Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-12-31
Commissioner Wells on Specie Payment
fik7aa g and Taxation. sssg qyi

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n FROM the recent repc16 to Congress o.
Hon. David A. Wells, Special Commits
sioner of the Revenue, we condense the
following on .ne questions of specie pay
ments and taxation: i5a -!.s
RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. I,
AS to the resumption of specie payments
Mr.. Wells argues that unless resumption
implies contraction it will cure buta small
portion of existing evils. IF it were pos
sible to substitute 700,000,000 of gold dol
lars for the zoe, 1000, 900 of paper dollars in
circulation, and to hold that amount in
the country, there would be the same in
fation of prices, the same disprOportion
between imports and exports, and the
same inability to dispose of the products
of domestic industry in foreign markets
To be sure, it would be impossible to re.
tain such an amount of gold in the coun-
try except by laws ofimpossible barbarism
but wherein would the reduction of the
gold currency then, through expectation,
differ from the reduction of the present
paper currency, through;a judicious and
well ordered withdrawal, h. sa; III se.s,
There is no such thing possible as the
resumption and continuance of specie pay
ments with the continuance of our alb
normal system of foreign trade and ex-
changes; and for the simple reason that
gold will not stay here, and would long
ago have left us to the last dollar, had not
the bonds Of the national government
been available for the settlement of ad-
verse foreign balance in the place of gold.
We must reduce prices, SO that foreign ma
tions will be willing, because it is for their
interest, to exchange product for product.
And to accomplish this, there mI.st be con-
traction, for, to reduceiprices permanently
and eqa.ita5ly, while maintaining seven
hundred millions of irredeemable paper
money, is simply an impossibility.
Seven hundred millions of paper could
not be kept redeemable with less than
seven hundred millions of gold, because
with such an amount of currency it would
inevitably be deprecated, and hence gold
would bear a premium which every
holder of paper would be desirous to
realize. With four hundred millions of
paper, on the other hand, hundred mil
lions of gold would probably be ample,
because the currency, not being in excess
of the wants of commerce, would not
suffer depreciation, and gold and paper
being on otherwise equal terms, paper
would be preferred for its greater conve-
nience in use, just as in 1860, the banks
were fully able'to redeem all of their cir
culation which was presented for payment,
although having but eighteen cents of
specie on each dollar of immediate liabili-
ties. 1t is not the ratio between gold and
paper that needs to be regulated, but the
ratio between the amount of paper in cir
culation and the volume of national pro-
duction and exchange, of which it is the
instrument, ' ~ =
The Commissioner, in view of the above
considerations, is constrained to believe
that contraction, direct and undisguised,
is the one necessity of the situation.
TAXATION. 3.l
In considering the question of future
taxation, the Commissioner estimates that
at the present rates the surplus of 1869-70
will exceed that of 1868-69, viz: $50, ,000,-
600. The gain for the same time by. re-
duction of expenditures is estimated at
$26,OOO,OO0 We shall also gain, he
thinks, by the elasticity of the revenue,
say from $12,000,000 to $15, 100000. The
sum of these items makes the estimated
surplus for the current fiscal year 1924,
100000.
The possession of surplus so large in
vests with more than ordinary interest
the question of its disposition. Shall the
whole of this sum be applied to the re-
du ;tion of the principal of the National
debt, or shall fair proportion of it be re-
mitted to the people by the abatement or
removal of their taxes Of these two
courses the Commissioner unhesitatingly
declares his conviction that the latter is
the more expedient-if, indeed, it is not
absolutely imperative, demanded alike by
the highest economical considerations and
by the almost unanimous sentiment of the
people. With this view he proposes that
the sum of $50,O00,000 be taken as the
measure of the taxes to be removed or re-
duced and that such reduction should
be directed, first, to relieving industry
as much as possible of unnecessary bur.
dens, and allowing it to obtain it's material
at the minimum cost; and secondly, to the
diminution. of the cost of the elements o1
living to the great mass of the people, in
their capacity as consumers, irrespective
of the consideration whether they are OF
not producers of wealth.. H
| The three principal sources OF receipts
under the. internal revenue are the taxel
on distilled spirits and fermented liquors
on tobacco, and on incomes. The rate
taxation on the first two of these has bel
| fixed at standard which the experieG @
| of the past year has proved to be mGs
productive. The taxes on whisky, bee
and tobacco should not, in the opinion Q
the Commissioner, be modified, unless it
desired to repeat the disagreeable expert