.PRESS AND CAROLINIAN EXTRA.
TAX _^5Z9 RM - 1
A VIEW OF TAW TAXATION
ANO SURPLUS REVENUE.
SHOWING THE BLIGHTING RESULTS
OF PROTECTION.
On tue farmer, the laborer, the
doutta, awd the country
at l.arKe.
COMPILED BT E. L. SHUFORD.
TUB SURPLUS ISSUE.
This country is confronted with
on anomalous state of affairs. We
have locked up in the United States
Treasury an idle surplus of $130,-
000,000; more than $180.00 for eve
ry day since the birth of our Savior.
More money is piled up in the vaults
at Washington than there is in the
treasury of any kingdom, monarchy
or despotism on the planet. Indeed,
we have a greater amount thus hoard
ed than have the three leading na
tions of Europe. The fact of a sur
plus so gigantic clearly demonstrates
that taxation is unnecessarily high.
Why should the people be taxed be
yond the reasonable demands of the
Governments Besides, no one will
deny that a large surplus is a per
petual menace to an economical gov
ernment and invites unwise legisla
tion, jobs, rings, and a long train of
evils. Au old and honored Demo
cratic statesman of an emphatic turn
of mind used to say, “that it was «s
hard to run a powder-house in hell
as an honest government with a
plethoric treasury.” But how small
in this surplus when we think of the
amount which never sees the Treas
ury, the effect of which is felt in eve
ry department of business, and the
maintenance of which enhances the
cost of living to every man in the
land. You ask can there be a more
effectual or pernicious method of
contracting the currency than by col
lecting by taxation a large sum in
excess of the needs of the Govern
ment and locking it up in the Treas
ury! It seems so, for this tax, or
tariff if you please, which put 217
millions in the Treasury last year,
placed during the same period one
thousand millions into the pockets
Off manufacturers and monopolists.
The Government says to the monop-
list, I do not need to tax these peo
ple. but I will hold them while you
extort. And the Republican party,
the cunning agent of monopoly,
shielding itself behind a so-called
protective system, frames a law that
yields $5 of private taxes to the
manufacturing monopolies, whilst it
puts $1 of revenue in the vaults of
Ue Government. Do you doubt it?
We give you a touchstone to test it.
For every dollar's worth of imported
goods that we buy and pay an aver
age of 47 per cent, on, alongside in
the merchant’s store are $5 worth of
such competing American goods as
sue sold 47 per cent, higher than
they would be out of the United
States, and of course 47 per cent,
higher than they would be if it were
not for the present tariff. If we re
duce the tariff we not only provide
for a reduction of the surplus, but
for every $1 we leave out of the
Treasury we leave at the very lowest
estimate $5 in the pockets of the
people. This withdrawing from the
Channels of trade the money of the
people, the life blood of commerce,
is equally injurious, equally destruc
tive of etery interest in every section
of the country. The whole circula
ting medium of this Nation, includ
ing both metals and he paper cur
rency, is $1,'>3().000,000. Only half
of this amount is in the hands of the
people, a moiety of it being hoarded
up in the coffers of monopolists and
is the Treasury of the Government,
barely leaving $700,000,000 to do the
business of this vast country. Of
this amount 350 millions will
be collected this year in Federal
taxes alone; more than half the vol-
ano of currency employed in trade,
more than forty thousand an hour,
more than $5 ahead for every man,
woman and child in the land, more
than $30 ahead for every voter in
the Republic. The business of the
country cannot stand the strain. A
national panic stares us in the face.
The President says “all the authority
and expedients, within executive con
trol barely prevented a panic last year
“and these appear now to be ex
hausted.” It must be averted, and
can only be done by lowering taxes.
We cannot afford to stop to quarrel
as to how this shall be done, or on
what. The spirit of compromise has
marked the wisest legislation of this
country. The greatest intellects
which have adorned the pages of
American history did not deem it
derogatory to their manhood to con
cede something to the opinions of
others. We must compromise. We
must make concessions to one anoth
er. This is the wisdom of private
and public life. This is the spirit of
Democracy. In this great country,
with its teeming population of sixty
millions, its vast area, its great di
versity of soil and climate, there are
necessarily conflicting interests, but
there is no conflict, real or imagina
ry, in the State or in the United
■States, which cannot be satisfactorily
adjudicated, if we but apply to its
consideration the patriotic spirit of
moderation which marks the Presi
dent’s Message and the Mills Bill,
The Democratic party appreciates
the fact that during the past 25 years
immense sums of money have been
invested in the various manufactur
ing interests of the country, and any
legislation should have due regard
for capital so invested. Its policy
is not destruction, but reduction and
salvation
FREE TRADE KOT AN ISSUE.
Notwithstanding the avowed pledg
es of both parties to revise the tariff
and reduce the surplus, the Demo
cratic party is confronted on the
threshhold of every attempt to re
deem its faith by the opposition of
the Republicans in Congress who
seek to justify themselves by crying
“free trade.” As for the question
of “free trade,” it seems to us that
the President in his message laid the
matter to rest. He says: “It is a
condition which confronts us—not a
theory., Relief from this condition
may involve a slight reduction of
the advantages which we award our
home productions, but the entire
withdrawal of such advantages should
not be contemplated. The question
of free trade is absolutely irrelevant;
and the persistent claim made in cer
tain quarters that all efforts to relieve
the people from unjust and unneces
sary taxation are the schemes of so-
called free traders is mischievous
and far removed from any considera
tion of the public good.”
FAIR TRADE.
The Democratic party is a fail-
trade party and its opposition to
war-tariff, robbery of the people for
the benefit of a favored class, is well
known. It is absurd to talk of free
trade and it shows either ignorance
or a wilful spirit of misrepresenta
tion. It takes an immense amount
of money to run this Government
even when economically adminis
tered, and we will continue to raise
a revenue from the tariff on imports
for all ages to come. Of course true
statesmanship requires that this tar
iff be so adjusted as to do the most
good and the least injury to the
masses of American people. The
Democratic policy is to reduce taxa
tion gradually and wisely in order
to benefit the people generally, rath
er than a few thousand people who
have heretofore monopolized the
benefits of protection at the expense
of labors the faimer, and the country
at large. With most raw material
free, and a gradual reduction of from
15 to 20 per cent, in the tariff on
manufactures it can be easily seen
by any fair-minded man that the ef
fect would be to stimulate produc
tion, extend our markets, and as a
matter of course allow a margin for,
27 per cent; in 1857 it had been re
duced to 18 per cent, but in 1866 it
was raised to 40 per cent, and it was
then declared: “This is intended as
a war measure or a temporary meas
ure and we must as such give it our
support.” These were the exact
words used in Congress by the fath
er of the bill.
More than 20 years have passed
since the war closed and the war tar
iff still remains ; yea, it has increased
from 40 to 47.10 per cent.—and yet
in a time of profound peace, with a
suffering people and an overflowing
Treasury the Radical party is oppos
ing the Mills Bill calling it a free
trade measure when as it now
stands it only proposes to reduce the
j tariff 4 per cent, still leaving a tax
of $43 on the hundred.
THE MILLS BILL.
It is a stupenduous outrage, but
it is idle to disguise the fact that
the Republicans are determined to
prevent any modification of the pres
ent tariff.
Under their policy “the millions
own nothing and the few own mill
ions.” The monopolists are deter
mined to insist on a literal applica-
cation of that Scripture : “unto every
one that hath shall be given, but
from him that hath not shall be tak
en away even that which he hath.”
It is significant that there are
at this moment in the corridors of
the Capitol at Washington the rep
resentatives of fifty thousand mo
nopolists. They know that the Mill 8
Bill means cheaper clothing, cheaper
food, cheaper tools, and cheaper
houses. It means putting down
monopolies and trusts. It means
(whether the Radical Senate suc
ceeds in defeating it or not, a Dem
ocratic President this fall and a
Democratic majority in both branch
es of Congress as well. It means
the perpetuation of Democratic su
premacy and the eternal principles
of truth and justice. We admit
that in the adjustment of this tariff
there is great latitude for argument.
These manufacturers have been rais
ed on the “Government teat of pro
tection” and the great question is
“how to wean without stunting.”
“They have been on the big drunk
of protection” for so long that the
problem is how to reform and sober
them up. This is the momentous
question of political economy.
The way-faring man however can
understand the actual workings of
the tariff. It requires no literary
training for a man to understand
that he is injured in pocket when he
is saddled with a tax of 50 per cent,
or $7.00 on a $14.00 suit of clothes
and the man who sees to convince
him that this is done for his protec
tion will bring his labors to an un
happy end.
LUXURIES AND NECESSARIES.
The taxes levied in the States are
imposed on the property, every,
one paying in proportion to his
wealth. But tariff taxes fall more
heavily upon the necessaries of the
poor than upon the luxuries of the
rich. The poor man’s blanket or his
wife’s shawl pays a tariff ten times
as high as the rich man’s diamonds.
The Republican party proposes to
leave high taxes on the poor, re
lieve the wealthy and pay bounties
to monopolists. So itcomes to pass
under the present tariff that when
the farmer’s wife goes to her mer
chant to buy a woolen shawl she is
taxed 86 cents on the dollar $3.50
for the shawl untaxed, $6.51 with the
tax on. Now if the banker’s wife
wants a seal-skin sacque she is only
taxed 20 cents on the dollar or 68
cents less than the farmer’s wife.
If the manufacturer’s wife desires
silk stokeings she may have them
under the law 25 cents less tax than
the planter’s wife who may desire to
purchase worsted or woolen stock
ings. And yet for years the Repub
licans have refused even to consider
the feasibility of reducing these tax
es and harmonizing their discordant
elements. When it narrowed itself
•down to a contest between the rich
the increase of the wages of the op
eratives, besides insuring them more
constant employment. The Repub
lican policy has been free trade in
labor, bringing American labor into
direct competition at home with im
ported pauper labor (Harrison hav
ing declared himself again and again
in favor even of Chinese labor); and
protection for combinations and
trusts, for the centralization of pow
er and wealth into the hands of a
few who arrogate themselves to be
the governing class, to tax consum
ers, to oppress labor, limit produc
tion, and destroy our trade with for
eign countries.
THE MESSAGE.
The lines, however, are well drawn
and the difference between the two !
parties is well defined on this ques
tion. The President's Message is
the bugle note and “ihe people” are
rallying to its support en masse.
For years the people have been made
to submit to the yoke of monopolistic
oppression. But the slogan has
sounded, the President has come to
the rescue with a courage unprece
dented—with an intellect unclouded
and with a single stroke of his pen
has cleared the way for tariff reform.
The Nation is still reading his mes
sage. Its words foreshadowed vic
tory to his party and to the country.
The people have been asking in pite
ous tones, why this unnecessary tax
ation, and the reason is to be found
in “the message,” that the few might
prosper w hile the masses suffer.
The issue then before thio great
Republic is, to sum it up, simply
this: Shall our system of taxation
be th^t which takes from the people
only of their earnings to support the
Government, or shall it continue to
be a system which wrings from the
people one thousand million dollars
annually more than goes into the
Treasury for the enrichment of pri
vate individuals; the continuance
of an idle surplus or inordinate
pensions to prevent it. That ;s
the issue and no amount of mis
representation can conceal it. The
President has left it with the people.
The flag of tariff reform will soon
float in triumph and when once the
peolpe inscribe victory upon it the
child has not been born that will
ever see defeat written over it.
THE TARIFF A TAX.
Industriously indeed has the Re
publican party sought to impress the
public mind with the belief that the
tariff is » subject so mysterious, so
difficult and intricate that only those
versed in statecraft and studying
economy by the midnight lamp could
understand it, while the advocates
of tariff reform have been remiss in
presenting and driving home the
plain truth and immutable fact that
a tariff is a tax and the heavier the
tariff the heavier the tax. There
are over four thousand articles on
the tariff list and the man who buys
any article on that list, whether
it be made of iron or wood, of
cotten or silk,-of wool or hemp,
whether it be a threshing machine or
a horse-shoe nail, a steam-engine or
a bott}« of Jamaica ginger; whether
it be made in this country or any
other country, pays a tax which av
erages now 47 cents on the dollar
into the pocket of the manufacturer
if he buys the home made article, or
into the Treasury at Washington if
he buys the imported article.
Whether it be a protective or a rev
enue tariff the tax is paid in either
case by the consumer and the mer
chant or the man who sells the ar
ticle is the tax gatherer. When lev
ied and collected for the Govern
ment it is a revenue tariff—when lev
ied for the purpose of aiding individ
uals in their enterprises itis called a
protective tariff and in the latter in
stance where protection begins reve
nue ceases, as under our present tariff
the revenue to the Government arises
from imports not produced or manu
factured in this country or from
those goods which the people will
have in spite of tariff laws.
The average tariff rate in 1850 was
man’s pocket and the poor man’s
back the Democratic party did not
hesitate to espouse the cause of the
back and defy the world, the flesh
and the devil in the fight.
When the Democrats demanded
free bibles the Republicans refused
but gave free playing cards and per
fumery. When we demanded a re
duction upon the absolute neccessi-
ties of the people they freed bank
checks and bank deposits from tax
ation. The truth is that the protec
tive system as devised by the Re
publican party is the parent of the
millionaire and the tramp both equal
ly a curse to American society. This
system makes payees for some and
hovels for others. It has congrega
ted the wealth of the country until
in America it is accepted as axiomat
ic, “The rich have grown richer and
the poor poorer.” It is the wealth
and not the talent that is dominat
ing in Governmental affairs. But
tariff reform would sweep the coun
try with cyclone power; if for the
brief period of a single day we could
substitute for the indirect system
the direct one of collecting Federal
revenue and the tax-payers be thus
enabled to realize the hardships and
the enormity of this tax. The people
have never been brought to fully un
derstand this question while the ad
vocates of monopolies have arrayed
the harlot of protection in fine linens,
silks and satins, and her horrid feat
ures thus masqueraded, she is toler
ated and allowed to go abroad in
the land and into every nook and
corner corrupting the voters and
scattering her “league-tracts” as
as thick as Autumn leaves in the high
ways and by-ways. Pope never ut
tered a truer sentence than when he
said :
“Vice is a monster of so frightful
mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be
seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her
face,
We first endure, then pity, then
embrace.”
THE THEORY OF PROTECTION.
As we understand it, we will brief
ly state the theory of protection as
advocated by the Republican party.
1st. They assume that “protec
tion” creates a home market for the
farmer.
2nd. They assert that high tariff
increases the wages of the working
man and protects him from pau
per labor.
3rd. They say that the wealth of
this country is the direct result of
the present tariff. All thia is claimed
for protection. Home market “pau
per labor” and “rich country” is the
modest theory of protection.
INFANT INDUSTRIES.
The old cry of infant industries
has about died out, for, if you can
get the manufacturer’s “blood up he
will tell you he can beat the Euro
peans at their own game.” Of
course they are still sucking the
bottle of protection and some, even
when the voice of Gabriel shall be
heard, and the last trumpet shall
sound, some infant with hoary locks
and a body plethoretic with bounties
and profits gathered from the till®
of the poor and wrenched from the
honest hand of toil, will stand upon
the shores of time and cry infant in
dustries and more protection!
HOW THE TARIFF EFFCT8 THE FARMER.
We regard the claim that the far
mer is benefited by protection
as the most untenable proposi
tion advocated by these boasters.
It is a most audacious misrepresen
tation and is an insult to the
farmer’s intelligence. Refering now
to the fact, of which we boast, that
our system of Government is the
most paternal system under the sun,
that it spreads the segis of its pro
tection over every citizen alike,
treating all as children of a common
parent. Let us see if this is not an
idle boast. Paternal Oh ! how much
of duty that word conveys. Pater
nal duty implies maintenance and
protection to every child alike,
sprung from the same loins. Cruel
indeed would be the father who
would if he could take from the
earnings of three of his sons engaged
in tilling the soil to make wealthier,
the already prosperous one engaged
in manufacturing, yet that is just
what this paternal Government is
doing and has been doing for many
years. “It has been hardening the
hand of toil to soften the hand of
ease.”
When you remember, that tariff
taxes are laid upon over 4,000 artic
les including nearly everything that
the farmer uses on his farm, iron