The Alaska citizen., 1911-02-20
BURDEN FALLS ON CONSUMER.

under this head, last week. We treated the subject from practical point of view by an example of what the citizens of the town of Fairbanks would do in the matter of taxation for revenue and protection of industries if given free hand
 There we showed that the city would not raise her revenue for running the city by tariff, but would do so by direct tax on property, that being the cheapest way to raise the revenue besides being the only fair way to the citizens. The govern ment of the United States. however. has adopted the method of raising her revenues by indirect methods, and mostly through the tariff meth cd. In this way property is entire ly exempted from taxation for na- tional purposes and the whole bur den falls upon the consumer. which is clearly an unjust discrimination against the consumer. and therefore unjustifiable. We have made this observation concerning tariff for revenue only for the purpose of giv- ing a clear understanding of the whole subject of tariff. These edi. torials are for the purpose of show ing the iniquity of tariff for pro- lection on account of which the government gets no revenue what ever. We are not attacking tariff for revenue for the simple reason that the government has made no provision for revenue except by tariff and internal revenue. and we accept that as the inevitable for the present; but we think that less of tariff tax and a substantial tax on incomes would more nearly meet the requirements of justice The time will come, however, and that too before many years, when the govern ment will raise all revenues from direct taxes on property; then will the owners of vast wealth pay their share, and not till then. But the injustice of the poor paying prac- tically all of the cost of running the government. and the exemption of the rich from taxation for the same purpose is an insignificant matter as compared with the injustice i'm posed upon the poor by compelling them to pay taxes to the ric.. in which the government does not share. This is being done to the extent of hundreds of millions of dol lars every year under the guse of protecting American industries by means of a tariff. Last week We showed the practical working of the system by showing what the result would be to the consumer of this district if protective tariff were put in force here in Fairbanks. The example covering only two articles. Now to make the illustration com plete, supposing that a high tariff would be placed upon everything that is shipped into Fairbanks by the city council, tariff so high that everything that is now shipped in here would be manufactured or produced here, it will be seen at once that We would be maintaining industries here at an exorbitant cost that would not be warranted, and it would be bad business sense, for by being permitted to buy where we can get the article cheapest. so that we can carry on our mining or otLer business at the least possi- ble cost and at the highest possi- ble profit. If we are compelled to pay advanced prices for everything we buy, the profits of our business will be reduced jus, that much, and we will thus be compelled to share our profits with others who do not earn any part of it. But this is not all, supposing the council would put the tariff at 50 per cent higher than is necessary for the manufac- turer and producer to enable them to compete against the competition from the outside. In that case we would not only pay the price of maintaining these industries here, but would be compelled to pay 50 per cent. additional which would be a gift to the manufacturer and produc- CT, no part of which they would earn. That this would be the result is inevitable, for the instant that the tariff would be put on the price would go up and we would have no way of avoiding the payment of the advanced price. Some may think that they would not raise the price where it would be unjust and unfair to do so. To those we will simply
 T attention to what happens to the prices here when provisions get short in the winter. Human nature Is the same the world over and when dealers have the opportunity of making clear profit by means of the so-called protective tariff, they will never fail to do so. And when there is any chance of the dealers