The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-10-08
[From the New York Post, September 81

Commissioner Delano's Speech
The political campaign in Pennsyl
vauia has suddenly become a very
active one, and both parties are max
ing unusual efforts to organize theil
strength, and to win new voters
! The most important contribution i
has yet called forth in the discussion
Of the issues pending, is the address
made at Harrisburg on Saturday last
by Mr.. Columbus Delano, the Com
missioner of Internal Revenue. The
policy of the Democrats in the can
vass is simply to attack the National
Administration, and to demand the
election of Mr.. Packer as an express
sion of popular disapprobation toward
President Grant. Mr.. Delano accepts
the issue boldly, and points out plain
ly, aud with authority, what the new
Administration has accomplished in
one of its most important branches.
These statements are not of mere
local or temporary interest, and we
therefore give a summary of them
here.
The greatest work the Government
has to do is to collect the taxes and
handle the National debt. The spir-
it of the Democratic party is one of
hostility to the debt itself, and while
they do not, at least In Pc ennsylva-
MIA, openly advocate reputation, yet
they try in various ways to excite
prejudice against its honest payment.
They hint at injustice in not taxing
the bonds, in not paying them off in
greenbacks, in not assuming the war
debt of the rebellion, or at least of
the states which Joined in it. Mr.
Delano clearly shows that each of
these suggestions is merely repudia-
ton in disguise, and SO brings the
discussion to the position which the
Democratic orators and press are
urging so boldly everyWhere-the on
ly one on which they seem to agree
that the debt is an intolerable bur
den, and can never be honestly paid,
in real money, without depressing
the people. 1t is in answer to this
assertion that his statements are most
valuable, and indeed conclusive.
In the spring of 1865, he says,
when the rebels laid down their arms,
the ascertained and audited debt of
the United States was twenty-seven
hundred millions of dollars. The
army was then unpaid from period
of from one to two years, and more
than eight hundred millions of dol
lars, not included in the audited
debt, were due to them. Now, with
in little more than four years, the
whole of this floating debt of eight
hundred millions has been paid of,
and the ascertained debt has been re-
duced to twenty-fOur hundred mill
lions of dollars. In other words,
eleven hundred millions of dollars of
debt have actually been paid off in
four years; nearly one-thiTd of the
entire Indebtedness of the nation at
the close of the war.
All this has been done by the peo-
pie, in spite of difficulties which can
not easily be exaggerated. The peO-
pie have been taxed heavily, though
not iutolerably; but the taxes paid
by them have not been honestly
placed in the Treasury, and eeonom-
ically applied to the debt. There
has been gross extravaganza in the
Government, corruption and dishOn-
esty in its officers For example, du-
ring the fiscal year ending June 80,
1868, the whole amount of whisky
that paid tax in the country
was 6, ,7O9, ,546 gallons. One hundred
millions of gallons are annually made
and consumed; and if the whole
amount had been properly taxed at
two dollars a gallon, the revenue
from it would have boon 5000, ,O0O,-
900, instead of just one- fifteenth that
sum, as it was.
Now the annual capacity of the dis
tille:ies of tie country is about six
times the actual product, or 600,000,-
900 of gallons; so that it requires
number of officers to track out the
manufacture and bring it all to ae-
count. But the service, though still
not perfect, is certainly improving G
rapidly, as is shown by the fact that,
during the last fiscal year, including
only the first four months of Presi-
dent Grants administration, there
have been 62,OO9,331 gallons Of
whisky returned as subject to duty
about six times as much as was re-
turned, including that exported with
out paying duty, during the previous
year.
A similar improvement in the rev.
enue service is shown by the inereas-
ing revenue from other branches OF
the tax law. The tax on manufac-
lures was abolished last year so that
the entire receipts of internal revenue
for the two years can not be compar-
ed. But the receipts from the various
taxes which have been retained are
most encouraging. For example,
comparing the last six months of the
year ending June 80, 1868, with the
last six months of the year ending
June 80, 1869, the latter period in
cludiug nearly four months of Presi-
dent Grants administration, there is
an increased revenue from
Spirits si5, ,OOC
Tobacco 4,OS2, ,OOC
Fermented liquors 16,O0C
Gross receipts l,OOC
Slles I61,0OC
Income 1854, 90,
Banks lIZ,OJt
Stamps s1O,OJl
Gas 1000.
And against this increase only a
few trifling subjects of taxation which
have yielded less than before. The
greatest falling off is that of $4,000
on salaries, and this is caused by the
economical policy of employing fewer
officers to do the Government work.
Ia short, and bring to a direct test
the work of the new Administration,
the total receipts of internal revenue
for the first quarter of the last fiscal
year, that is, for the months of July,
August and September, 1868, were