country made any richer
thereby? 1t is simply case of rob
bling Peter to enrich Paul.
Tariff on an article makes it ex-
pensive to import. This enables
American dealers to combine in mo-
nopoly, form and charge a higher
price. 1t protects them against
competition, and that is the only
protection there is in it. 1t benefits
the monopolist, but at the expense
OF the working people. 1t is claimed
that the tariff laws enable these men
to pay higher wages. 1t may enable
them, but it does not compel them.
There is no law to compel them to
divide up with their employees, much
less wish the general public.
Tariff is placed largely upon the
necessaries Of life, and finally paid by
the consumer. 1t is merely advanced
by the importer, the wholesale and
retail merchants. They get it back,
and with profit, too, when the arti.
cles is sold to the consumer; and at
the same time foreign labor comes
into our country free ofduty or tariff
and consequently we have two or
three men for one job, high prices and
hard times, except for the legalized
monopilists.
Tariff for revenue is an unjust sys-
tenn of taxation, bearing heaviest on
the poor; tariff for alleged protection
is as an unjust burden and protects
no one but the favored few, enabling
them to levy tribute upon the rest of
the people. As William Pitt said:
ITO levy direct tax OF 7 per cent is
. dangerous experiment in a free
country, and may incite revolt, but
there is a method by which you can
Tax the last rag from the back and
the last bite from the mouth without
causing q murmur against high
taxes, and that is to tax q great
many articles Of daily use and ne
'sssity that the people will pay them
.nd net know II. Their grumbling
hen will be OF hard times, but they
will not know that the hard times
.rs caused by taxation.
REDUCES PURCHASING POWER.
"Aud this is the damnabls system
/ protection that a lot Of alleged
christians are continually shouting
nd voting for in this countryl This
LEGGED protection does notincrease
be wages Of labor. It does increase .
be cost Of the necesssries OF life to
be worker, and thereby reduces the
power Il the little wages
Q does receive. To borrow an illus.
ration: The higher the tariff, the
,wer the wages; the higher the }
sriff. the higher the price; the higher
be price, the less the people can buy;
be less the people buy, the less the
larket demands; the less the de-
land, the less the production; the :
an production, the less work. the