to be accepted as correct, that the foreigner pays the protective
taxes which a country levies on its imports, and that they do not fall
upon or are not paid by its people who consume them, then it must
follow that to the extent that a country taxes its imports it lives at
the expense of foreign nations; and that, as Great Britain is the
country with which the United States has the largest foreign trade, it
must pay the largest share of the customs taxes of the United States,
or a good share of its annual revenue from all sources. Attention is
further asked to the exact practical application of this theory. Thus,
the United States in 1895 imported $36,438,196 worth of woolen
manufactures, on which it assessed and collected duties (taxes) to the
amount of $20,698,264, or 56.80 per cent of the value of such imports.
Certainly this was a pretty heavy tax on foreign nations in respect to
the sales of only one class of these commodities; but it represented
but a tithe of what the tariff taxes of the United States, if paid by
foreigners, cost them. Thus they had to sell their woolens to the
people of the latter country at less than half their value in order to
compensate for the 56.8 per cent tax. But a nation engaged in foreign
trade can not as a rule have two prices for the product of its
industries; or one price for what it sells at home and another and
different price for what it sells to foreigners. So the fifty-six per
cent deducted from the cost of the woolens sold by foreigners to the
United States necessarily had to be deducted not only from so much of
their product consumed at home, but also from what they sent for sale
to all foreign countries. A further practical application of this
theory is worthy of consideration. As Great Britain imposes no
protective duties or taxes on its imports, it evidently can not
collect anything from other nations by the system of taxation under
consideration. On the other hand, the aggregate value of its exports
sent to foreign nations during the year 1892 was $1,135,000,000, and
if these several nations taxed this value at the average rate which
the United States imposed in 1894 on all its dutiable imports--namely,
fifty per cent--Great Britain obviously had to pay some $557,000,000
in that year for the support of foreign governments; and while this
has been the experience of Great Britain for more than forty years of
this century, she has as a nation been increasing in wealth during
this whole period.
Some of the recent official experiences of the Government of the
United States that are pertinent to the topic under consideration are
sufficiently curious to make them worthy of an economic record. In a
speech introducing a bill into the United States House of
Representatives, which subsequently resulted in the tariff act of
1890, the then chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means laid down
the following proposition: "The Government ought not to buy abroad
what it can buy at home. Nor should it be exempted from the laws it
imposes upon its citizens."
This would seem to warrant the characterization of a discovery that
the United States had some reliable and important source of revenue
independent of taxation,[9] and that, by compelling the application of
a part of this income to the payment of taxes to itself, the
Government is placed upon an equality with the citizens. A legitimate
criticism on this proposition is that the idea that all the income of
the Treasury is derived from the people, and that to transfer portions
of this income from one official recipient to another can have hardly
any other result than an additional cost of bookkeeping, seems never
to have entered the mind of the speaker.
Again, the United States tariff act of 1883 contained in its free list
a provision for the admittance of "articles imported for the use of
the United States, provided that the price of the same did not include
the duty" imposed on such importations. Under the tariff act of 1890
this provision was stricken out of the statute, with the result that
when the Government imported any articles for its own use which were
subject to duties (as, for example, materials to be used in the
National Bureau of Printing and Engraving), it was obliged, in virtue
of its nonexemption from the laws which it imposed on its own
citizens, to pay such duties itself. But as the Government has no
authority to expend money for any purpose without the authority of
Congress, the latter body accordingly authorized the Federal Treasury
to appropriate money from its tax receipts and make payments with the
same to the customhouse, which the customhouse was to immediately pay
back into the Treasury. Just what process was gone through with to
effect such a result the public was not informed, but probably the
collector of customs drew his warrant on the Treasury, had the amount
credited to his account, and then recredited to the Treasury. But, be
this as it may, it is clear that the Government, under the conditions
above stated, paid the tax on its imports; that the tax may be
regarded in the light of a penalty on the Government for importing
articles for its own use; and that the action of Congress in
authorizing the Treasury to appropriate money for the payment of such
taxes was a recognition or admission by that body that a tax upon
imports neither puts anything _in_ nor takes anything _from_ the
pocket of the foreigner. Does it not, moreover, invest with a degree
of comicality a law enacted by the Congress of the United States for
the purpose of taxing foreign importers, which necessitated the
enactment by it of another law appropriating money to enable the
United States to pay customs taxes every time on everything that it
may import for its own use?[10] Finally, if the foreigner and not our
citizens pays our customs taxes on imports, what is the object of
placing by specific statutes any article on the free list? Why not let
him continue to pay millions of taxes for us, as, for example, on
sugar?
FOOTNOTES:
[6] It is fortunate that Mr. Wells had practically completed his
essays on taxation before death put an end to his activity. The
manuscript of two chapters was found among his papers--one on the Best
Methods of Taxation, and the other on the Law of the Diffusion of
Taxes, begun in this number. The first manuscript has some pages
missing, and it has been thought best to postpone its publication, in
the hope that the missing pages may be found. It is evident that the
last touches were yet to be put upon the chapter on the diffusion of
taxes--a chapter that was to sum up the theory of taxation developed
by the writer. So much of that summary is contained in it as to make
the meaning of Mr. Wells unmistakable, and its publication is further
amply justified by the number of practical illustrations and happy
application of theory to fact, in the selection and explanation of
which the author excelled. The entire series, which has been running
in the Popular Science Monthly for more than three years, will now be
collected in a volume--a worthy memorial to one whose powers of
popular exposition of abstract problems placed him among the first of
economists in the United States.
[7] On the Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, by Prof. Edwin R.
Seligman, 1892.
[8] The assertion would not be warranted that the masses of New York
were wholly unanimous in condemning Tweed, for a portion of them were
undoubtedly well content with the situation. He had curried favor with
the very poor and ignorant by distributing coal and flour, and making
ostentatious presents of money; and these "charities" are remembered
to this day in the poorer parts of New York city, and Tweed is
esteemed by many as the victim of injustice, and a man who suffered
because he was the friend of the people.
[9] Of the net ordinary receipts of the Federal Government
($385,819,000) in 1893, only about $12,000,000 was derived from
sources that could not be regarded as taxes, and were mainly receipts
from the sales and surveys of public and Indian lands ($4,120,000) and
of other Government property.
[10] In 1897 the merchant tailors of the United States, who ought to
know something about the incidence of a custom tax on imported
clothing, united in a petition to Congress asking that Americans
returning from Europe be permitted to introduce only two suits of
foreign-made clothes free of duty; and in support of their request
they comment as follows on a ruling of the Treasury in respect to this
matter: "Under this ruling it was possible to enter free of duty vast
quantities of foreign-made garments which had never been actually in
use, and which were so imported solely because there exists a relative
difference of at least fifty per cent in values between the cost of
made-up garments in the United States and Europe, thus saving to the
purchaser of garments abroad one half of their actual value upon
arrival within the United States duty free." But if the foreigner who
made and sold the goods in question was liable to pay the duty on
dutiable clothing, and attended to his duty, there would be no profit
to the returning tourist in importing clothing free of duty. It is
further evident also that American tailors agree in opinion with
Alexander Hamilton that the consumers of imported articles pay the
customs taxes.
The records of the commercial relations between the United States and
Canada are exceedingly instructive on this matter. They all show that
for the products which the Canadian sends to the United States, and on
which somebody pays the duty, he receives exactly the same price as
for those products which he sends to England, on which nobody pays any
duty. This experience is exactly the same as that of the farmers of
the Northwestern States of the Federal Union, who usually get the same
price for their wheat furnished to a Minnesota flour mill, or for
shipment to free-trade England, as to countries like France and
Germany, where heavy duties are assessed upon its import. The term
"usually" is employed, for producers in the United States and Canada
alike do not always get as large a price for the articles they export
as for the same articles they sell to their fellow-countrymen. Again,
if it be true, as the advocates of extreme protection assert, that the
foreign exporter and not the consumer pays the duties on goods sent by
him for sale in this country, how does it happen that it is not true
concerning the farm produce and live stock exported from Canada? And
why should American farmers be exempt from this rule in sending their
grain to Europe? Has anybody ever known of England buying American
products any cheaper in New York than France or Germany, and is it not
also true that the French or German or Italian consumer usually pays
at least the amount of the duty levied by his Government more for
American products than his English competitor has, whose imports are
subjected to no duty? During the period from 1854 to 1866 there was,
under the reciprocity treaty, practically free trade between Canada
and the United States in live stock, wool, barley, rye, peas, oats,
and other farm products, while subsequent to 1866, when the
reciprocity treaty had been repealed, duties were imposed on all these
articles on their import from Canada into the United States. During
the first period Canadian horses, for example, sold under free trade
for shipment to the United States at from sixty-five to eighty-five
dollars each, while during the years next subsequent to 1866 the value
of the Canadian horses imported into the United States was returned at
from ninety-two to one hundred and four dollars each; thus showing
that the United States tariff did not force the Canadian horse
breeders to lower their prices in order to compensate American
purchasers for the duties exacted. And as regards the other products
mentioned, the official data show that in no case did the imposition
of duties under the United States tariff reduce the prices paid by
American purchasers to the Canadian farmers for their products. These
are very commonplace, very familiar, and very convincing facts which
ought to silence all this talk about the foreign exporter or anybody
else but the consumer paying the duty; but it is not at all probable
that they will.
OUR FLORIDA ALLIGATOR.
BY I. W. BLAKE.
An alligator is not an attractive creature. He has not a single virtue
that can be named. He is cowardly, treacherous, hideous. He is neither
graceful nor even respectable in appearance. He is not even amusing or
grotesque in his ungainliness, for as a brute--a brute unqualified--he
is always so intensely real, that one shrinks from him with loathing;
and a laugh at his expense while in his presence would seem curiously
out of place.
His personality, too, is strong. Once catch the steadfast gaze of a
free, adult alligator's wicked eyes, with their odd vertical pupils
fixed full upon your own, and the significance of the expression "evil
eye," and the mysteries of snake-charming, hypnotism, and hoodooism
will be readily understood, for his brutish, merciless, unflinching
stare is simply blood-chilling.
Zoölogically the alligator belongs to the genus _Crocodilus_, and he
has all the hideousness of that family, lacking somewhat its
bloodthirstiness, although the American alligator is carnivorous by
nature, and occasionally cannibalistic. Strictly speaking, however,
the true alligator is much less dangerous than his relatives of the
Old World, and he is correspondingly less courageous.
One would suppose the saurians, or crocodilians, from their general
appearance to be huge lizards, but the resemblance is superficial. The
whole internal structure differs widely, and, subdivided into
gavials, crocodiles, and alligators, they form a family by themselves
which is widespread, extending into considerable areas of the
temperate regions.
All crocodilians are great, ungainly reptiles, having broad, depressed
bodies, short legs, and long, powerful, and wonderfully flexible tails
which are compressed--that is, flattened sideways. Upon the upper
surface of the tail lie two jagged or saw-toothed crests, which unite
near the middle of the appendage, continuing in a single row to the
extremity.
All have thick necks and bodies protected by regular transverse rows
of long, horny plates or shields, which are elevated in the center
into keel-shaped ridges, forming an armor that is quite bullet-proof.
The throat, the under side of the neck, and belly are not thus
protected, and it is at these places, as well as at the eyes, and also
just behind the ears, that the hunter directs his aim.
The principal points of difference between a gavial and a crocodile
are these: the former has very long, slender jaws, set with
twenty-seven teeth in each side of the upper jaw and with twenty-five
teeth in the under, while at the extremity of the snout there are two
holes, through which pass upward the lower large front teeth, but all
the remaining teeth are free, and slant well outward; whereas a
crocodile has a head that is triangular, the snout being the apex; a
narrow muzzle, and canine teeth in the lower jaw, which pass freely
upward in the notches in the side of the upper jaw.
An alligator has a broad, flat muzzle, and the canine teeth of the
lower jaw fit into sockets in the under surface of the upper jaw. It
is strictly an American form of the family. Its feet being much less
webbed, its habits are also less perfectly aquatic, and, preferring
still or stagnant fresh-water courses or swamps, it is rarely found in
tide-water streams.
The crocodile, on the contrary, is commonly found in swift-running,
fresh and salt water rivers. He is a sagacious brute, and ferocious,
often attacking human beings without provocation; but the alligator,
as a rule, is not disposed to fight, although in South America, where
it goes by the name of _caiman_ or _cayman_, it grows to an enormous
size, and is said to be fully as dangerous as the crocodile. There is
also a variety of the family--that is, a true crocodile--found in
Florida, but it is very rare, and smaller than its Asiatic relative.
The mouths of all these reptiles, which are large and extend beyond
the ears, present a formidable array of sharp, conical teeth of
different sizes, set far apart in the crocodile and the alligator,
some being enlarged into tusks. All are implanted in separate sockets,
and form a single row upon each jaw. When a tooth is shed or broken,
a new one promptly comes up beneath the hollow base of the old one;
and in this way, all ready for the need, sometimes three or four
waiting teeth, packed together like a nest of thimbles, may be seen in
the jaw of a dead alligator.
[Illustration: YOUNG PET ALLIGATOR. From photograph by E. L. Russell,
Palm Beach.]
The alligator is at best an awkward brute. Slow and ungainly upon
land--although even there his powerful tail can, when necessary,
assist the scuffling paws to an astonishing extent if the creature is
in haste--he shows to better advantage in the water. There he turns
his clumsy body with wonderful dexterity and swiftness, when, at the
sight of a swimming muskrat or a wading dog, he instantly changes from
what has resembled a drifting log idly floating upon the calm surface
of the swamp, into a thing of life--fierce and horrible.
The general food of an alligator is fish, turtles, and frogs, with an
occasional heedless dog or fowl. A number of adult alligators will
quickly deplenish a small, clear-water lake of its finny inhabitants,
which statement to would-be Florida fishermen will readily account for
the lack in many localities. There is also a curious belief in the
South that the creature has an especial liking for a "darkey steak,"
and for this reason he is feared by the negroes. That he becomes
carnivorous to a dangerous extent when pressed by hunger, there is no
doubt, for, the supply of fish exhausted, he must look for larger
game.
Partially concealed by rubbish, or floating idly close to the
bank--always only a short distance from his retreat--he so closely
resembles an old and weather-worn log that no suspicion is aroused.
Presently a razorback comes down the narrow trail that meanders
through the scrub and passes close to the reptile. Let it pass between
the alligator and the water--that is, between the creature and his
_cave_--and the end has come. An alligator seldom misses, and one
spring, leap, or plunge, or whatever the swift, clumsy movement may be
called, and the wretched animal is seized and held fast, either by the
nose or leg, as a rule. Then the struggle begins, for the razorback
loves its life, despised pig of the Florida flatwoods though it is.
Alligators drown their prey. Their own nostrils and throats are so
arranged that they themselves can sink to the bottom without danger of
suffocation, although their mouths, or rather their jaws, may be
widely stretched with the body of their victim. Indeed, they can
reascend to the surface to breathe without releasing the prize; and,
as this power is so closely connected with their method of killing the
larger animals, a description of the latter, repulsive though it is,
may not be out of place.
The teeth of an alligator are better adapted for crushing and
crunching than for biting. Therefore, for him to eat a struggling
animal would be difficult. Instinct teaches him that it must first be
killed.
To dispose of a dog or a chicken is a small matter, for when the
alligator meets it upon the bank one strong, far-reaching sweep of the
powerful tail tosses it far out upon the lake. The alligator simply
follows, grasps the half-stunned creature in his jaws, and disappears
beneath the surface, where he remains until all is quiet. With a
larger animal, however, he proceeds differently, for the reason that a
yearling, a colt, or a razorback is not so easily handled. First,
therefore, a description of an alligator's cave must be given, since
it is to this grewsome retreat that the hideous brute takes his booty.
Selecting some spot where the water is deep--usually beneath some
overhanging bank--an alligator excavates what is called a "cave." Any
one, standing upon the border of a lake or swamp in Florida, may, all
unconsciously, be directly over one of these places. He makes it
sufficiently large to accommodate one or more of his kind, by dragging
out the mud and roots with the strong claws or nails that arm his fore
paws or legs. These "caves" serve in winter for hibernation, and at
other times for the purpose that will be explained.
Once in the water, then--to return to the unhappy razorback--the
alligator does not rely wholly upon his teeth and jaws to hold the
desperate animal. He can not yet sink, for the victim is too strong.
It must first be drowned, and a furious struggle for the mastery then
begins.
By degrees the brute finally succeeds in dragging the animal out into
water sufficiently deep to suit his purpose, and then he clasps it
firmly with his paws, precisely like the hugging of a bear. He then
begins to roll over and over. Now beneath the surface, now out, he
turns and turns, first the alligator uppermost, then his prey,
alternately, until the poor animal is drowned literally by inches.
Before long the razorback weakens, his struggles lessen, and then the
alligator sinks to the bottom, and when all motion has ceased he
deposits the body in his cave, well pleased with the prospect of a
full larder for some time to come.
One might naturally ask just here whether or not this scene would be
the same were a human being the victim. The reply would be--precisely.
The alligator undoubtedly prefers his food in a partly decomposed
condition, although it is an undecided point whether this preference
arises from a natural taste, or for the reason that food in that state
is softer and more easily torn apart. Whichever may be the case,
Nature unasked supplies the remedy, and the alligator takes advantage
of her assistance, and deposits his victim in his hiding place,
confident that at the proper time it will rise to the surface in the
condition best adapted to his needs.
Although by nature the alligator is amphibious, he passes the greater
part of his time upon land during the breeding season. At such times,
also, he migrates from one clear-water lake or swamp to another,
should he not find a mate in his own locality, and he may not
infrequently be met in his overland journeyings. Alligators are not
strictly gregarious, although large numbers are found in the same body
of water; while, on the contrary, there will often be but one or two
that will haunt a certain tract for a long period.
During this season the bull alligator is very noisy, and his deep
bellowing may be heard for a long distance. To state that this noise
causes the ground to vibrate may seem an exaggeration, but the fact
may easily be proved by visiting a swamp where the reptiles have
congregated. The water in the vicinity will plainly show the jarring
of the ground.
This bellow is a thundering, rumbling sound; and when it is combined
with the startling hisses, blowings, sighs, and deep-breathed snorts
which the creature can produce at will, no one will be likely to
dispute that his collection of diabolical noises is quite complete.
During the period of incubation the female alligator is a devoted
mother. She does not desert her nest from the time that the eggs are
laid until they are hatched--lying concealed in the scrub close
by--and she is naturally, at this time, most dangerous to approach,
although her vigilance does not always save a portion of her unhatched
progeny from the numerous enemies that have a fondness for alligator
omelet.
[Illustration: GROUP OF CAPTIVE ALLIGATORS. From photograph by O. P.
Hareus, Jacksonville.]
The nest is a large, well-rounded heap or mound, composed of sand and
rubbish, which she drags and pushes together with her claws.
Throughout this mound she deposits her eggs, from forty to seventy and
over. These eggs resemble those of a goose, only that they are larger;
they have a thick, tough shell, and are of about the same size at both
ends. In about sixty days, the heat of the sun, combined with the
warmth and moisture generated by the fermentation of the rubbish,
completes the process of incubation, and the little ones begin to come
forth.
Forcing their way through the sand, they hurry down the sloping sides
of the mound, straightway seeking the water by instinct. While these
baby 'gators are thus kicking and flinging off their shell overcoats
as they emerge from their incubator, perfect little duplicates of
their mother--only that they are rather pretty in their clean, glossy,
black or dark-brown skins, which have orange-colored stripes that
completely ring their miniature tails and bodies--she wanders
anxiously about, probably wondering how many of her family will
succeed in running the very uncertain gantlet of life.
For, eaten while in the egg stage by birds and animals, and swallowed
by open-mouthed, expectant fishes, and by other alligators--often led,
if the truth must be told, by the interesting father himself--as soon
as they reach the water, the early days of an alligator are full of
trouble. That enough escape to prevent extinction, however, goes
almost without saying.
Alligators are hunted for their teeth, which find a ready market when
made up into pretty ornaments; and of late years extensively for their
hides, which make a very handsome leather. For this purpose the older
specimens are not valuable, their hides being too gnarled, knotty, and
moss-grown to tan well. After ten or fifteen years the hide coarsens.
It is always the skin from the under side of the body and head which
is used, that from the back being so heavily armored with tough, horny
plates and shields as to be practically useless. The flesh for food
finds but few admirers. Like the eggs, it is permeated by a strong,
musky flavor, too rank to find appreciation from a refined palate; but
in some places the steaks from the reptile are eaten by the negroes
and pronounced good.