Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-05-08
NO. 81.

way of relief of the people from these
enormous taxes.
Of course, we do not disguise from our
selves the fact that the necessities of the ma
uonal government are far greater now than
they were before the war But we do not
perceive any necessity for the Secretary of
the Treasury increasing them by maintaining
such ruinous form of loan as the compound
interest notes, or by funding the national
greenback currency which now bears no
interest, and so addidg some twenty-five
millions of dollars annually to our burden.
For this sort Of work VIC do not believe that
the loyal people Of this nation are content
to go on paying such enormous taxes, and
submitting TO such an odious and inquisi-
torial system as that under which we now
labor. We are glad to notice that the Secre.
tary is beginning to appreciate this common
sense philosophy, and shows the fact by
putting stop TO the useless and burdensome
arrangement yclept temporary loan, -
whereby the government paid interest on
deposits of compound interest notes and
other forms of its own issues, and was un-
able to make use of considerable fraction
of it because it must be held ready to meet
demands
II has been demonstrated, beyond the
shadow of a doubt, that the government
stands in no need of an increase of our debt,
and that it can afford to reduce the taxation
largely. We trust that it will do so in such
manner as to rid us somewhat of the
swarms of employees rendered necessary by
the present system of assessment and collec-
ton, the effect of which is to deYour q large
part of the taxes to pay expenses of leYylng.
So far as we can perceive, the present bill
will not afford this reduction, nor will there
be any material relief in that respect so long
as the income tax is retained It is the as
sessment of that which affords the chief ex-
cuse for the employment of this herd of of
flcials
Candor requires that we should say, also,
that we do not believe the tax-ridden people
of the loyal States are willing to have their
burdens continued in order to carry into eff.
feet such schemes as Congress now has be-
fore it, in bills to squander nearly three
hundred more millions in bOunties to soldiers,
and about as much more to pay war claims.
So long as the money seems to be so album
dant, we may expect demagogues in Congress
TO be profuse in voting it away. If we want
to stop this sort of extravaganza we must
reduce the taxes far more largely than the
pending bill proposes We have done about
enough for railroads, bounties, war expendi-
lures, canals, and all those things tits now
time to help the taxpayers, and in. their
name we demand much larger reduction
than the committee has proposed.
So long as the income tax remains in force,
all other reductions will seem petty in COM
parison, for this is immeasurably the most
inquisitive, the most unjust, the most costly
to assess and collect of all the war taxes. 1t
has no business among the burdens of peace,
being in its character essentially an extra
ordinary war measure, 1t should cease with
the necessities of the war which created it,
and nothing short of its total abolition will
ever cause cessation of popular clamor on
the subject. English critics favorable to our
country and its institutions hold up their
| hands in astonishment at the tremendous
burdens of taxation we are now bearing;
and the London Economist, after quoting
the schedules Of the new bill, gives vent to
its surprise that the committee hus moved
so timidly. In the very worst of Englands
days of taxation no such sum of revenue
ever was collected there as we go on piling
up annually here.
The loyal and patriotic feeling created by
the war was so great that the people were
ready to endure any burdens required by
the emergency; and this sentiment still has
/ so much force that we find the community
passively awaiting a reduction of taxes,
without giving shape TO its real wishes in the
matter, while members of Congress shut
their eyes to this fact and propose to enact
laws which will largely augment our ma
tiOnal debt and absolutely render it impossi-
bic to reduce taxes. It seems to US to be
time that the subject was ventilated thor
oughly. The people must make their wishes
known to those who have the power to re-
| lleve them.
| It is worth remembering that, as the rev.
enue arrangements now stand, the great
burdens Of taxation fall upon the middle
and New England States while the south,
the far west, and the Pacific States do not
even pay the expenses of the government
service in their respective sections. In
whatever direction we look, we have got to
pay the piper. The agricultural sections
pay no adequate share of the taxes, while
they require the major part of the govern
ment outlay. The present system, there
fore, falls most severely upon all of our Pc
culiar interests.