The Poor Man Pays The Tax

The republican governor of Michigan sent the following charaoteristic Pingree telegram to President McKinley on the occasion cf the passage of the publican taiiff bill last week: "I regard the duty on Inniber, hides and sugar as nnrepnblican, unpatriotic and unfair. The lumber now used goes largely into small homes and farm honses and to a class already greatly overtaxed. "'The laborer wears as many shoes as the milliouaire and mnst oontribute twice as ninch towards the tax on hides. He muse use as much sngar and pay as much toward the duty on sugar. "It is grossly unfair to make the poor pay as much per capita as the rich toward the support of the government. Property and not human stomachs fihonld be reached. Property is protected by our laws and should pay for its protection." This is not democratio campaign talk, although it sounds very mnch like it and coutains very mach more truth than poetry. The protective tariffs are nsually constructed upoo the theory of protfiuting the rich. The tariff rates are fixed by high paid 1 isis, men of keen intellect who can argne their maBters' cases well in committees. The poor man cannot afford to lcbby. No man oan gain under protection, unless some other man loses. Protection is for rhe pnrpose of causing oertain men to gain. The rich man 8ees to it that he is tbe gainer and the ïoor man foots the bill. Of conrse the lich man backs np his case with specions arguments. He is not after the almighty dollar,not he. He is a philanthropist, pure and simple, and all the money he epends in campaign contribatious and for high prioed lobbyists is epent parely for the benefit of the laboier. That is his side of the oase, br'iko belives it? The tariff is a tas 06 consumption. The poor man consumes nearly as mnch as the rich man, while the rich man owns very much more property than the poor. Therefore the rich want the tax on consumption so that the poor man will be compelled to pay relatively a mach larger portion of it. And the poor man votes for such a policy - it most be out of pity for the rich man.