CONGRESSIONAL PETITION. 99 



We seek the same market for the disposal of our grain, though 

 three thousand miles farther west, and six thousand by the only 

 route open to us the sea. We have also the enormous expense of 

 sacking our grain forty to eighty dollars per thousand bushels; 

 twelve million sacks to move the crop of 1872, in the State of Cali 

 fornia alone, averaging not less than fifteen cents a piece to your 

 humble petitioners, the farmers of the State, making nearly two 

 million dollars tax on the farmer to enter the market with his prod 

 ucts in competition with his eastern brother, and six thousand 

 miles more water freight too; and now, in addition to all that bur 

 den, the government has placed a tariff upon the importation of 

 sacks, thirty and forty per cent., and material for manufacture. 

 This is the last pound to the camel s burden, and is the chief cry we 

 have for redress; and we would ask at your hands, that the tariff on 

 jute and all material for sack manufacture be removed, and all duty 

 on sacks be taken off, as far as the ports of California and Oregon 

 are concerned. This would relieve the over-burdened farmer of Cal 

 ifornia of about one half million dollars tax; as it is claimed by 

 experts that the State manufactory can now compete with the for 

 eign trade at one cent profit per sack; by the removal of tax on raw 

 material it still has the more advantage, and we, your petitioners, 

 will also gain, and not lose anything, as we do not raise the sack 

 materials in the State. And we believe our eastern brothers will 

 not complain when they see how much we already endure; and not 

 unmindful of the great benefits to a State of home manufactories, 

 we must say that the present Jute Company does not command our 

 strong sympathies, as they have run the mills almost exclusively for 

 the speculators, instead of the demands of the trade, with the great 

 est good to the greatest number. 



All of the above is most respectfully submitted, and for relief we 

 would ever pray. 



To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives in 

 Congress assembled. 



The undersigned petitioners, citizens of the United States, of the 

 State of California, respectfully represent 



That all taxes should be as equally borne by all the people of the 

 United States as possible. That a tax that reaches one part of the 

 country and leaves the rest untouched, or nearly so, is manifestly 

 unjust. 



And your petitioners would further represent that in their opinion 

 the import duty collected by the United States, of thirty to forty 

 per cent, on our grain bags, and the material of which they are 

 manufactured, is a tax which has almost entirely a local bearing; 

 that it is unjust to, and discriminating against, the agricultural in 

 terests of the Pacific Coast; that while the grain surplus of the At 

 lantic States is moved to the sea-board, and thence to Europe in 

 bulk, we, under an inexorable custom, are compelled to put ours in 

 sacks for which we get no adequate return; that the import duty on 

 the sacks used in California the past year amounts to over one half 

 million of dollars, which is equivalent to a &quot; direct export tax&quot; of 

 that amount upon the wheat crop of California; that said tax is bur- 



