Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1909-02-18
A MAI SCRAMBLE
EVERY TEN YEAR" !"
Present Method of Revising the
SChL dulles Is Not Good
system as 1t Is
Mt Equi-
table.


Asserting that the present meth III
OF making the tariff is a sort of
scramble about onra every ten Yeas
and advocating the commission pldh
under which the Ia If misa. he IN
process OF re nsion all the time d.
A. Tompkins Of Cha 'iItte \ (. de-
livered a notable ""uress bcIJte me
tariff conference.
Mr.. Tompkins discussed tn gen
eral subject of revenue ana'y ing IN
round figures the cost of r41"ins the
various departments of the federal
government and de ming the three
principal ways prov:led by ;ha con
stitution for raising revenue.
1T may be said that the feierd!
government of the United States %
America" said Mr.. Tompkins. re
ouires about one thousand million
dollars per year of revenue to pay tne
expenses of conducting the govern
ment. divided principally as follows:
the army. $100,00O,000; the navy,
25,0OGOO0; pensions, S15,OOO,OOO;
public works, $125,000.000.
Separate from this expense of the
general government" he continued,
1.-The state governments also cost
money. We may assume that the
state governments cost in the aggre-
gate another thousand million dol
lars year. 1t is provided In the fed
eral constitution that the federal gov
ernment may rase revenue princip-
ally in three ways:
"D BY internal revenues on
whiskeys and tobacco and a few
other items and by revenue stamps
II,
"(2) BY direct tax upon the states
in proportion to their population.
THE states all raise revenue by
direct tax upon the people and the
property OF the state by license fees,
etc. The revenues of the federal gov
ernment have always been raised by
means of internal revenues and tar
ifs on imports With the burden of
state and county taxes already upon
them, it would be difficult to per-
suade the people to submit to another
direct tax at the hands of the federal
government
therefore. it may be assumed that
tariff on imports is now and will
continue to be one of the most i'm
portant methods of raising the fed
eraI revenues. Therefore, if this be
if we must have an import duty, it
is simply a question Of how it should
be laid. We might put a Uniform
percentage tax upon all imports Ii
US say that 10 per cent might be
enough to raise the revenues re-
quired. Under this plan everything
coming into the United states would
be taxed. Tea, coffee, sugar, silks
steel rails. plate slass-everything
would pay the 10 per cent duty.
1--WE all know that it would be a
better plan to have tea and coffee or
the free list and make some otnel
things pay a higher tariff. We al
know that in some lines of industry
a higher tariff would not only bene-
fit the industries in the United
states but would make indirect bene-
fits sometimes almost incalculable
Therefore We perceive that "A tariff
may be laid 50 as to benefit the Am
erican people and it may be laid IL
ways that submit the American peo'
pie To an unfair price.
Let US take the cases of the tariff
on coarse cotton goods" continued
the speaker. Fifteen years ago there
was over production Of cotton; the
price was . cents per pound. Wages
throughout the cotton growing dis
trict were very low and work diff
cult to get. Everybody produced cot
ton and il was sent abroad to b'
manufactured. Since that time fac
tories have been developed in cottoI
growing districts. The factory pop
ulatiOn have become consumers @
pegishabIe farm products The ul
innate result is that the price of cot
ton has been doubled in practically
the last 10 years. This means si1
hundred million dollars for ten NIL
lion bale crop. Values have been Civ
en- to perishable farm products o
over one hundred million dollars. Th'
two million bales Of cotton manut6c
tured bring to the south two an'
three times the money that the SAM
quantity OF cotton brings when ship
pcd abroad to be manufacture
there.
The cotton growing states hav
approximately one third the popula
ton Of the entire union. We see tina
I'm the last ten years the condition o