npleted drawy, ly awoy ® of IH ged b D0Lhey ace and Comfy Ouse, armer. hart, |g) Muel § Willian ek, Fred erly, la lerk. { d the ju, nd told 1 gether Person The ould by and BY pur hie tipst ek, wer told red for fet A ary tl A ful 0 Stale ed wor i wou he out jur or had Jewele Calied ig evi r has ie we 08, BUC isining in diff + conti zing 3, Acco] » supp! com th e tL from of we We nb r favo: 4 0} when here is 4 sich is dd } after | tion. If ¢ panini faves. A orted o | people own b s tobe £. KE. & G. P. BIBLE, Proprietors. ‘ . RT . ‘EQUAL AND EXACT JUSTICE TO ALL MEN, OF WHATEVER STATE OR PERSUASION, RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL,” TERRS : $1.50 per Aunum, VOL 9. 4 The Centre Bemarrat, Terus, $1 50 Per Annum in Advance. Editor, PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. TAX REDUCTION THE IMMEDI- ATE AND PARAMOUNT ISSUE FRANK E BIBLE, - A Great Btate Paper Devoted to the Con sideration of a Single Subject Zo the Congress of the United States: You are confronted at the thresh- hold of your legislative duties with a condition of the national finances | which imperatively demands imme- diate and careful consideration. The amount of money annually | exacted through the operation of present laws from the industries ind necessities of the people large- ly exceeds the sum necessary to meet the expenses of the Govern. ment, When we consider that the the- ry of our institutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoyment | f all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with only such deduc- tion as may be his share toward the areful and economical mainten- ance of the Gevernment which pro- tects him, it is plain that the exac. tion of more than this is indefensi- ble extortion and a culpable be- trayal of American fairness and justice. This wrong inflicted upon those who bear the burden of na- tional taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of evil conse- quences. The public treasury, which should only exist as a con- duit conveying the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expendi- ture, becomes a hoarding-place for money needlessly withdrawn from rade and the people's use, thus rippling our national energies, uspending our country's develop- ment, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance aud inviting schemes of public plunder. [his condition of our Treasury is not altogether new, and it has more than once of late been submitted to the people's representatives in the Congress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the situation still continues, with aggravated inci- lents, more than ever presaging financial convulsion and widespread disaster. THE THREATENING SURPLUS It will not do to neglect this sit- uation because its dangers are not now palpably imminent and appar- ent. They exist none the less cer- tainly, and await the unforeseen ind unexpected occasion when sud- lenly they will be precipitated pon us. On the joth day of June, 1885, the excess of revenues over public expenditures, after complying with the annual requirement of the Sinking Fund act, was $17,859,735 34, duting the year ended June jo, 1886, such excess amounted to $49, 405,545.20, and during the year ended June jo, 1887, it reached the sum of $55,567,849.54. The annual contributions to the Sinking Fund during the three years above specified, amounting in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94 and deducted from the surplus as stated, were made by calling in for that purpose outstanding 3 per cent. bonds of the Government During the six months prior to June jo, 1887, the surplus revenue had grown so | by repeated ac- cumulations—and it was feared the withdrawal of this great sum of money needed by the people would so affect the business of the coun- try-~that the sum of $79,864.100 of such surplus was applied to the payment of the principal and inter- estof the 3 per cent. bonds still outstanding, and which were then payable at the option of the Gov- ernment. The precarious condition of financial affairs among th peo- ple still needing relief, immediately after the goth day of June, 1583, the remainder of the 3 per cent bonds then outstanding, amounting with principal and interest to the sum of $18,877,500, were called in and applied to the Sinking Fund contribution for the current fiscal year. Notwithstanding these ope- rations of the Treasury Department representations of distress in busi- ed at hand. In these circumstances the contribution to the Sinking] SA continued but | Fund for the current fiscal vear | was at once completed by the ex- | penditure of $27,684,283.55 in the | purchase of Government bonds not | yet due bearing 4 and 44 per cent. = | Interest, the premium paid thereon | averaging about 24 per cent. for {the former and 8 per cent. for the later. In addition to this the inter est accruing during the current year upon the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the Government was to some extent anticipated, and banks selected as depositories of public money were permitted to som what increase their deposits, While the expedients thus em- money lying idle in the Treasury served to avert immediate danger, | our surplus revenues have contin ued to accumulate, the excess for the present year amounting on the 1st day of December to $55,258,- { 701.19, and estimated to reach the sum of $113,000,000 on the oth of { June next, at which date it is ex | pected that this sum, added to prior S55 { accumulations, will swell the sur { plus in the Treasury to $140,000, THE PERIL TO BUSINESS | There seems to be no assurance | that with such a withdrawal from | use of the people's circulating | dium, our business community may | not in the near future be subjected ito the same distress which was | quite lately produced from ti | same cause. And while the func- tions of our National Treasury {should be few and simple, and while its best condition would be reached, 1 believe, by its entire dis- connection with private interests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the chan- uels of trade, there seems to be rea. son for the claim that some legiti- mate means should be devised by the Government to restore in an emergency, without waste or ey- travagance, such money to its place among the people. If such an emergency arises there now exists no clear and undoubted executive power of relief. Hereto- fore the yedemption of 3 per cent. bonds, which were payable at the option of the Government, has afforded a means for the disburse- ment of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have all been re- tired, and there are no bonds out- standing the payment of whic h we have a right to insist upon. The contribution to the Sinking Fund, which furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the pur hase of bonds, has been already made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. INADEQUATE MEANS OF RELIEF. In the present state of legislation the only pretense of any existing Executive power to restore at this time any part of our surplus reve. nues to the people by its expendi ture ccnsists in the supposition that the Secretary of the Treasury may enter the market and purchase the bonds of the Government not yet due at a rate of premium to be agreed upon. The only provision of law from which such a power could be derived is found in an ap- propriation bill passed a number of years ago, and it is subject to the suspicion that it was intended as temporary and limited in its application, instead of conferring a continuing discretion and authority. No condition ought to exist which would justify the grant of power to a single official, upon his judgment of its necessity, to withhold from or relesse to the business of the people, in an unusual manner, money held in the Treasury, and thus offect, at his will, the financial situation of the country; and if it is deemed wise to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury the authority in the present juncture to purchase bonds it shoul be plainly ar as and cial's right and discretion, ployed to release to the people the | business | present bonded debt might be refunded at a less rate of interest, ahd the difference between the old and new security paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus in the Treasury. The success of this plan, it is apparent, must depend upon the volition of the holders of the present bonds, and it is not entirely certain that the induce- ment which must be offered them would result in more financial benefit to the Government than the purchase of bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce the principal of the debt by actual payment, instead of extending it. [he proposition to deposit the money held by the Government in banks throughout the country, for use by the people, is, it seems to me, exceedingly objectionable in principle, as establishing too close a relationship between the opera tions of the Government Treasury and the business of the country, and too extensive a commingling of their money, thus fostering an { unnatural reliance in private busi upon public funds. If this | scheme should be adopted it should only be d ness ‘ nme as a temporary expe dient to meet an urgent necessity. Legislative and Executive effort uld generally be in the opposite direction, and should have a ten- dency to divorce, as mu h and as fast as safely be done, the Treasury Department from private can | enterprise | Of course, it is not expecied that unnecessary and extravagant ap- | propri tions will be made for the | purpose of avoiding the accumula | tion of an excess of revenue. Su h | expenditure, besides the demorali- | zation of all just conceptions of public duty which it entails, stimu- lates a habit of reckless improvi- dence not in the least consistent with the mission of our people or the high and beneficent purposes of our Government, MUST SHOULDER RESPONSIBILITY. CONGRESS FUTURE 1 have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the knowledge of my countrymen, as well as to the attention of thelr representatives charged with the responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of our financial situation. The failure of the Congress heretofore to provide against the dangers which it was quite evident the very nature of the | difficulty must necessarily produce caused a condition of financial dis tress and apprehension’ since your last adjournment which taxed to the utmost all the authority and expedients within Executive con- trol, and these appear now to be exhausted, If disaster results from the continued inaction of Congress the responsibility must rest where it belongs. Though the situation thus far considered is fraught with danger which should be fully realized, and though it presents features of wrong to the people as well as peril to the country, it is but a result growing out of a perfectly palpable and apparent cause, con- stantly reproducing the same alarming circumstances—a con- jested National Treasury and a depleted monetary condition in the business of the country. It need hardly be stated that while the present situation demands a remedy we can ouly be saved from a like predicament in the future by the removal of its cause. OUR REVENUE SYSTEM CONSIDERED. Our scheme of taxation,by means of which. this needless surplus is taken from the people and put into the public Treasury, consists of a tariff or duty levied upon importations from abroad, and internal revenue taxes levied upon the consumption of tobacco and spirituous and malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of the things subjected to internal revenue taxation are, strictly speaking, nec- essaries; there to be no just complaint of this taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there seems to be nothiog so well able to bear the burden without hardship to any portion of the t our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable and source of unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised amended. These laws, as BELLEFONTE. PA.. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 15, 1887. NO. 49 A ——————— ' | tured in our own country, and the duties now levied upon foreign | these home because they tection to factures people who are manufacturers to | make those taxed articles and them for a price equal to that de- | that have paid customs duty. a few use the imported articles, | millions of our people who never | use and never saw any of the foreign | products purchase and use things | of the same kind made in this coun- | try, aud pay therefore nearly or | quite the same enhanced price | which the duty adds to the import- | ed articles. Those who buyimports | pay the duty charged thereon into | the public treasury, but the great | majority of our citizens, who buy | domestic articles of the same class, | pay a sum at least approximately | equal to this duty to. the home | manufacturer, This reference to the operation of our tariff laws is | not made by way of instruction, | but in order that we may be con-| stantly reminded of the manner in which they imposed burdens upon those who consume domestic pro- ducts as well as those who consume imported articles, and thus create | a tax upon all our people. It is not proposed to entirely re- lieve the country of this taxation It must be extensively continved | as the source of the Government's | income; and in r*adjustment of our tariff the interests of American labor engaged in manufacture should be carefully considered as well as the preservation of our | manufactures. It may be called protection, or by any other name, but relief from the hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws | should be devised with especially | precastion against imperiling the existance of our manufacturing in- terests. Bat this existence should not mean a condition which, with out regard to the public welfare or a national exigency, must always insare the realization of immense profits instead of moderately profi- table returns. As the volume and | diversity of our national activities increase new recruits are added to those who desire a continuation of the advantages which theyconceive the present system of tariff taxation directly affords them. Sostubborn. ly have all efforts to reform the present condition been resisted by those of our fellow citizens thus en gaged that they can hardly com- plain of the suspicion entertained to a cartain extent that there exists an organized combination all along the line to maintain their advantage. We are in the midst of centen- nial celebrations, and with becom- ing paid we rejoice in American skill and ingenuity in American en- ergy and enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages and resources developed by a century's national growth. Yet when an at- tempt is made to justify. 4 scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the benefit of the manufacturers quite beyond a reasonable demand for governmental regard, its suits the purposes of advocacy to call our manufacturers infant industries still needing the highest and greatest degree of favor and fostering care that can be wrung from Federal legislation. THE WAGES OF LABOR. It is also said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures resulting from the present tariff is necessary in that higher wages may be paid to our working- men emplo in manufactories than are or Mi is Saliva Hut uper urope. acknowledge the force of an argu. ment which involves the welfare and liberal compensation of our Jaboting people. Our labor is hon- orable in the eyes of every Ameri. can citizen; and as it lies at the foundation of our develdpment and | | | | ! | la goods and products are called pro- (ably reduced. Without attempting manu | to enumerate all, it will be conceded ren | that there should be deducted from der it possible for those of our |those which it includes 375,143 car- penters and joiners, 285,401 miiliners, sell | dressmakers and seamstresses, 172.726 blacksmiths, 138,756 tailors and tail manded for the imported goods | oresses, 102,473 masons, 76 241 buich- So | ers, 41.300 bakers, 22083 plasterers it happens that while comparatively {and 4801 engaged in manufactoring agricultural implements, amounting in the aggregate wo 1,214,023, leaving 2,623,089 persons employed in such | manufacturing industries as are claimed to be benefitted by a high | tariff. To these the appeal is made to save | their employment and maintain their wages by resisting a change. There | should be no disposition 10 soswer such suggestions by the sllegation that they are in a minority among those who labor, and therefore should forego an advantage io the interest of low prices for the majority; their com- pensation, as it may be affected by the operation of tariff laws, should at at all times be scrupulously kept in view, and yet with slight reflection they wil! not overlook the fact that | they are consumers with the rest; that | they, tor, have their own wants sud those of their families to supply from their earnings, and that the price of the necessaries of life, as well as the amount of their wages, will regulate | the measure of their welfare and | comfort. Bat the reduction of taxation de. manded should be 80 measured as not to necessitate or justify either the loss | of employment by the workingman or the lessening of his wages; and the profits still remaining to the manufaturer after a necessary read- | justment should furnish no excuse interests of for the sacrifice of the his employes either in their oppor- | of their compensation. Nor the worker in manufactures fail to | understand that while a high tariff | is claimed to be necessary to allow | the payment of remuneérative wages it certainly results in a very large increase in the price of nearly all sorts of manufactures which, in al- Hes vwranlve a Forn can | r Swnannylew the use of himself and his family He receives at the desk of his em- | ployer his wages, and perhaps be. | fore he reaches his home is obliged, | in a purchase for his family use of | an article which embraces his own labor, to return in the payment of the increase in price which the tariff permits the hard-earned compensa- tion of many days of toil. HOW THE FARMER FARES, | The farmer and the agriculturist, | who manufacture nothing, but who | pay the increased price which the | tariff imposes upon every agricul- | tural implement, upon all he wears and upon all he uses and owns ex- cept the increase of his flocks and | herds and such things as his hus. | bandry produces from the soil, is | invited to aid in maintaining the | present situation;and he is told that | a high duty on imported wool is] necessary for the benefit of those who have sheep to shear in order that the price of their wool may be increased, They, of course, are not reminded that the farmer who has no sheep is by this scheme obliged, in his purchases of clothing and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow-farmer as well as to the manufacturer and merchant; nor is any mention made of the fact that the sheep-owners themselves and their households must wear cloth- ing and use other articles manufac- tured from the wool they sell at tariff prices, and thus as con- sumers must return their share of this increased price to the trades. man. I think it may be fairly as. sumed that a proportion of the sheep owned by the farmers throughout the country are found in small flocks numbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty on the of im wool which these sheep yield is 10 cents each if of the value of 30 cents or | fleece, the duty thereon would be 60 or j0 cents, and this | wool he sold haps, lies tured form who own sheep the above all, ed that the living a burden upon those with moder- ate means and the poor, | limit allowed by such duty. {often strangled by {quite prevalent at this time, and For present purposes, however, the_ to it until it reaches the consumer, st number given should be consider. | When manufactured into cloth and other | cost is not only increased to the ex- tent of the farmer's tariff profit, but a further sum has been the benefit of the manufacturer un- der the operation | laws. arrives when the necessary to purchase woolen goods and material to clothe himself (family for the winter. faces the tradesman pose hie discovers that he 1s goods material for use its added for of other tariff meantime the day {farmer finds it In the and he pur- Obi ied When for that not only to return in the way of in- creased prices his tariff profit on the ~-and whica then, per- him in manufac- ~but that he must add a before considerable sum thereto to meet a further increase in cost caused by a ‘tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he aroused to |the fact that he has paid upon a | moderate purchase as a result of {the tariff scheme, which when he | sold his wool seemed so profitable, an increase in price more than sul- ficient to sweep away all the tariff | profit he received upon ihe wool he produced and sold. When the number of farmers en- gaged 1 raising ; red with all the farmers in the Luniry, and the small proportion they bear 10 our popuiation Is considered; when it 1s made apparent that in the case of a large. part of those benefit of tle present tariff oa wool is illusory; and conced- the cost of ariff becomes when it must be increase of 4 L caused by su i the em- ployed and unemployed, the sick and well and the young and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, ; 4 with relentless { tunity to work or in the deminution | grasp, is fastened | upon the clothing of every man, woman and child in the land, rea- sons are suggested why the remov- rl or reduction of this duty should be included in a revision of our tariff laws. COMBINATIONS CONSIDERED. In speaking of the increased cost + = mancumer of our home man- om ulactures resulting from a duty laid upon iMpPOricy as. SO i description, the fact is not over- looked that competition among our domestic producers sometimes has the effect of keeping the price of their products below the highest | But it notorious that this competition is to combinations, frequently called Trusts, which have for their object the regulation of the supply and price of commo- dities made and sold by members of the combination. The people can hardly hope for any considera- tion in the operation of these selfish schemes, If, however, in the absence of such combination a healthy and free competition reduces the price of any particular dutiable article of ‘home production below the limit which it might otherwise reach un- der our tariff laws, and if with such reduced price its manufacture con- tinues to thrive, it is entirely evi. dent that one thing has been dis- covered which should be carefully scrutinized in an effort to reduce taxation. The necessity of combination to maintain the price of any commod- ity to the tariffi point furnishes proof that some one is willing to accept lower prices for such coms modity, and such prices are remu- nerative; and lower prices uced by competition prove same thing. Thus where either of these only to enforce an earaest recom that the surplus rev- enues of the Government be pre- vouted 1 dhe seduction of our cus toms and at the same time to gmobasias 3 suggestion that in so com th Daroe We sag diss 0 them & measure of ree [ ie a ht [ A
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