The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-10
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1869.
INTERNAL REYENUE.

The report of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue affords many striking evidences of
the increased efficiency of his department
since the Inauguration of President Grant.
The new Executive privately and publicly
announced that he would make continuous
and resolute efforts to enforce the revenue
laws as we'll as all other enactments of Con-
gress, and this promise has been faithfully
redeemed The income from internal revenue
during the six months ending June 30, 1869,
exceeds the receipts during the corresponding
period of 1868 by $26, O62 S12, while the gain
of the previous six months of Andrew John
sons rule over the corresponding period of
1867 was but 81, 1856, 1853. The receipts from
April to September, 1869, inclusive, which
embrace six months of Grants rule, amounted
to $1O4, ,377, $50, while the receipts of the
corresponding period of 1868 amounted to
but $50, 543, ,0S2, the increase being $23 S34,-
868. Various other financial tests applied
to this subject all point to the same general
conclusion, that the election of the Tennessee
traitor from the White House has resulted in
gain to the Treasury of nearly fifty millions
of dollars per annum from internal revenue,
and for this service alone the present ad-
ninistration is entitled to the warmest thanks
of the country.
The total receipts for the fiscal year 1869
exceeded one hundred and sixty millions of
dollars, and the Commissioner estimates that
in short time the present system will yield
from spirits, tobacco fermented liquors. in
comes, stamps, banks and bankers, legacies,
and insurance and gas companies, alone, one
hundred and seventy-three millions of dollars.
Of this sum he presumes that forty millions
will be derived from incomes and saloons,
and he appeals to Congress to retain this pro-
life source of revenue.
The public will have no objection to the
retention of the tax on the salaries of officials,
but no portion of the present system is more
unpopular than that which affects incomes
American experience comedies with that of
England, where this tax is so odious that it is
imposed only as matter of dire necessity
and repealed as soon as extraordinary emer-
gencies are passed. However ready Congress
may be to endorse Commissioner Delano's
other recommendations, we trust they will
turn deaf ear to his appeals for continu-
anoe of this onerous exaction, especially since
it has become, by his own showing unneces-
W
the profits of trade and business, and the
Increased wealth of individuals from invest
ments, T." but he forgets that it fails, through
fraud or evasion, to reach such
profits in numberless cases. that it
has a direct tendency to incite
false statements and that where true state
ments are given it compels disclosure of
private business transactions which the Gov
ernment should not demand. Taxes on any
given business or product, about which it is
not difficult for the assessors to obtain ap-
proximate information, stand on an entirely
different footing from the exposure of the
aggregate 'pecuniary transactions of indi-
viduals which is required by the income re-
turns, and the Commissioner commits an
obvious error when he says that they can be
made ''as easily and with as little exposure of
private affairs" as any other statement de-
signed as basis for taxation of personal
estate.
The greatest modern improvement in the
Internal Revenue law consists in the en-
HANGED revenue from spirits and tobacco.
This is no doubt due in part to a reduction In
the rate of the taxation, and we fully agree
ceedingly unwise and impolitic to increase
the present rates. Conclusive statements
bearing on this point are presented. The
quantity of spirits on which a tax was paid
during the last fiscal year exceeded so, 100000
gallons, while in 1868 tax was collected
on but 6,7O9,546 gallons. Under
the two dollar tax the gross re-
venue amounted to only $13, AIS, ,O92,
while under the fifty cent tax the revenue
exceeded $3.50, 900, 900. Under the old law
tho revenue was collected on less than one
tenth of the estimated product of the coun-
try, while the reforms already instituted have
resulted in the collection of tax on fully
threefourths of the probable product and
the means for avoiding evasions are constantly
heing improved. The results of reduction
of the rate of taxation on cigars have been
equally significant In 1869 a uniform tax
rate of five dollars per thousand produced
nearly million and half more revenue
than the tax rate of ten dollars per thousand,
which was imposed in 1866
The CASE OF CUBA.-The House Com
mittee on Foreign Affairs has determined to