The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-24
The Tarn ana the Cost of Living.


 Richmond Times-Dfspatch.
 Those politicians who hug the fiatter- Ing belief that the tarif Is local ques- ton. and that their seats are secure so long as they please their locality, will find out some day that the tariff is a ton at that.
 Milwaukee Journal, poor woman who is trying to live on less than $500 a
 sMy Husband gets sl1 a week for say rent and sis cos .s food ,sS month. and poor food at that. Count in that with i've or six in the family, and where do, the doctor, medicine, shoes, clothes. insurance. on life. water. gas man, car fare tickets, hats. insurance on furniture, school books. and the Lord knows what else, come from7 As for a piece of candy or ceke or a pie or the theatre. when you pay your hon est debts. what can you do with s44 a
 This is not the opinion of a trained holding statssn,an; # is is just the bare bare statement of facts from one who is try ing to live in a country where every article of necessity is progressively tax have that protection which was once thought necessary for struggling inI fants. And when the talk IS over and done about the tayiG helping the work ingmen to stop and consider how much how much of'it Is mere ciaptrap used to obscure the real facts and to main tain burdensome and killing. tax on the poorer classes of a community.
 For example the poor wear clothes. and yet the tariff on wools is II cents blankets carry tax that varies from 134.97 on the cheapest to 94.32 of the highest grades. We have been nour- ishing and protecting our cotton indus age tax on cotton today is 4s. 40, and when the amount of cotton cloth used by the poor Is considered the weight of this tax stands out in all it's sever
 There are s0,0oo.ooo people in the United States, and they all wear shoes, but Congress and the politicians have taken small note of this fact from the an Increase of 25 per cent In women's shoes alone in the ten years between 1890 and 1900. The raw material for shoes is hides, and w. L. Douglas. the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts a few years ago, Is authority for the statement that s300e0,000 per annum try by taking the duty off hides. but the duty stays on.
 The fact that man is poor does not make him any less desirOus or living In house; yet every stick that goes into his humble dwelling is taxed un- der a lumber tariff. This means ac- cording to the estimate of the Labor Bureau at Washington. that it would cost 41.4 per cent more for material alone to build house in 1905 than it would have cost in 1890 Nor does the tariff hold its hand with what we have enumerated. Practically everything that Is consumed or worn or used levies an oppressive tax on the poor in order that the government may gain some revenue, while favored beneficiaries amass stupendous fortunes.
 The tarfn tax is not only unwise; 1t Is unjust, and some day the people who are bearing that burden will find it out and then the national government will reduce its expenses and change its source of revenue until the cost of liv- ing is made to harmonize more nearly with the income of the great body of the citizens.
 It was Just such letters as the one we have printed above that made the workingmen of England rise sixty years ago and break down the bread monopoly of that country. The work ingmen of America also will rise some day when they understand the true in- wardness of the tarin monopoly in this country.