The f olio win g extract fr-m a letter t...

The f olio win g extract fr-m a letter to the Truth-Seeker gives some figures whieh are not quite so large as those of the ordinary statistics, but which mean a good deal more to the average citizen: I am a photographer: have worked at that business üfteen years. Last f all I purchased a bil! of 5,000 cabinetmounts of a JPhiladelphia manufacturer at $12 per thousand. This spring through an importer I purchased 5,000 of the same grade of cards from a Germán manufacturer. The bilis were the same; were the goods alike? Yes, to all outside appearances, but when torn apart the home rnanuf actured card was of a coarse, unfinished pulp, while tlie importd one was of fine fiber and compactly pressed. Now, I paid $27 import duty on the Germán cards and $33 for the 5,000 cards, making S60. I did rot wam a,nv ïmnortdntv on thn Fhiladelnhia ' t J ÍAJL J 11I1M y 7 L U VI UUT lll 1 IJV 1 llllttUVl LlliU Ciird stock, but I paid $60 for them all the sameI have a lens that cost $125, the duty on vvhich w;is $56.25. I have another lens that cost $60 the duty being $27. I have still another lens that cosí 2ft, the duty being $11.25 During the last fiscal year I have pmchased tour reams oí photograpli paper, the duty on whicr was $57.60; thirty-ane toxes glass (at $4 per box), $124, duty 78 percent. I state f urther that I have footed up the cost to myself of the tariff per year at $960. No government on the ïace of the eanh would daré levy a direct tax on abusiness of about $4,000 per annuin in that amount. My entire property would not bring under the hammer $2,000; vet I am compelled to pay yearly almost half what I am worth to support the most damnable system of robbery the world has ever known. Nine years since (1879), I purchased the property on which I now live and gave a mortgage of $800 on út! To-day I still owe $700, not having been able to pay a dollar, except the interest, for eight years. Now, I and my workmen earn this $960. Has anyone on the face of the earth a right tö deprive me of it? Has any government, autocrat or power of whatsoever nature the moral right to forse me to contribute to their personal aggrandizement to my personal discomature and loss?