Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1892 — THE PRESIDENT’S TAXATION OF COFFEE. [ARTICLE]

THE PRESIDENT’S TAXATION OF COFFEE.

National Democrat. We impo t >i large quantity of c. ll'ee fro a. Venezuela. Un this coliee, the President, in the exercise of rtvo utionary and uncoustit'ition i power conferred upon him by a Republican Congress control'ed by Mr. Reed, nd bent pon centralization aud plunder, has levied a duty of 3 cents a pound. Certainh tbe prices cf tbe same grades of coffee are not going to according as they come from one country or nolher. Coffee of the si.me gr ide will oommand a certain price irrespective of the source of supply If Brazil can readily supply alone the coffee weave now getting from Brazil and Venezuela together, then there will be no Venezuela coffee importod, but the inoreased deman 1 for coffee from Brazil will iucreas the price there, and the Americanconsumerv.il pay all, or a part, of the 3 cents lax, only instead of paying it to his own government, he will pay it in increased prices to the Brazilian planters. But if Brazil cannot supply a’ 1 the coffee we have been getting from the two countries, then we shall have to go on importing coffee from Venezuela, and on such coffee we will pay an import duty of 3 cents a pound wh'ch will go ipto our Treasury. American coffee drinkers will j be permitted to-pay more for their coffee [ in order to punish Venezuela, and in the ) meanwhile the Venezuelan planters w.ll be getting substantially tie same for their product that they are now, for in the case supposed we cannot get all the coliee we need elsewhere.

Bat besides seeking to punish Venezu ela for her obsti acy by taxing ourselves on oar coffee anotlmr and more interesting thing will occur, ft, as we have assumed, our demand continues, as it will probably, to take pretty much the whole surplus coffee product of the two countries, and prices in oar market are th< same for a given quality, irrespective of the country of origin, then the increase of 2 or 3 ots a pound in the price of Venezuela coffee resulting from the levying of a duty will increase in like ratio the prioe of Brazilian coffee, but as we levy no duty on the latter the increase will all go to th Brazilian producer or to the middlemen. As tße amount of corfee we import from Brazil is five or six times as great us that we import from Venezuela, the increased price we shall pay for Brazilian coffee, which will go to foreign planters and ealers, will be five or six times as much as the increased price we shall pay for Venezuelan cofiee which will go to our own Government This is a typical Republican tax; one of wh ch a small part goes to the Government and far the gi eater part goes to individuals. Gen. Rosec ans, the register of the treasury, come .nded the Army of th Cumberland and won, among other bard fought battles, that of Stone river. Col. D. H. Patt-jn commanded an Indiana regiment in the Arm of the Cumberland, and during all the vsars since the war ha never met b)9 old ommander until he was sent to congress from the Tenth Indiana district. Of course the general and colonel were pleaded to meet again, and ex. changed Grand Army buttons, each wearing the other’s nr.tton as a tort of souvenir of the meeting after so many long years.