Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-11-05

The tariff not only protects the
trusts. bur it makes the poor man pay
more tariff taxes than the rich man
does. Leaving out the fact that the
trusts are protected by the tariff, for
this every one knows who has taken
the trouble to investigate the matter,
it is of still more Importance to pre-
sent the facts that show that the many
are taxed for the benefit of the few.
AS a general proposition no one will
deny thar taxes should be assessed and
paid according TO income and the
amount of property possessed by the
citizen. The person with an income OF
500 a month or less should certainly
pay less taxes than one with $1,000
month or more, and yet as far as
tariff taxes on necessities are concern
ed the man with the small income pays
as much and even more than the man
with the larger income, because both
poor and rich consume about the same
quantity of those taxed necessities.
The poor man has TO buy as much
sugar as the rich man, and therefore
the tariff tax on sugar is much heavier
ON his small income than on that of
his rich neighbor. AS large families
are more usual with the poor man
than with the rich, the tariff tax Is
thus still heavier on those less able to
pay it, The tariff tax on refined or
granulated sugar being one and ninety
FIVE hundredths of a cent a pound,
equal to 6432 per cent on the value
of imported sugar in the country
where it was produced, which in 1906
was cents a pound, the cost of sugar
Is increased by the tariff to the Amer
lean consumer nearly cents a pound.
AS the average consumption of sugar
per capita in the United States is esti-
mated at 20 pounds, each average fam
lily of five persons uses $50 pounds on
which the tariff tax is $6.S3 per fam
lily on this one article of necessity. If
the family consists of more than five
persons the tax is $1.36 more for each
extra person and is reduced the same
amount for each person less than five
In the family.
The tax to the poor man earning $50
month is about one per cent of his
wages, while the tax paid by the rich
man on an income of $500 month is
but one-tenth of one per cent, and on
the very rich the tax is so infinitesimal
that it is difficult to compute the per-
centage. This one item of the tariff
tax paid is but a sample of the in
equality of such direct taxes and is
the reason the Democrats desire to re-
duce the tariff, and in place of such
reduction collect tax upon incomes.
There Is another important reason
for the reduction and even the aboli
ton of the tariff tax on such articles
as are controlled by trusts, for with
no tariffs, or only enough to produce
revenue, the trusts will be compelled
to reduce the price they charge for
their products, or foreign products
would be imported and compete with
the trusts and those corporations
would lost that much trade if they did
not compete with the foreign Imports.
Thus the price of trust products would
fall, and instead Of paying cents a
pound for sugar it would sell for about
3 cents, as it does in England, and
many other trust-made articles would
decrease in proportion to the reduction
of the tariff tax.
Some of the tariff schedules are con-
cocted to plumber the poor man more
than the rich man in even more di-
rect manner. For instance, the tariff
tax on fine quality long blankets is
only about half what it is on a cheap
er grade, and the poor man needs as
many blankets to keep him warm as
the rich man does, and even more, for
his home is not as well built or as
warmly heated.