Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1888 — A STATEMENT OF FACTS. [ARTICLE]

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.