Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1883 — TAXATION AND WADES. [ARTICLE]

TAXATION AND WADES.

Protection Designed for Hanaflwtnren, and Not for Workingmen. [From the Chicago Tribune.] Nearly twenty years ago,' Congress, in 1864, in the darkest hours of the Rebellion, invented and put into operation the most searching and overshadowing system of taxation that was ever invented in any Government of modem times. The desperate need of money necessitated such an extraordinary measure. This war-tax was justified at the time op the ground that it was intended merely to cover the time needod to wind up the war.' It took several years, however, to remove so much of those taxes as were collected from the business of manufacturing; but in time they were removed, leaving only the taxes collected from consumers on all the products of manufacturing industry. This tax was intended to be doubly protectiveu It aimed to protect the home manufacturer from competition by foreign manufacturers, and it was intended that this protection should also compensate the protected persons for such exactions as protection demanded Of them. The tax needed for this purpose, it can readily be understood, was excessive, and so frequently duplicated as to be difficult to estimate. In 1867 Congress enormous addition to the protective tariff on woolen goods, nearly, if not fully, prohibiting the importation of various classes of wools and woolens. We give a list of the rates of tax on some of the articles of prime necessity as they were under last year’s importations : Articles. . Per cent of tax. Cotton cloths. 44 to 68 Cotton thread 78 China and earthenware ...4) to 60 Otassware 4>to 6» Common windowrKlass 67 to fu Iron goods... 64 to 74 t-teel . 46 to xu Silk g00d5..... . «J Soap 47 Starch 116 Varnish 67 Wools 55 to_ 64 Carpet 5......... Bo to' 5*6 Woolen dress-goods 6i Blankets .' ao to 98 Flannels 66 to 103 Woolen hosiery 66 to 89 Knit goods 80 These taxes extend to every variety of the various classes of goods—the cheaper the quality of the goods the greater the rate per cont. These taxes are collected on nearly the entire product of the American manufacturers, so that the American producers of iron, steel and copper goods, the manufacturers of woolon, cotton and silk goods, are able by law to extort from consumers this enormous bounty or tax ou aH they purchase. As none of this tax is Eaid into the treasury, but is collected y the manufacturers direct from the consumers, the aggregate tax thus collected amounts annually to a greater. sum than all the other taxes imposed by the Government,- including the whisky and tobacco tax,and if if formed part of the revenues of the Government it would lie sufficient to pay the whole national debt in a few years. The recipients of this bouuty aro now declaring at Washington through their attorneys that if Congress shall interfere with these taxes by reducing them they will close their, business, refuse to make any more goods, and force their mechanics go out from their workshops to raise com and wheat upon the farms, and thus ruin the farmers. At Pittsburgh and in other manufacturing districts they ore passing resolutions at public meetings and conventions declaring that even with this bounty of 50 per cent, voted thorn by Congress they cannot make iron ancT steel, nor cotton or woolen cloth, arid live; and lienee they- announce a reduction in the wages of their labor of 25 per cent. They plead tliat the consumption of their goods lias declined, and that they cannot pay the wagesthey have been paying, It i? notorious that the cost of labor does not exceed 25 per cent, of the cost of manufactured goods, and that the wages paid the American workmen do not, in many branches, exceed those paid in England, and in others do not exceed An average of 25 per cent. The American workman therefore gets a nominal adyauee in-wages on the product of 25 per cent, of the value of manufactured goods, ami pays for the manufactured goods he uses 50 per cent." more than does liis foreign competitor. No wonder, therefore, tliat the American workman is, under this system of wages and taxation, reduced to the bare means of subsistence in the plainest form of living. Under the pretext that the average tax on the necessaries of life was collected for the purpose of distribution among the workmen in the form ot higher wages, this enormous tax has been collected annually for twenty years. The wages paid to the workmen are now reduced 25 per cent., but the cost of living is maintained. Tlie average wages paid during the last year on all classes of occupations lias lieen $346. This is now reduced SB4, or to a total of $262 a year, or $5 per week. While thus remorselessly reducing workmen to starvation rates Of l wages, those same protected and privileged classes threaten the country with ruin if the enormous tax levied in 1 their behalf is reduced, and are now actually urging a revised tariff which increase? the tax from 15 to 30 per cent. More taxes and less wages are the outcome of twenty years’ enormous pro- > tection. The reduction of wages strips the workmen of the means to pay the taxes. An annual compensation ranging from $240 to $360 a year for laborers who pay a tax of 50 per cent, on all the manufactured articles they need, from a straw-hat to an overcoat/ from a pair of children’s shoes to a pair of woolen blankets, can hardly be reduced without a corresponding reduction of taxes. The fraud of protection is,: however, now acknowledged. Protection has no reqj interest or concern in 'wages—the men and women who are laboring for a mere existence may live or perish; the iron and steel manufacturers, tile makers of cotton and woolen goods, insist upon their protective tax of 50 to 80 per cent. The laborer must take care of himself. Protection was designed for manufacturers, and not for workmen? •