Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1882 — War Taxes in Time of Peace. [ARTICLE]

War Taxes in Time of Peace.

J. 8. Moore, the well-known freetrader, has written to the New York Evening Post the following letter on a few of the atrocities of the protectionists and their tariff * Fell monopoly, with its hydra head, is actually beginning to work for tariff I reform. Perhaps at no time dnring the ! last twenty years have tariff reformers ! seen a brighter prospect than in the miserable, and we may justly say cowardly, surrender of monopoly advocates. Senator Morrill suffered the humiliation yesterday of stultifying himself and his high-tariff party by tacking an amendment upon the Internal Tax bill which | is intended to reduce the duty on two i articles of the tariff—sugar and steel i rails—notwithstanding the Tariff Commission in session. But the monopolists may as well understand that this miserable concession is worse than a sham. It acknowledges that the majority in Congress have betrayed the rights of the people. The people have demanded and demand the reduction of war taxes in time of peace. I They have just reason to do so, because j the war ended seventeen years ago. The ! proposed reduction of $8 a ton on steel j rails is as big a sham as ever was coni ceived. The cost of steel rails in Enj gland is on a 5 average £6 a ton—say i S3O. A duty of S2O a ton is as effectually | prohibitory at present as one of S2B. ! This very morning we see that the ; Brooklyn Bridge contracted for steel rails at $45.25 a ton. Therefore it will I be seen that S2O a ton duty is equal to i SSO, without freight or charges. Where- ! as a reduction to sls a ton will still j make the cost of foreign rails at present ! over and above the selling price here. We shall see, if such a sham passes, how much good it will do the monopolists in power. 1 In the meantime the consumers would i like to know why the following articles of necessity should be taxed as follows : | Bice, 105 per cent. Chloroform, 85 per oent Aoetate of soda, 2X6 per cent,

Caustic, 63 per cent. Strychnia, 81 per oent. Cotton prints (valued at 14 oents per yard), 68 per cent. Spool thread (that gigantic monopoly), 78 per oent. Window glass, 80 per cent. Plate glass, 109 per cent. Boiler iron, 74 per oent. Hollow ware, 82 per cent. Castor oil, 85 per oent. m Woolen goods, from6B to 140 percent Many woolen goods bear a prohibitory tax. In short, the above is only a modicum of our abominable tariff. We shall see at the polls what the Solons who want to be re elected will have to say—why they delegated tariff-making to a commission during seven months, and found at the eleventh hour that the country is paying war taxes and the tariff should be modified. With the thermometer at ninety-five, and the Erospect before them, the tariff monoposts may well be pitied.