Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1888 — Page 3

A STATEMENT OF FACTS.

Unnecessary War Taxes Levied Upon the Farmers in Times of Peace. The War Ended Twenty-three Tears Ago, but the High Taxes Are Still in Force. A Classified List of Some of the Duties on Articles Consumed bj Farmers. What Revenue Reform Means to Agriculture—Plain Facts for the Study of Plain Men. The following statement of facts is addressed by the Boston Post to the farmers of Massachusetts. The facts, however, are true throughout the country, and are of as much concern to the farmers in Nebraska as of New England. Where Massachusetts places are named the Nebraska farmer will easily, as he reads, substitute places nearer his own home. Says the Post: High tariff taxes were imposed during the war, not only on salt and lumber, but on a great number of other articles that are in daily use by the farmers of Massachusetts, These duties have been changed once or twice since 18(55, but on the whole have not been generally reduced. The war -ended twenty-three years ago, and yet we are still paying war taxes. Here is a classified list of some of the duties on articles consumed by the New England farmers, the rales being the payments last year on the actual importations: Tax on each Name of article. Use. #IOO worth. Xumber, pine or spruce, rough House building..# 16.18 Nails House building.. 43.97 Lime House building.. 10.00 Cement House building.. 20.0 J Clapboards, spruce ....House building.. 10.98 Shingles House buffaing.. 10.89 Screws, largest Bize....House building.. 20.17 Screws, smaller sizes.. House building.. 61.17 Linseed oil Housebuilding.. 54.79 White lead House building.. 40.19 Zinc House building.. 33.34 Window glass, smallest sizes Housebuilding.. 60.17 Window glass, largest sizes House building.. 103.50 Wall paper House furnishing 25.00 Carpets, ingrain House furnishing 45.79 Carpets, tapestry House furnishing 61.13 Carpets, Brussels House furnishing 60.03 Oilcloth.. House furnishing 40.00 Crockery House furnishing 56.02 Hollowware, iron House furnishing 47.36 Tinware House furnishing 45.00 Glassware House furnishing 40.00 (Furniture House furnishing 3;.00 Woman’s dress goods, cheapest... Clothing 67.80 Women's dress goods. dearest Clothing. ........ 59.06 Women’s cloaks. Clothing 67.74 Woolen cloth for men's wear, cheapest Clothing 89.94 Woolen cloth for men’s wear, dearest Clothing 68.91 Ready-made clothing.. Clothing 54.18 Linen Clothing 35.10 Silk, piece goods, etc... Clothing 50.00 Gloves Clothing 50.00 Hosiery, woolen Clothing 6ißo Hosiery, cotton Clothing 40.00 Hosiery, silk Clothing 50.00 Flannels Clothing 70.02 Corsets....'. Clothing. 36.00 Hats and caps, w 001... .Clothing 54.01 Hats and caps, straw.. .Clothing 30.00 Hat 9 and caps, silk.... Clothing 50.00 Buttons Clothing 25.00 Salt. Food 49.82 Sugar Food 82.04 Molaefl’S Food 28.05 Bice, cleaned.., Food 113.03 Fish Food 21.72 Lemons Food. 16.15 Prunes Food 30.81 Raisins .....Food 35,40 Horses Farm work 20.00 Horseshoes , Farm w0rk....... 54.95 Chains Farm work 44.37 Glue . Farm work 20.00 Garden seeds.. Farm work 2J.CO Pocketknives Farm work 50.00 Files, cheapest Farm work 60.85 Files, dearest Farm work 63.29 Handsaws Farm work 40.00 Lead pipe Farm work 63.82 Castile soap Cleanliness 20.00 Toilet soap Cleanliness 35.20 Castor oil Physic 194.77 800k5...... . Knowledge 2">.00 Writing paper Knowledge. 25.n0 Inks Knowledge 30.00 Umbrellas Shelter 40.71

The reason given in 1861-’65 for the extraordinary taxes on imported merchandise was the necessity of raising money for the defense of the Government. That reason no longer exists. The Treasury, instead of needing all the revenue it can get, nets annually some $100,000,000 more than it needs. This being true the maintenance of the war taxes is unjustifiable unless some new and firm ground for them can be taken and held. It is not a good thing to have to pay high taxes. The farmers of the Eastern States, subject as they are to unrestricted competition with the cheap and marvelously fertile soil of the boundless West, have hard enough work to make both ends meet when taxes are at a minimum. It is no easy task at best to dig the money for the annual town, county and State taxes. The task is made all the harder by the necessity of paying day by day high taxes imposed by another authority—the Congress at Washington. The theory is that the protective taxes benefit the farmers. But do they? That is the great question that the tillers of our fields are going to ask themselves over and over again during the next few years, and are going to answer right in the end. It is said that the tariff increases the demand for the products of the farms, so that their owners are able to make more money. Is this true? Would a moderate reduction of import duties deprive our agriculture of a single customer? No. On the other hand it would bring more customers, or the old ones would come oftener. .Reduce the taxes on the necessaries of life, and the money that now goes for taxes will be left for shelter and clothing and food. The consuming power of the people will be increased. Reduce the taxes on materials used by our great industries, and on what the world has to give in exchange for what Americans have to sell, and the expansion of the national activities will be quiok and strong. Knock off the shackles from production and commerce. Give them a chance to grow. This is the road and the only road to further industrial development, to the increase of population with well-filled pocketbooks, to the enlargement of the demand for the products of New England agriculture. Some people seem to fancy that a reform of the tariff is going to close up the cotton factories of Lawrence, New Bedford, Fall River, North Adams, and Chicopee; the machine shops of Worcester and Fitchburg; tue woolen mills of Maynard, Lowell, and Pittsfield; the shoe shops of Lynn and Brockton; and the paper miils of Holyoke,

Dalton, and Lae; is going to turn their operatives into the streets, and then drive them out of Massachusetts; is even going to depopulate Boston, and restore the primeval cow-paths, and is thus going to thrust the farmers and farm laborers into the unfortunate prediqfffßent of having everything to sell and nobody to bay. This is the veriest nonsense. Let the oppressive and destructive tariff system be reformed, the cranberries will continue to grow on Cape Cod, and sell for handsome prices; butter will still be made in the creameries and the dairies of Worcester and Franklin Counties, and will command good returns in the Boston market; hay and potatoes and corn will still yield their increase according to the season, and there will be in this commonwealth not one less buyer of all these things than there is today. There will be, on the other hand, a larger and sounder growth in numbers and prosperity. The theory that high-tar Iff taxes benefit the farmers by enabling them to get something more for what they Bell thus lacks support. It is a beautiful theory, but it doesn’t work well in practice. How is it with the other claim? Do these taxes reduce the cost of what the farmer has to buy? It is absurd. Any man, whether farmer or politician, who can read over the list of taxes on the necessaries of life at the beginning of this artiole, and then assert with a sober face that they make the goods cheaper, is a suitable candidate for Northampton or Danvers. No class of the community is humbugged more by this tariff “protection” than the agricultural class. The tariff takes thousands of dollars from the farmers every year; it gives back nothing at all. ' There was a significant statement of the burdens borne by the farmers in an address a few years ago before the State Board of Agriculture by Mr. J. S. Fay, a delegate from the Barnstable Agricultural Society. Farming profits, even in the best seasons and with the largest crops, Mr. Fay pointed out, are not liberal, so that it is desirable that what the farmer gats for his produce shall go as far as possible in supplying his wants or in adding to his Bmall savings. “The money taken from the people by tariff taxes,” he went on, “does not get bank to those who contribute it. Do you know a farmer who has become a millionaire by farming? Who grows rich from the tremendous sum exacted annually from the hard-working people of this country? Look around you and you will see that it is not the farmer. You may not feel any particular pinch, it operates so insidiously, this indirect form of taxation; but do you grow rich, do you even make a good living out of it? Look at the large establishments built in this State by the accumulations acquired by protection, which gives certain classes a practical monopoly and large assured profits. Look at the large mills and factories all over this commonwealth; see how they grow, while farms dw.ndle and diminish in value. ” Who have profited from the war taxes? Surely it is not the farmer. A careful estimate shows that the tariff adds about one-fourth to the cost of building a house in the city of New York, and there is a proportional increase in Massachusetts. On the sngar eaten every year by a family of five persons there is paid a tax of $5.30. The tariff has made our woolen manufacturers the cutest people in the world in the use of shoddy. Is this a blessing to the growers of sheep or the wearers of woolen clothing? Salt made from brine that Providence has stored up in New York and Michigan has been sold time and again by the monopolists who own it to the people of the British provinces cheaper than to the people of New England. How much does tbe salt tax of 50 cents on the dollar benefit the dairyman and the householder of Massachusetts? Yankee thrift revolts at tbese impositions when once its attent.on is called to them. No more cruel device for robbing the farmer of part of his hard-earned gains than the “protective" taxation of what he consumes was ever invented. The farmer in his humble circumstances consumes about as much as the millionaire in his wealth, and, under the operation of protection, he pays as much tax. Tim,.theory that the protective taxes benefit him is exploded at both ends. It does not raise the price of what he sells; it raises the price of what he buys. The cost of the protective system is borne chiefiy by farmers, who constitute the largest class in the community. But the day of reform is at hand. The bad consequences of a false theory will not be overlooked much longer by the people of this commonwealth.

One Result of Protection.

With free trade in hides the leather manufacturers of the United States imported $23,000,000 worth last year and exported $10,000,000 worth of leather goods,' after supplying the home maiket. Without free hides they could not export at all. If a 55 per cent, tax were put on hides as on wool this export trade would be destroyed at once, $10,000,000 would be taken from the manufacturers, and they would be compelled to discharge all the workmen whose labor is required to produce these exported goods. The “protective” policy requires this tax on hides; it demands the loss of this trade and the discharge of these workmen; and although its advocates may not be ready to enforce this demand immediately, they are endeavoring to prevent hundreds and thousands of workmen from obtaining the paying places that would be open to them if wool were untaxed, so that we could build up suoh an export trade in woolens as we have in leather goods under free trade in hides.— St. Louis Republican.

“Abolishing Internal Revenue” Means

Tax on sugar 80 Taxon rice 112 Tax on salt 83 Tax on corn starch.. 93 Tax on plain silk goods 50 Tax on woolen dress goods costing 220 a yard 71 Cheap whisky, 1 Tax on com’on cloth 91 Cheap tobacco, V Tax on w’l’n hosiery 70 Cheap beer. ) Tax on flannels 72 Tax on w’l’n shawl's. 78 Tax on co’t’n hosiery 45 Tax on co’t’n bag’g.. 5i Tax on plain earthenware 55 Tax on window glass 86 „ Tax on plate glass.. 147 Tax on steel rails... 80 Tax on crockery 65 —J. S. Moore, in New York Times.

Protection Does Not Protect.

In 1867, when the high-wool tariff went into operation, there were hogs in the State of lowa valued at $1,483,245, and sheep valued at $2,084,476. After twenty years’ experience with protected wool-growing, in 1887 the assessed value of sheep in lowa was $277,489, and of hogs $2,852,530. So far, the wool-grower. In 1870 there were

eighty-five woolen factories in lowa, and iu 1880 there were thirty-four. Thus protection failed to protect the farmer, and also failed to protect the manufacturer.— Philadelphia Record.

What Free Wool Would Mean.

Free wool would mean cheaper and better clothing, warmer bedding, better carpets for the people. It is the greatest boon that can be conferred on an industrious nation. The tax on wool, which is a tax on health, on comfort, on the vigor of the nation, is as much a barbarism as would be a tax on food, on water, or on air and light Nor would a reduction or a repeal of the tax work any peculiar hardship to the wool grower. It would lead to a vast expansion of our woolen industries. It would open the markets of the world to our manufacturers. They would perhaps have to change their machinery somewhat, as the grower would change his breed of sheep, but the result would be a vast increase in the demand for wool the world over. A now impetus, and a healthy impetus, wojald be given to wool-growing. By carefully selecting the sheep adapted to his land, his climate and his market, the American grower would soon find that the evils predicted from free wool were largely imaginary, and that (hey were nothing compared to the benefits derived from cheaper clothing, from warmer blankets, from freeing the woolen goods from a large part of their cotton mixture. —Courier Journal.

Brain Labor Vs. Pauper Labor.

High-priced labor is not pauper labor. It is brain labor. We have the smartest people in the world. We tarn out more manufactures to a man than any other country. Our products are about twice those ol Great Britain. Don’t be alarmed, my friends, that your manufactured goods are to be placed on the free list. They never will be. We are going to have revenues from customs, not from raw materials, but we will rely upon our finished products. The party to which I belong, the party to which the illustrious President belongs, said at Chicago that we would give to the American workman the ri.'ht to use the foreign materials and proteot his waces, and now we don’t intend that foreign workmen shall wreck his prospects.- Roger O. Mills. *

The Real Victims of the Tariff.

Carnegie & Co. have declared a general lockout at the Edgar Thompson Steel Works at pv.tsburg, the men having declined to accept a reduction of 10 per cent, in wages. There is a Steel Trust. Carnegie & Co. make a profit when shut down as well as when running. A shut down does not affect them. But it does affect the men, and very seriously. No work no pay is the rule with them, and there are 3,000 of them idle to-day. Meanwhile, production being reduced, the supply is shortened and the market stiffened up on that aggregation of fools, the people of the United States, who enable the trust to be formed and operated by consenting to a tariff tax which gives them over bound hand and foot and pocket to the tender mercy of these monopolists. —Terre Haute Gazette.

Tariff Protected Trusts.

The following is a partial list of “trusts” already formed upon which there is high tariff protection: Duty, Duty, Trusts. per cent Trusts. per cent. Plow stool patent....4s Halt 83 Bessemer steel 81 Coal 23 General steel 45 Lead... ".'..74 Numerous iron 45 Refined sugar*ll.... *7O Nail 45 Rubber 5h0e5........25 Copper 24 Envelope 25 Zinc monopoly 52 School slate 35 Tin plate .82 Paper bag 35 Glass 55 Linseed oil 54 Pottery 56 Paving pitch 20 Soap 26 Cordage 21 to 32 —Terre Haute Gazette.

The Tax on Raw Materials.

Chauncey Depew predicts, in a glowing period, the mission of our manufacturers to “enter all ports, explore new countries, and to compete with the most advanced nations in all the markets of the world.” Very fine; but our manufacturers can never do it so long as they are handicapped with the tariff-enhanced cost of raw materials and machine The United (States is the only manufacturing country in the world that taxes raw materials. Consequently the manufacturers of the “most advanced nations” undersell us in “all the markets of the world.” The percentage of manufactures in the total exports has not increased during twenty-five years of high tariffs. —New York World.

What the Surplus Represents.

Representative Bland of Missouri—That overflowing treasury of $100,000,000 is tempting bait. Every one puts his hands into it to see how much he can extraot from it. Where has that $100,000,000 come from? It has come from the men who labor/who are taxed 50 per cent for the hats they wear, 40 per cent for the blankets that cover them. Every dollar paid into the treasury of that amount of $100,000,000 has cost the taxpayers of this country at least $5. That amount represents $500,000,000 that has gone into the hands of monopolies, and trusts, and syndicates, and capitalists under this infamous system of a protective tariff.—Congressional Record.

The Reform Programme.

We fire not legislating for Utopia. We are, as the President said, confronted by a condition, not a theory. Absolute free trade is proposed by no one, nor will it be. The abolition of such protection as is thought to tell for American mechanics and workmen is not now in the question. What is proposed is to give cheaper materials to our industries, so that our manufactures may thrive; to abolish senseless taxes that make our productions dear, and to remove, as far as possible, barriers that shut us out from cheap food, fuel, and clothing on one hand, and from profitable foreign markets on the other. —New York Star.

The Libel on Washington.

It was a blunder to take advantage of the patriotic occasion of the celebration of Washington’s birthday to load his memory with the opprobrium of having been the original American protectionist. The revenue tariff bill that Washington put his name to taxed thirty articles, against the 4,000 covered by the present tariff. The duties in the first tariff, devised by Hamilton, averaged 8£ per cent. The first tariff was a moderate measure for revenue; the last tariff was devised partly for pnblic revenue, but mainly for the advantage of favored monopolies.— Philadelphia Record.

Qninina and Opinm Craving. Mr. John Ferguson, a well-known resident of Ceylon and newspaper proprietor, has addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Anti-Opium Foe ety on the value of sulphate of quinine, or even the inferior alkaloids from cinchona bark, as prophylactics aud tonics, especially iu low-lying and malarial districts, where people are addicted to the use of opium m order to relieve the fever depression. The prevalence of the opium-craving in many parts of the world is due, says Mr. Ferguson, to the people being subject to a low type of fever. This is largely the case iu China. In England it has been shown that the consumption of opium, chiefly in the form of laudanum, is very large in the fen districts and along the lower banks of the Thames, especially about Gravesend. A Lincolnshire village druggist stated some years ago, in a letter published in the newspapers, that he sold about two gallons of laudanum per month retail, besides sixteen or twenty ounces of opium itself, mostly to women of the poorer classes, who must pinch themselves seriously in many ways to purchase the luxury. Many, he said, consume an ounce of opium a week, and some considerably more. The main caase of this craving, according to Mr. Ferguson, is that the people live in low and malarial localities, and he suggests that quinine removes the craving and acts as a substitute for laudanum. He quotes from Mr. Colquhon’s travels iu China to show that the Chinese, even in remote inland districts along the Canton River, know the efficacy of quinine in superseding the need for opium, and possibly in curing the taste and desire for it.’ A few years ago the price of quinine and the.cinchona alkaloids were prohibitory to poor people, but the cultivation of the plant in India, Ceylon, and Java had reduced the price of the best sulphate of quinine from 10s. 15s. and even 18s. au ounce to half a crown, and even to less. In 1872, 11,457 pounds of cinchona bark was exported from Ceylon; now the export is from 18,000,0u0 to 15,000,000 pounds. But, although the wholesale price of quinine is so enormously reduced, the retail prices are frequently still calculated on the rate from time immemorial of £2 an ounce, which is purchased at less than 3s. —London Times.

The Easy-Going Turk.

Judging by the thousands of soldiers whom I saw after the emeute in Bulgaria in 1e.85, and by the physique and robustness of those who, every Friday, pass our legation on their way to the salemlik, I think the average Turk is in a contented and healthy state. He shows an equable temper and a regular life. His religious observances and grave countenance give to his habitual reserve not merely the outward sign but the inward kindness, joined with an easy manner. Suppose he has the love of ease; suppose he is deficient in our ethics and education; suppose his mental faculties are not fully developed and sophisticated; suppose he does 101 l upon a divan and pass the time with his guests in talking of indifferent things; suppose he is content with his chibouque and coffee, his mosque, bath, and repetitious prayers, his game of chess or backgammon; supposing he is eager to listen to the old tales, proverbs and parables, or revels in the enjoyment of his astrologies and his pilaf —it may be said of him that when he comes down to work as a mechanic or merchant he is honest and fair in his labor and dealings. As a farmer he serenely plows his fields and reaps his harvests amid the vicissitudes of his lot and his trials with the tax-gatherer. At home he is a model of tenderness toward his family and loyal to his sovereign and religion. In summing up his character the qualities of patience, candor, contentment, and resignation are conspicuous beyond those of any other race upon the footstool.— Diversions of a Diplomat.

Embroidered Chair Cover.

Embroidered slips are much used now instead of chintz covers for chairs. They can be made of thin woolen material, or of

linen. When of wool they are embroidered with crewels. The better way to have the covers fit nicely is to lay the material on the chair, pin it in place to hold it firmly, and lay the plaits and seams just where they should be, and oat the material then. There are no two chairs exactly alike in shape, and it will be found far moro easy to fit them in this way. The seams and edges are bound with braid, and the comers are laced down with cords. The caps for the arms are fastened witb buttons and button-holes. The first Christian church in England is said to have been erected at ; Glastonbury, Somerset, about A. D. 60.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—There was an earthquake scene recently, resulting from an explosion of a magazine, ten miles northwest of Richmond, near Wil!iamsburg<»caosing a shock that was felt as far as Indianapolis and Cincinnati, as evidenced by messages received from there and intermediate points. The maguzino contained about ten tons of nitro-glycerine nnd dynumite, belonging to a New Jersey company, represented in the West by Oliver H. Hampton, whose brother David C. Hampton, was distributed in pieces too small to be discovered. He had gone to the magazine to prepare some nitro-glycerine rolls, which hnd frozen, preparatory to shooting gas-well No. 5, at Hagerstown, the rolls being made for th&t express purpose by the Jndson Powder Company. Nothing but small pieces of his clothing have been discovered. His horse and wagon were also distributed In comparatively small pieces, over an area nearly a quarter of a mile square, and the brick walls of the magazine were so completely pulverized that the only sign of them is in the discoloration of the trees, fences, and houses. The force of the explosion dug a pit with remarkable uniform, sloping sides, fifteen to twenty feet in depth, nnd more than twice that in width, and soatterod debris all over the area described, on the outer limitß of which farmhouses were made to tremble like tottering blookß, their windows being broken, doors whirled from their hinges und walls rendered bare of piaster. —Patents have been granted to the following Indiana applicants; A. Butterfield, Fotoler; W. Neese, Perkinsville; G. Miller, Fort Wayne; J. G. Picketts, Greensburg; J. Griffith, Lawrence burg; J. C. Gafford, Brazil; J. Gallagher, Brookville; L. Tyler, Logansport; J. Foley, Franklin; T. F. Dryden, Clayton; E. Shook, Jonesboro; J. Board, Cannelton; B. Myles, Lynnville; E. L. Richardson, Oakland City; G. L. Sawyer, Forestman; R. H. Moore, Blooming Grove; R. Sheets, Pnston; H. Hare, Indianapolis; B. F. Hughes, Liberty; T. T. A. Gardner, Little York; A. McWilliams, New Providence; A. Obeny, Indianapolis; W. M. Parrott, Newton; P. M. Blew, Headley; W. A. Malcom, Paris Crossing; W. H. Ryker, Hicks; J. Lewis, Martinsville; E. Orme, Elwood, G, Litchensfels, Richmond; H. Lott, Galveston; E. Sweetland, South Bend; mother of H. Gregg, Dixon. —The Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan Swine Breeders’ Exhibition Bnilding Association hns just organized at Warsaw, and arrangements are "being completed for bolding annual exhibitions of Bwine and sheep in that place. The capital stock of the association is $5,000. The following officers were elected for the first year: President, Thomas F. Terry, Warsaw; Vice President, Fred Maurer, Wabash; Secretary, T. F. Rouse, Hillsdale; Treasurer, P. O. Blaok, Kendallville. The association will give annual exhibitions of premium stock, the first of which will b« held during the week|preceding the State Fair in September. —Word from New Hollandsburg, Parke County, is that William Carmickle, while hunting, ran across the bear which Isaao Sntherlin saw in the vicinity a few weeks ago, and shot him dead. He was black and lean. Where he came from is yet a mystery. The farmers of that neighborhood feel relieved and will now resume fox drives.

—Washington Hanna, of Connersville, soma months ago, buried his daughter and placed a lot of dynamite in her grave in order to protect the coffin from graverobbers. Recently Mrs. Hanna died and it was almost impossible to get any one to bury her or to attend the funeral ceremony, so great was the fear of an explosion in the cemelory.

—Joel Glasson, an unmarried man, crawled into the sawdust pit at Hancock’s saw-mill at Seymour to recover a lost knife. In getting out, his head came in contact with the saw, inflicting a terrible wound on the head, fully ten inches long, from which uinetoen pieces of bone were extracted. The wound is probably fatal. —Notre Dame University has just received from Europe a large amount of valuable scientific apparatus for the chemical and physical laboratories of the department of science. This large addition to the laboratories will serve to place them among the finest equipped of American colleges. —Pike County ex-soldiers have effected an organization, with Col. William D. Mull, President; Clinton Murphy, Secretary; David Strouse, Treasurer, with Vice Presidents in each township. A rated service per diem pension bill is favored.

—The gas well just finished at Portland for the Centennial mills has developed enough gas to run all the mills in the town. The large factories locating there will necessitate the building of 500 dwellings this summer for the mechanics to live in. —The little 8-year-old daughter of John Clark, while playing on the track of the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis railroad, at Seymour, was run over by the cars, and both her hands were cut off. Her recovery is very doubtful. —Joseph Bull, a miner, while at work at a shaft near Asherville, six miles southeast of Brazil, stepped into an unsupported cage at the mouth of the shaft and was precipitated to the bottom, being instantly killed. —At a meeeting of the Montgomery County fair directors, the premiums in the speed ring were increased to $2,500, as were also those in the ladies’ department, and also those in the horse departments. —The Democratic State Convention will be held at Indianapolis April 26.