Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1887 — Hew the Farmer Is Robbed. [ARTICLE]

Hew the Farmer Is Robbed.

Congressman Turner, of Kentucky, in oneoi his speeches, furnishes ma'er al for thought on the part of the farmer, in showing how he is robbed by the tariff. He s vs of him that “h rises from his bed in the m ining ard puts on his common flannel shirt, taxed 95 per cent; his - oat taxed 75 per cent; shoe . t ixod G > per cent, and hat, taxed 92 pt-r ut; takes the water ftom a bucket, taxed 35 per cent; and washes his ,ace aud hands in atiu bo*l, taxed 36per cent; dries them on a cheap cotton towel, tax;d 45 per cent. ' He sits down to his humble meal and eats from a plate taxed 50 per cent; with <. knife and fork taxed 35 per cent; drinks his coffee sweetened with sugar taxed 68 per cent; seasons his f aod with salt, taxed 69 percent, and pepper, taxed 6L per cent.— Even the sunlight from heaven th-t pours into his humble dwelling must come through the window glass taxed 59 per cent; and yet he thinks he lives under the freest government under heaven. Then he starts to work, puts a bii.de, taxed 35 per cent, on his horse, and takes the horse that lias been shod —the nails used in shoeing being taxed 59 per cent; driven by a hammer taxed 25 per cent; and hitches him to a plow taxed 45 per cent; with chains taxed 58 per cent; and after the da 7 s labor is closed and his family are gathered around, he reads a chapter from his blble, taxed 25 per cent; aud kneels to God on a humble carpet, taxed 51 per cent; and then he rests his we tried limbs on a sheet taxed 45 per cent, and covers himself with a blanket that has paid 104 per cent. Nor do the grasping manufacturers stop here, for even the broom with which his good wife sweeps the floor, is taxed 35 per cent; and the cooking vessels used in preparing her husband’s frugal meal are taxed 42 per cent; and the soda used to lighten his bread is taxed 59 per cent. She sits down to her sewing with a needle taxed 25 per cent, and a spool of thread taxed 74 per cent, to make a calico dress, taxed 58 per cent; or if she wishes to knit warm socks to protect her husband and cmldren from the bitter cold, she uses yarn taxed 120 per cent; and thus daily and hourly must the hard earnings of the laborer go to satisfy the manufacturer and add to his ill-gotten wealth.” ,

To the Editor of lhe Indianapolis News: Why is it that, with a protective, duty on steel rails, and with linen on the free list, mills for the manufacture of rails have become numerous, giving employment to thousands, while there is not a single linen mill in the country?— And this is true, as is also the assertion that America grows the finest flax in the world, and immense quantities of linen. X. P. Lain. The News is a Republican paper, but goes for *he advocate of monopolistic theories in the following vigorous style: We do not know about there being no linen mills in the country, but if Mr. “X. P. Lain” is correct in this, then he has “explained” according to his own sjlaim that protection is a ghastly failure, for there is a thumping tariff on linen. The said tariff taxes you 35 cents for every dollar’s worth which you buy of “brown or bleacned linens, duck, lawn, handkerchiefs,” etc., etc., ‘or other manufactures of flax, jute or h«mp, or of which flax, jute or hemp is a component part.” If the stuff is worth more than 30 cents a square yard, then it taxes you 40 cents on the dollar. It taxes you 35 cents on the dollar for buying any flax, hemp or ju+e yarns or linen yarns for oarpets. It taxes you 50 cents on the dollar for buying flax or linen thread in whole or in part and for all manufactures of flax or linen not otherwise specifically mentioned. It taxes you 30 cents on the clo'-lar lor buying flax or linen laces. It taxes you the same on all buriai s and like rnan-

ufactures that have any flax, jute or hemp in them. It taxes you 40 cents on the dollar for oil cloths that have such burlaps, etc., for a foundation. These are the specific fines for buying any linen in any shape made anywhere but in this country, and of course on all made in this country it allows the addition of this fine to the norma.* price plus freight exchange and insurance which the same stuff sent from abroad has to pay. But if Mr. X. P. Lain is correct none of this is mad j in this country and hence the tariff fines us for buying linen —a crying necessity of life—from 30 to 50 cents on every dollar, and this in the face of a $100,000,000 yearly surplus yielded from such fines. Yet the fines are not to be remitted, the tariff must not be reformed!