The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-06-05
FROM WASHINGTON.
THE NEW TAX BnL-wHIsKEY, TOBACCO, CT
aARs-MPoRTANT CHANGES.

In the course of his speech on Monday on
the Tax bill, Mr.. Schenck, the chairman Of the
committee that reported tie new bill, said:
We have provided that retailers shall be
classified, and shall pay according 10 tn tne
amount Of their business-$25, $50, S!OO, s200,
| s1OOO-severally for their licenses; and We have
defined retail dealer to be not one who sells
q certain amount Of liquor, but one who sells
liquor in quantities less than one quart, AND
who sells to be drunk on the premises.
| Wholesale liquor dealers pay at this time
one-tenth Of one per cent. on all sales above
! $50, 900. We propose that wholesale liquor
dealers shall pay two and hah per cent
twenty-five times as muchSand snail ma o5P Pay on
have made an estimate that from this
source we can obtain about $24, 900, 900, judg-
ing by the statistics Of the trade. come,
then, to the special tax imposed upon the dis.
| tiler himself. We have made it one hundred
dollars, and one dollar on each barrel produc-
ed. We have also added this system Of taxa
ton of sales. We have also added to that tax
shall be three. dollars day, paid on the
capacity of each distillery that mashes and
ferments one hundred bushels or less, and an
additional three dollars day for each addI-
tional hundred bushels mashed and fermented.
We have retained the tax OF two dollars
gallon as direct tax on whiskey; but !
| take occasion to say here now that it is not
the expectation, believe, even Of the COM
mittee, that the amount Of direct tax vii! be
retained by the House, or by Congress. II we
had let it be known four months ago that whls-
key was to be taxed only one dollar or seventy
| five cents q gallon we would have iost ABOUT
"a. .000, 600 Of revenue. do not know whether
Congress will agree to the reducnop. l., Ior
one, have come very reluctantly to the conclu-
sion that it should be doue. From the very
beginning I was inclined "to fight it out on
that line" But have come to the conclusion
that keeping this tax at two dollars per gal
lon will eventuate in continuing the rule OF the
whiskey ring in this country, and that the tax,
therefore, had better be reduced. We must
not be controlled, we must not be governed
| by the whiskey men who are at this very mo-
ment swarming in the city, especially anxious
to know whether the tax b going to be kept at
such o rate as thst they can continue their
| operations, Step BY step, therefore, BY de-
grees, have brought myself to the conclusion
that the direct tax on distilled spirits ought to
be put down to something like seventy-fve
cents gallon. And the reason why wouio
be disposed to seventy-fve cents is, that from
the examination Of many taxes, and the 1nves-
tigation Of the whole subject, believe that
| seyenty-five cents is about the standard at
which the tax can be collected, and which Will
make it impossible for illicit distillation TO be
carried on with profit. Illicit distillers cannot
carry on their business in concealed places ID
cellars and garrets in Chicago and Phlladei:
phia-the two great points at which most OF
the enormous rascality is carried on-with any
advantage at all if we can beat them in the
market.
From number Of calculations that I have
made, I can come to no conclusion but that We
shall get at least seventy millions out OF whis-
key in the coming year, instead OF thirteen MIL
lions, to which we are now reduced.
In reference to the income tax, it was to be
retained at five per cent; but salaries from the
government, on which no allowance was now
made for house rent, bad debts, &c:, were
henceforth to be accounted TOR as other IN
comes, instead Of having the tax deducted on
their being paid.
In reference to the tax on railroads, particu-
larly horse railroads, they were no longer to be
allowed, under the revenue law, to exact from
their passengers that tax, or rather eight times
the tax; but would have to apply for relief un-
der that head to the local or municipal govern
ments.
AS to tobacco, the committee had made o
great many amendments in regard to the col
lection Of the tax. 1t had endeavored to make
the law rigorous, certain Of execution, and to
have the collection made through the medium
of stamps. While the country had been as
founded with the enormous frauds committed
in evading the tax on whiskey, it had not been
much better with tobacco, though he confess
ed that whiskey was little ahead in the race
of rascality. Instead Of the three classes Of
taxation-forty, thirty and fifteen cents a
pound-the committee now recommended only
two classes at forty and sixteen cents. The
committee also provided that smoking and
Chewing tobacco should be put up in small
packages, and the tax paid by stamps.
As to cigars, the committee had thought OF
doubling the present ta1of i've dollars per
thousand; bat that, perhaps, would not be IN
sisted upon. his own opinion was that they
ought to reduce the tariff on cigars, as not af-
fording the protection which was intended to
home manufactures. The tax on imported ci-
gars now averaged seventy-six dollars the
thousand, and the consequence was that
smuggling was carried on to an alarming ex-
tent.
THE IMPEACHMENT NQUIsITIoS-PAY OF PREsI-
DENTS oouNsEL-TEsT1MoNY OF COLLECTOR
WEBSTER, OF BALTIMoRE-MR. BUTLERs Vof-
AGE OF DISCOVERY.
The Wash ington correspondent of the Bal
timore Sun writes, under date Of the Cd inst :
Among the witnesses examined to-day by
the impeachment committee were Messrs.
Cornelius Wendell, OF this city; J. 7. Worth
ington, of Cincinnati, Hon. e. II. Webster, col
lector Of customs, Baltimore, and Col. Cooper,
late assistant secretary of the treasury. From
the account of the testimony by these wit
nesses, it appears that nothing new was devel-
oped with regard to alleged purchase OF votes
Of senators. The evidence of Collector Web
ster was nearly all relative to the raising OF
a fund for paying off the Presidents ex--
panses for attorneys fees. This was, OF
course, irrelevant, but was brought out
upon a question of MIR. Butler. AS re-
lated by Mr. Webster, it appears that the wit.
ness. having learned that it was proposed to
raise fund for the purpose stated, in the sew
eral large cities, himself headed list Of SUBJ
scription in Baltimore composed of three or
four Federal officers and about twenty leading
merchants of that city; that the entire sum
raised was s2500, which was paid over to Col.
Cooper and added to the S15, 900 or $4,000 then
already sent from New York and Philadelphia,
and afterwards distributed amongst the Presl-
dents counsel. Messrs. Butler and Logan
are conducting the examination, the other
members OF the committee taking little or
no interest in the inquisition. This in
quisitoral proceeding is evidently kept up
by Mr.. Butler for the purpose, first, Of keep
he is nothing If not notorious; and secondly,
| to induce the people to believe that there is
something startling behind, some astounding
disclosures yet to be made. 1t is well under
stood here, however, that, SO far as the i'm
peachment trial is involved, there has not
been scintilla of evidence adduced to show
that any money was raised to purchase votes
for acquittal, and that Butler is now merely in.
dulging in a prurient curiosity, and engaged
upon voyage Of discovery, hoping. out OF
several hundred kilograms and other private
communications that he illegally seized and
shamelessy read and examined, to find some
inkling of corrupt purpose, which, being e2.
posed through the committee in o sensational
T.. ).