Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1891 — Where the Tariff Is a Tax. [ARTICLE]

Where the Tariff Is a Tax.

Italy is one of the most heavily protected countries in Europe. The high tariff taxation on the necessaries of life in that country lays an intorable burden upon the poor laboring people, and perhaps in no country in Europe is there so much poverty. Bat there is strong and intelligent opposition In Italy to high protection. The opponents of protection there have been making a study of the actual cost of protection. One of these, Signor Pareto, has published a statement showing the tariff taxation of a workingman’s family at Florence. This family is composed of poor hard-working people. Its entire earnings for a year amounted to $476, and its savings were $5. Out of the family’s expenses of $471, taxes direct and indirect amounted to sll3, or 23 per cent, of the total expense. The share of,the royal treasury was $69, the city took $24, the province $2, and about $lB went into the pockets of protected manufacturers and agriculturists. This family spends $41.20 for clothing, but that sum included a tax of $7.-41, of which $1.28 Went to the state and $6.13 Into the pocket of the protected manufacturer. lu like manner, the family paid out for bread $77.40, in so doing turning over to the state $7.22, to the city $2.69, and to the protected producer $8.85. So much for protected Italy. A similar study of the expenditures of a family in England has been made. In England there is no protective tariff, and the amount of taxation upon the poor is, therefore, far less than in protected countries. The English family in question was composed of a man and wife and five children; Their expenses for a year were about $385, of which only about 317 went to pay taxes. The rate of taxation pf tffb Italian family was

more than five times greater than that of the Eaglish. familyA few cases will show why there is so great a difference bitween the expenses of theltalian and the English family. The English family buys untaxed sugar at a little below 5 cents a pound, while the Florence family has to pay 14 cents. The duty on sugar he must pay the state and city is nearly 8 cents a pound The Italian family has to pay a duty of over 18 cents a pound on coffee, the English family 4 cents. Kerosene oil costs the Italian family 58 cents a gallon, which includes a duty of 36 cents a gal on. Evidently the tariff is a tax in Italy.