Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-09-27
MUST VOTE RIGHT.
ONLY WAY FOR PEOPLE TO Es-
CAPE UNJUST TAXATION.
Enormous and Ubiquitous Profits Made
by the Trusts Will Continue While
Republicans Are In Power.

The appropriations made by the
congress at its last session reached
the enormous total of 1878, SIS, 1876.
That equals about s11 for every man,
woman and child in the country, or
for the average family Of five persons
a tax of s55 Is paid. These federal
taxes are not paid according to the
ability, or the amount of property,
owned by the people, but are imposed
on poor and rich alike. Under many
of the tariff schedules the tariff tax
is higher on the poorer grade of i'm
ports than on the most costly. For
instance, on shoddy, from which much
cheap clothing is made, the tariff tax
is $50 per cent, while on wool Of the
best quality the average duty is 1854
per cent. Blankets valued at not
more than 40 cents a pound are taxed
104.4S per cent, while the finest
quality valued over so cents a pound.
are taxed 1910 per cent, and many
other examples might be quoted.
The internal revenue taxes on
cigars are even more in~equitable, for
the common stogie pays the same
tax, as the finest cigar manufactured
in the United States.
| Then there is the extra trust profit
that is paid, which mounts the tax
up to much more than the government
collects, for as the tariff tax prevents
imports and therefore competition on
the common quality of goods, the
trusts can raise the prices they charge
to what imported goods would cost,
after paying the tariff tax, freight
and charges.
1t is estimated by the most com
petent statisticians that the trust
tax is four times greater than the
tariff tax, because there is compar-
atively little imported of the cheap.
err grade of goods, but that does not
save the poor purchaser, for the
trusts take care to add to their profits
what the tariff tax would be, and
as the amount Of domestic products
vastly exceeds those imported, the
trusts thus collect much more than
the government does.
If the trust tax collector stood at
the store door and collected the enor
nous tax the trusts extort from the
customers, there would be a riot, and
that trust collector would require 6
regiment of soldiers, besides the pc
lice, to protect him from the exas
perated citizens. But the cunning Of
the tariff protected trusts has avoid
ed such unpleasantness, and by charg
ing higher prices and so including
their share of protection, the custom
ers have to settle with the storekeep
er, who is no more responsible thar
the customer for this plundering.
The Republican system Of taxa
ton is what each voter is called upoI
either to condemn or indorse, whe1
he votes for his representative tt
the congress which makes the laws
and when he votes for members o
the state legislature who will cleo
United States senators. The Repub
lican leaders who control congress ar
committed to protectionism, and an.
independent Republican member o
congress is powerless to make hi
vote count, for the Republican lead
ers, through the caucus, a prevent
as they did this year, consideration
of any tariff revision bills. You
candidate for congress, if you are
Republican, may promise to vote t
revise the inequalities of the tarii
law, he may promise to vote to abol
ish the protection to the trusts, bu
he is powerless to redeem his prom
Use unless he votes with the Demo
Gratis to elect a tariff reform speal
!, er, who will appoint committees VIII
will report favorably tariff reforr
measures. The majority of the RI
| publican members who are elected
congress control the caucus of tn
| party, and the independent member l
that caucus Is like a fifth wheel t
a wagon, virtually useless and hell
less.
: Think this over, and you must a
. rive at the same conclusion.