The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-11-02

HOW THE TRUSTS TAX THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE.
In Some Instances Over 1870 Per Cent
10 Added to the Value of Goods
That Are an Absolute
Necessity.

~ w IN
eeived by the Republican politician
when they declare the foreigner pay
the tax" The last issue-1906-o
the United States Statistical Abstract
page 80, gives the amount of the tar
III tax paid by the American people
for the year ending June 80, 1906, al
$293,910,396, which is $3.50 per cap
ita, or about SIG for each average
family. No one Is exempt from this
tariff tax and those with the larger
Incomes pay no more than those will
the smaller salaries, or wages. Ii
fact, on some articles the tariff tai
is higher on the poorer quality Of
goods than on the best quality, so the
poor man pays more than the rich
man does.
For instance, under the wool SEIZED
ule, the most expensive carpets
woven whole for rooms" the tariff tax
collected last year was 60.4S per cent
of the value, while on treble ingram,
one of the cheapest grades of carepts,
the tariff tax collected was 70.44 per
cent.
Also when the poor man buys a pair
Of blankets the discrimination against
him is much greater, for the tariff
tax collected last year on large wool
blankets, valued at not more than
~ cents per pound was 1903 per
cent, while on the same size blankets
valued more than 70 cents per pound"
the tariff tax collected was 1854 per
cent. The poor man, therefore, who
was compelled to buy the cheaper
grade of blankets paid nearly double
the tariff tax that the rich man paid
on the higher grade.
Many people can hardly believe
there is a tariff tax on anything
amounting to 100 per cent. of it's
value-that is, a tax equal to it's cost
but here we have the extraordinary tax
of over 100 per cent. So if the blank
cts cost in Europe five dollars, they
are increased in cost by the tariff tax
collected V nine dollars, making
such blankets cost here over S14, be-
sides the freight, insurance and profits
of the importer; and this enormous
tax the American consumer has to
pay to protect the wooden trust. Is
not such a tariff tax robbery, under
the guise of law? Yet our Republican
friends defend it and declared in
their national platform of 1904 that:
Protection which guards and devel-
ono D,rr ,nI,,r%so T. 4o-l,-4I xoI
icy of the Republican party" Even
if the Republican party at it's next ma
tional convention promises to revise
the tariff after election" they must
still continue to protect the infant
industries, now grown to gigantic
trusts, or go back on their declaration
of 1904. 1t is hardly likely the Re-
publican leaders will declare they
have been mistaken in their policy of
protectionism, as the stand-pat states
men outnumber those who feel that
the tariff is robbing the people and
protecting the trusts, it is probable
that the same old farce of pretending
to revise the tariff for commercial
reciprocity whenever reciprocal ar
rangementS can be effected consist
ent with the principles of protection
will be continued. How little the Re-
publican party can be depended upon
to reduce the tariff by reciprocity
treaties with foreign nations is shown
by its refusal to ra!fy the treaties
President Mckinley negotiated
over six years ago.. There are other
tariff schedules that further show the
tariff tax collected is greater on the
grade of goods than on the
finer qualities and the reaso for this
Of consumers-the farmers and work
and those with small incomes,
is because they r by far the most
and consume the great ma
lority of articles produced. Therefore
the trusts are protected by higher
tariff duties on such cheaper grade of
goods than on the more expensive
qualities which are consumed to a
much more limited extent.
If there was space in this article to
lAC ldSlo aOOuC II SAIAo piOIIo |
hat the tariff protects the trusts in
charging for their products, and the
enormous tax the people pay in in
prices for domestic products,
he showing would make the tariff rob-
berry so much greater that even the
most ardent Republican trust pro-
,ector would hardly dare to openly
it. 1t lis enough here to say
hat the most able statisticians esti-
the trust profits at nearly $S4
yer family, which added to the SIG
,er family of direct tariff tax on i'm
ported goods, makes the enormous
otal of $100 per family paid every
ear by the people in consequence of
he increased prices of trusts goods
md the tariff tax collected by the
government.
Will you by your vote continue to
.liow the Republican party to thus
you!
Touching the Pocket Nerve.
IL a.; r,o-th, ~ pofico that many