Puff on American Tariff.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 80, 15 December 1887, Page 4

Puff on American Tariff.

Moving along! The American Congress was opened on Monday! The President's mesM4te was confined to tariff and flnancialciisstion*! . “• they up a tree over there too. In the same boat with ourselves, Ch r

No, just the contrary! The PresL dent urges Congress to take immediate steps to reduce the present surplus ! The trouble with ue always is to know how t° reduce the present and avoid a future deficit I

Reduce the surplus, eh ? Well the Yankees must be hard to please if they re not contented when they've ? ot • j/’ 11 ?, W surplus! I've always h «*rd “>ey re a dyspeptic lot! “, a It is’nt only dyspepsia that • the matter with ’em ! They’ve got a bad attack of monopoly and T ®tted interests, and that’s what they re heaving up against 1 don’t quite understand you! At hy, the theory of their fiscal sv’tem is that they raise the whole of the revenue that is required for the purposes of Government by direct or other internal taxation! Don’t they get any revenue from Customs P

_ Th ®y« not supposed to! The Customs Tariff is imposed for the sole purpose of " protecting ” local industries, and it ought not to yield any revenue at all! But does it? Yee.it yields an enormous revenue, notwithstanding that nearly as much merchandise is smuggled as passes through tbe Customs! The consequence is that there is a huge surplus every year which the Government do not know what to do with ! What do they do with it ? They throw it away in handfuls' The pension system of the United States is the biggest and the most corrupt and demoralising in the world! Then all sorts of other devices are resorted to for squandering money, without the slighest regard to the public interest! But still the surplus accumulate*! What does it amount to P About 20 million a year, and always increasing I Great Scott! Do you mean to say the people nay all that taxation unnecessarily ? They do so! They’re compelled to pay it oy the tyranny of the monopolists, who use their political influence to keep up a Custom Tariff, so as to increase their own profits ! I wonder the people stand it! They won’t stand it much longer I The revolt against it has begun already and is growing stronger and stronger! That’s why the President has sent this message to Congress I What does he want them to do! He recommends free trade in wool and raw materials of all kinds! What would be the effect of that P It would relieve the American taxpayer of a heavy burden, give American industries a great impulse, and promote the commerce and prosperity of the world I It ought to give these colonies a lift! We're pretty woolly! We’re very woolly! It would give us a bigger lift than anything else could, just now!