Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-02-07
100000
revenue of
wanted for the service Of 1913.

OF dollars during the continuance of the war,
(Which is the sum assumed by the committee,
and which, considering the expenses already
voted by Congress, is not more than will be
wanted) and estimating, at the lowest rate,
the interest on the loan of 1915, the defcien-
cy for 1914, to be provided for by other re-
sources, will amount to 100000 dollars
The expenses of assessment and collection and
Incidental losses on the internal taxes, from
the proceeds of which this deficiency must be
supplied, may be estimated at Is per cent
In order to produce net revenue of 4 200 900
dollars, the gross amount of taxes must there
fore be near five millions of dollars As the
taxes which may be organized during the
present session of Congress, will not become
due till the ensuing year, and as it is sutfi
GENTLY ascertained from universal experience
that taxes will not produce their full nominal
amount the first year they are in operation, 1t
may be relied on that gross amount of five
millions, intended to produce net revenue of
4,2000 900 dollars, will not yield that sum till
the year 1914, nor produce in 1918, more than
the required sum of 100000 dollars. Five
millions of dollars will therefore be assumed
as the gross amount of taxes tincluding the
expenses Of assessments and collection and the
incidental losses) necessary to be raised at
this time. That sum is calculated to cover
the interest on the loans of ten millions year
wanted for the service of the years 1879 and
1915; leaving the selection of the additional
taxes, which may thereafter be necessary to
provide for the interest of subsequent loans,
to be made according to the experience which
will be afforded by those two years.
Before proceed to answer the inquiry OF
the committee respecting selection of the
internal taxes now necessary, permit me to
observe that it was stated in the annual re-
port of December 10, $685. that "no internal
taxes either direct or indirect were contem-
plated, even in the case of hostilties carried
against the two great belligerent powers" An
assertion which renders it necessary to shew
that the prospect then held out was not de-
ceptive, and why it has not been realised
The balance in the treasury amounted at
that time to near fourteen millions of dollars
But aware that that surplus would in short
time be expended, and having stated that the
revenue was daily decreasing, it was in the
same report proposed "that all the existing
duties should be doubled on importations SUBJ
sequent to the first day of January, 1909" As
the net revenue accrued from customs during
the three years, 1909, 1910 and 1871, has
without any increase of duties exceeded TWEEN
ty-six millions of dollars, it follows that if the
measure then submitted had been adopted
we should, after making large deduction
for any supposed diminution of consumption
arising from the proposed increase, have had
at this time about twenty millions of dollars
on hand, sum greater than the net amount
of the proposed internal taxes for four years
In proportion as the ability to borrow is d.
minished, the necessity of resorting to taxa
ton is increased. 1t is therefore also proper
to observe that at that time, the subject of the
renewal of the charter of the Bank of the e.
nited States bad been referred by the Senate
to the secretary of the treasury, nor had any
symptom appeared from which its absolute
dissolution without any substitute could have
then been anticipated The renewal in some
shape, and on more extensive scale was con.
fidently relied on: and, accordingly, in the
report made during the same session to the
Senate, the propriety of increasing the capital
of the Bank to thirty millions of dollars was
submitted, with the condition that that insti
tuition should, if required, be obliged to lend
one half of its capital to the U. States. The
amount thus loaned might, without any in
convenience, have been increased to twenty
millions. And with twenty millions of dol
lars in hand, and loans being secured for
twenty millions more, without any increase
of the stock of the public debt at market, in
teral taxation would have been unnecessary
for at least four years of war, nor any other
resource been wanted than an additional an
nual loan of five millions: a sum sufficiently
moderate to be obtained from individuals, and
on favorable terms
These observations are made only in refer
ence to the finances and resources of the ge-
neral government Considerations of diffe-
rent nature have on both these subjects pro-
duced different result, which makes resort
to internal taxes now necessary, and will rem
der loans more difficult to obtain, and their
terms less favorable But the resources of
the country remain the same and If prompt