New-York tribune., 1867-02-15
REVENUE And WHISKY.

REIENVE AND " hINhI
In considering the bill to reduce taxation.
Congress will do well to remember this fact;
that any gain to the industry OF the country
from the leSSening of its burden would he TAR
less than its loss by injury to tho National
credit To exempt certain branches 0i manu-
facture from taxation amounting t0 S'5.OOOOOO
may not afford general relief. while If. IN
doing 80. the credit OF the Government
is endangered, even temporarily, the effect on
all business will he ruinUuS. We do not want
taxes reduced. especially upon \ system which,
eyempting certain manufactures entirely. will
be sure to excite complaint from Others. and
thus result in an indefinite extension of the
free list. If Congress begins by taking off the
taxe, from leather and sugar. it viii end by
taking them from iron and wool. Nor can Mr..
Morrill,. argument that reduction may safely
be made by using greater economy, he ac-
cepted, for there Is no reason TO expect econ
omy. The XXXlXth Congress has been dis
tingIished for extravaganza and the hLth
NAV be- no better Before trusting 10 the
chance, of economy we should like 10 See
Congress do something in the way of contrac-
ton.
that absolutely needs to be amended. The tax
on whisky and the machinery by which il is
collected should be changed. Whisky, which
should be the chief source of revenue, pays
not One-eghth of what it should under the
present rates. I'm 1860, 0000O,000 gallons were
made in 1866, the tax was collected upon
100000 gallons. Yet, we suppose. at least
70,0OOOOO were manufactured. Here is the loss
Of about $110,0O0,0O0 for Congress to con
slider, and we regard such an enormous
deficiency "a positive proof of the meffi-
cheney of the present law. The Committee
on Ways and Means propose to continue
the tax of two dollars per gallon, and TO collect
it by machinery more complex than the old;
but the method is substantially the same and
we believe the new law will be evaded TO
about the same extend as the old. 1t continues
the present ineffective method of inspection one
which could not have been improved IA a protec-
ton of fraud if the dstilers had had the framing
Of the law, and which makes all the other
excise regulations imperative Mr.. Darling,
Chairman of the Committee to investigate
Revenue frauds, should know something of tho
way in which the Government is swindled, and
he emphatically assured the House, OH Wednes-
day that the plan of requiring distllers to pay
the salaries of local inspectors was the great
obstacle to the collection of the tax. Local
inspectors receive five dollars a day while
actually inspecting, and of course il is to their
interest that distiing should be carried on
without interruption. But investigation has
| shown that not one distiller out of ten will
/ make whisky and pay two dollars per gallon
tax, and that not one out of twenty can afford
! TO do it, while his neighbors are enabled TO
undersell him by evading the tax. The result
is this: the dishonest inspector becomes the
creature of the dishonest distiller; the hon
est distiller is forced to stop his bust
ness and when a distiller wishes to
cheat and finds the inspector cannot be
bribed he stops his pay by suspending
business This is done on the principle that il
is cheaper to stop making whisky for short
time than to pay the tax, and the Inspector
who is thrown out of employment for aefew
weeks is soon replaced by another who will
probably be more plant. This has been done
again and again. and the effect is to force honest
men out Of the service of the Government, and
TO place the inspection of whisky absolutely
under the control of the distillers. The 1000
distillers of New-York and Brooklyn, who are
declared swindlers may long continue, if this
law is continued, to sing the old Scotch chorus of
Here's your ferry gOot health,
And taInn ia whusky duty"
We do not suppose that Congress will re-
>dpce the tax on whisky to so cents per gallon,
though we believe that would be wise. But
that it should at least be cut down to 81 is
unquestionable. That DONE let the inspectors
be paid by the Government, and, as Mr. Oar
ling suggests, frequently removed to other
districts Our wish that the tax on
whisky should be greatly lowered, and
our objections to the reduction of other taxes
hayesbut one object--the increase OF the reve
nue., for the payment of our'e r'extraordinary eK-
penses and the steady decrease of the debt.
Congress can best do this by letting the present
Revenue Laws stqud, excepting those unwiSe