The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-10-02

to satisfy the patriotic heart, and moth
ing to any one except the paltry and
pitiful consciousness of having inflicted
an unprovoked injury upon unoffend-
ing unresisting meni SENEX.
Policy OF Internnl Taxation.
Excise taxes fall alternately upon the
consumer of the commodity, and are
more or less onerous according to the
policy of the levy. The amount to be
raised for the service of the government
being fixed, the policy of the levy in
wolves the selection of the subjects, the
equality or inequality of the rate
charged upon them; the time of collec-
ton. that is, whether at the date of
production, at the date of the first sale,
or by distribution of the total charges
intended among all the sales occurring
in the route of the article to consump-
tion; and, incidentally. the convenience,
security and the cost of colleetion--all of
which are material to the perfection of
the system.
Selection of subjects.-In all countries
exemption of income under some fixed
amount is allowed. In England, income
not exceeding one hundred pounds ster-
ling, and in the United States six hun
dred dollars at first, and now one thou
sand dollars, are exempted from either
or both for two good reasons-Oppres-
siveness to the poor taxpayer, and the
disproportion of the cost Of collection to
the revenue derived by the Treasury.
England, upon large experience, has
disburdened her schedule of excises of
all but ten titles; four of these are su-
gar, spirits, malt and chicOry, the other
six are railroads, hackney coaches, stage
carriages, race horses, licenses and game
certificates; and these yielded revenue
of about eighty-six millions of dollars
in the year 1864, at an expense of four
per cent. for collection.
From stamp duties she received forty
four and half millions of dollars, at
l"O anu POI tNhts NollCCtlOli SOops
The land tax and taxes assessed upon
offices, pensions, houses, servants, pri-
vate carriages, horses, dogs, &c, yield.
ed fifteen millions of dollars, at four
and three quarters per cent. cost of col
lection; and the property and income
tax produced fifty-two and half mil
lions, at cost of two per cent The
average cost of collection upon the
whole of the inland taxes amounted to
three and half per cent, and the cus-
toms, which yielded about one hundred
aud ten millions, cost three and one
tenth per cent.
Three hundred and sixty-five millions
of revenue were raised that year, out of
very small number of the products Of
industry ana subjects of trade. In Sc
lecting these the government has done
what it could TO find the points of con-
fluence of all the diversified objects,
and taxes them at once where they To-
calize themselves. All the labor, ac-
tive capital and consumption of the
realm are thus, in q comparatively sim
pie way, and with much certainty,
caught and laid under contribution.
A national revenue, SO large as this,
W VI lOSdl ldAC6t
could neither be borne nor managed un-
der a system like ours, with q schedule
of two hundred and fifty items under
the head of "articles and occupations
subject to excise tax alone. The index
to the 'Annual Report of the Commits
sioner of Internal Revenue is the larg-
est and most varied inventory of goods
and chattels ever seen, looking
like an invoice of all the
goods, wares and merchandise
upon the markets of our country,
and very suggestive of n worrying in
QUESTION, an immense array OF officials,
proportionate collection, no little ex-
pense of conscience in reporting, and
terrible duplication, duplication and in
definite multiplication of assessments
upon the same article In course of prep
arat;on for the last sale before oonsump-
ti0n.
This thing must be amended after
Hamlet's plan of reforming the over
acted plays of his time.
The selection of subjects has yet an
other aspect. In England the taxes on
consumption are seyrnty-ene per cent. |
upon property. In France, forty-five to
fifty-tive. In Belgium, thirty-nine upon
consumption to sixty-one upon prop
erty.. In the United States our national
taxes upon consumption are in higher
proportion even than in England, for
our law embraces no land tax. The re-
sultiug inequality of the burden is,
however, less with us, because wealth |
is so much better distributed among the
consumers.
England makes some show of equity
in the maintenance of the general in
come tax, supplies from ten to fourteen
per cent. of the total revenue, varying |
with the exigencies of the treasury, (the
rate has varied in the last twelve years
from twenty-four to FIVE pence on the |
pound,) but the character of this tax,
after all the improvements of long ex
perience of Great Britain, il still held
to deserve the description given to it in
1s45, by Lord John Russell ,-"Inequali |
ty, vexation, and fraud are inherent
Necessity makes its oRly claim to con-
tinuance there, it is greatly vicious
here, aud as much more unmanegable. |
4 YIRGINIAN IN LUCK.-We are graf
fled to learn that our genial friend,
Colonel A. G. Newton, whilom the pop
ular host of the Atlantic Hotel, is one
of the prospective heirs to au immense
fortune in the city of Hull, England.
A correspondent in that city writes as
follows to the New York Erening Post
in regard to the claim of the Newton
family: among the many American
claimants to property in England. none
seen, to be more decidedly on the road
to success and good fortune than the
heirs of William Newton, of this city,
bo al tn onI eaft1al