Year: 1877

y


way. Iwillsuppose one of you owl


a store house across the street. The
| taxes on it this year are, say 800


and you rent it for $500. / will sup


pose that next year the tax is raised
to 5000. What do you do? If YOU
rent is $500, that less 800 tax would
leave $400, which you receive net
for your house; and we will suppose
that was no more than a fair return
upon your investment. You must
receive $400 net or your investment
is not paying you. What then will
you do? You go to your tenant and
say to him, 9 Mr.. Store-keeper ]
rented you this property last year
for $500, when I paid 800 taxes on
/ it, so that | received $400 clear
which was no more. than a fair re-
turn on my investment. Now they
have raised the tax on it to 5000,
and can not get fair return on my
investment without raising the rent;
therefore / must raise the rent to
$780," Well, if the store-keeper
can not get anotherroOm to suit him
at a less price, he pays the 5000.
Then what does he do? He makes
up his goods so as to provide for this
800 additional expenses. Now,
suppose Patrick, who is laboring
man, comes into this store and says:
Mr.. StOre-keeper, l will be obliged
to you for little muslin for a shirt
to-day ?" Now, right in the price
of that muslin Pat pays a part of
that additional 800 tax, and if he
has a good many backs to cover, if
he has wife and children that he
wants to clothe decently with a just
pride in his wife and children, he
pays more than the man with half
a million dollars, who has nobody
to clOthe.


Take another illustration. Here
is a tax on sugar. Suppose you are
a man who has a family consisting
of a wife and a half dozen children;
and perhaps have a hired hand, two
or three dOmestics about the house.
You buy the sugar consumed in your
family and pay for it, in the price
turks the tax imposed by the Gov
ernment, and you pay just accord
ing to the amount you consume. If
you consume fifty pounds a year,
you pay fifty times as much as the
man who consumes only one pound.
Thus you see, if you have family
of six or eight children, you are
compelled to pay largely to raise
this tax, while the rich bachelor,
the old bunker. who will not marry
a girl, as he ought to laughter
will in great measure escape taxa
ton. So that it will be seen taxa
ton comes down on the shoulders
of consumption. And as the great
body of consumers in every COM
munity must be composed of labor
ing men, ninety-nine One-dundreths
of every community being COM
pose of labOring men, you see that
in the end taxation comes down on
the shoulders of the iabOrers, and
what political economists say is
true, that taxes come out of the
wages of the laboring men. There
fore | would say to my working
friends, who are so eager to get up a
new party, that really | have al
ways thought that if there ever was
a wOrkingmen's party in this cOun-
try it was the Democratic party, for
ninety-nine One-hundreths of the
Democrats are wOrkingmen and al
ways have been. / would say to
you while giving your attention to
the means of seeking relief from
the things that are bearing down
upon you, don't forget that of all
things that press you the most, one
of the greatest is, the enormous
taxes you pay are levied by the Fed
4 Il he
ernment, and by the counties and
townships and school districts until
there seems to be no end of the tax
ing power, and no end to the eamOunt
of taxation.


APPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY


ANOTHER CAUSE.


But, my friends, there is still an
other cause which has been operating
in this country and which has been
operated with prodigious effect and
for a good many years, about which
| must speak briefly, l will not
speak at length upon it, because
mOstspeakers have treated it, though
| do not agree with all that has been
said, some have exaggerated it a
great deal and some have fallen far
short of the truth. Yet shall speak
of it because / think it is entitled to
great weight. 1t is one of the causes
of the depression of business and
financial suffering in this country,
and that is the appreciation of the
currency. What mean by the ap-
probation of the currency is the in
creased purchasing power of the dol
lar.


The close of the war found us with
nothing but paper money or credits.
We had it of all sorts and cOlOrs
laughter and it was very intiat-
ed currency. 1t has been growing
less, and has grown much less than
it was at the close of the war; and
as it has grown less in amount, the
purchasing power of the dollar has
increased, until now a greenback
which would once purchase fifty
cents in gold has risen forty
seven cents. That is an immense
amount for it to have risen. Now,
what is the effect of this rise in the
purchasing power of the currency?
Why, my friends, it is to make it
very much harder for every man
who contracted debt when the
purchasing power of the dollar was
so much less than now, to pay that
debt. For instance, if a greenback
would only buy bushel of wheat
five years ago, and you gave your
note for so many dollars then, and
you have to pay it now, and green
back now will buy, say bushel and
a half of wheat, then you see it
takes just One-third more wheat to
pay your debt than it would have
done if you had paid it five years
ago.


This increased purchasing power
of the currency, however beneficial
in the long run, it may be for the
country to come to a solid basis for
its currency, yet in the meantime,
while the operation is going on, it is
an extremely severe operation, and
one that makes it much harder for
every man who owes a debt con-
tracted when there was an inflated
currency to pay it.


Now, it is for this reason that /
never believed in forcing resump-
ton too rapidly. / voted against
the Resumption Bill for two reasons.
In the first place, because l didn't
think there was any wise provision in
it to reach resumption; and, second
Iy bacaIlSe 7 didn't think if was