Year: 1876




that it should do otherwise than continue
to increase under the administration Of
the chosen successor Of President Grant
The farmers of the country therefore will
we think, cast their votes for Tilden and
Hendricks, reunion, retrenchment and
reform, low taxation and better profit to
the landowner.


A WORD TO THE MERCHANTS.


The taxation falls ultimately upon the
producers, transporters and factors of pro-
ducts of the soil. The margin between
cost and profit is always small percentage
of value. If taxation is light, all classes
of agriculturists or business men, who are
concerned in the production or forwarding
of crops Of any character, have a fair
chance of prosperity, because their profits
depend upon the natural causes of soil,
and climate and not upon governmental
exactions. Excessive governmental con-
sumption, as is justly remarked by the
present Democratic candidate for the
Presidency, is the great cause of our dis
tress. This distress has not terminated
during the past year, nor is there any fair
prospect of its termination. On the con-
trary, the failures for the nine months of
1876, exceed as per the statement of
Messrs. r. G. Dunn & Co., by 791 fail
ures of the whole twelve months of 1875,
while the time from January the 1st to
October the 1st, 1876, over fifty per cent.
more concerns went into bankruptcy than
in the corresponding period, 1875, and the
liabilities of the failed firms for 1876 were
twenty-five millions of dollars greater than
those Of the ones that were forced out of
business in the preceding year. These
figures arc startling, but they are not the
worst features of the situation, because an
examination of the same table from the
same unquestionable authority, shows that
the failures Of this year arc greater in
number as compared with the amount of
liabilities than they were last year, and
that therefore the commercial distress is
spreading among the smaller traders of
the interior, and that greater number of
merchants whose industry has formerly
been productive of national wealth, have
been forced to become drones upon the
community. There was recently slight
appearance of revived prosperity because
the railroad lines were transporting hun
dreds of thousands of visitors to the Cen
tennial, and the hotels and shopkeepers of
the large cities were profting by the gen.
eral exodus of the people from their homes
to Philadelphia. But this was not solid
or substantial revival, because it was
founded upon excitement, and not upon
the real increased profit. The Centennial
visitors strained their resources to share in
the glorious national celebration, and to
acquire what information they could from
the exhibition of the industries and pro-
ducts of foreign nations. Their own pur-
suits are necessarily neglected in the in
terval, and on their return to their homes
they find themselves forced to even greater
economy than heretofore, in order to keep
the wolf from the door. We have every
element of wealth in our country laid open
to our hands, but in order to utilize them
we must be in position to make our net
profits as large as possible as compared
with our total businesses. Taxation is a
direct charge upon net profits, and there
is no single thing which will add so much
to mercantile success as reduction of tax
alton. Our taxation, national, State and
has since the war been exces-
sive beyond our legitimate needs, in grea-
ter proportion than that of any other
country. The problem for business men
now is how to reduce it to a reasonable
rate. 1t can only be done by the old and
safe rule of spending less than is earned
This rule applies to individuals and to all
classes of the community. The war for
the Union necessarily entailed vast expen.
aitures, which created our burdens not
only in the shape Of national but in the
shape of State and municipal taxation,
because all States and municipalities
pledged themselves for their share. It
caused a still greater burden in the devas-
.ation of vast producing sections of the
country, and in the destruction of hun
ireds of millions of property which were
80 much to be deducted from the national
wealth. The merchants of our country
IRE among its most patriotic classes.
Whenever national peril is threatened they
come to the front and with their voices
and purses contribute to the prosperity of
The United States. They are scarcely less
to the welfare of the country
han the great agricultural class whose
products they transport and market. of
.he twoparties now claiming their suffrages
n common with those of all other classes,
.he Republican calls upon them to con-
'ider certain memories of the past, men,
,ries of triumph for the cause Of unity of
he country but still fraught with the Bit
.er recollections of fratricidal strife. If|
.he appeal be sincere, it is worthy of due
and careful examination, but
{ it be made merely for the purpose of
a system of public plumber
'uinous to all taxpayers and consequently
specially ruinous to commerce it should
% rejected with scorn. During the war
Ill classes in the North contributed their
quota of Union soldiers, and their fair
of money to the assistance of
he Union cause. 1t is mistake and an
outrage upon the intelligence of the peo.
Die to say that only Republicans sustained
md fought the war; There were Demo
ratio soldiers and Democratic merchants
Who contributed their blood and their
reasure freely, and 1t IS wrong to rob
hem OF their fair proportion OF credit for