Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-06-07
OF INTERNAL, REV.
Tho Ohio Democracv. in thclrh Sal


The Ohio DeIGocracy, in their State
Convention, June l, among other things,
Resolved, That the Internal Revenue
system of the United States is unendura-
DE ia its oppressive exactions; that it
should be Temodeled; that its annoyances
of stamps, licenses and taxes upon sales
and income should be abolished; that the
tax itself should be collected by State and
county officers; and that themultiplicaiion
of officers is wholly unnecessary except to-
cat cat the resources of the taxpayers
and that we pledge ourselves to effect a
thorough reform in this particular.
We need no stronger argument in favor
of the concluding paragraphs of this res
olution than we find in the following ex-
tract of the cincinnati Commercial,
Rodical, June i:
Tie expense of collecting these great
revenues is a formidable element, and one
which demands far more attention than
has yet been bestowed upon it. 1t is one
of the cardinal principles of sound sys-
tenn of taxation, that it should put into the
| Va nlOlCy NIdhh
| from the people in other words, that the
expense of collection should always be a
minimum of the tax Now our present
highly cumbrous and complicated internal
revenue system fails at precisely this vital
point. By the last report OF Commissioner
Delanc it appears that there was paid for
expenses incident to the collection of the
revenue, in the fiscal year ending July /,
1865, the sum of $S,776,8 14. The gross
amount of revenue collected the same year
was $191, $50, 564 /; SO that the cost of col
lection was over -four and half per cent.
The expenses of collecting the revenue for
the succeeding fiscal year ending July !,
1869, amounted to Sc, 7S5, Az, upon q
total amount collected of $160,039 344, or
about four and quarter per cent. But
this does not appear to include the expense
of maintaining the Revenue Bureau itself,
which was, for the year 1869, $500, 395,
thus increasing the cost of collecting the
revenue, inclusive of the expense of adj
ministration, to four and half per cent
upon the amount collected.
Now, Great Britain collects her inter
nal revenue of e40, 0C0, 900 or 5000, 000,-
600, by the expenditure for collection of
only IS, 600, 900, or four per cent. And
England is proverbially expensive coun-
try, where all the operations of Govern
ment are carried on at high salaries, with
perquisites and pension allowances run
ming through every department of the
civil service. Certainly we ought to be
able to raise our internal revenue taxes at
as low rate per cent, and to put as much
into the Treasury from given aggregate
raised by taxation, as Great Britain docs.
Is it not probable that we. have been
afflicting ourselves by creating too many
Federal officers ~ have charge of
this business? Can any one point to any
great good that has been accomplished by
the new officers known az Supervisors of
| the Revenue, for instance, at all COM
mensurate with their cost to the Trea-
snryl And is it not worth considering
whether We might not get rid of at least
half the enormous cost of collection, by
availing ourselves of the local machinery
for assessing and collecting taxes, already
| in use in every State and county through
out the Countryi OF course, manifold
| objections would be started to any such
! scheme; and an attempt would be made
to show that the army of Federal tax
gatherers now employed, can never be
dispensed with.
But the practical fact is, that we have
got to reform our system; or its manifold
abuses and corruptions, and the enormous
expense of the rings of Treasury eaters
who have so long made 1t their quarry,
will destroy it. Add the millions stolen
by the whisky thieves, the tobacco rings,
and the collisions of Assessors and Col
lectors, or their subordinates, and the ex-
pcnse of collecting the revenues is much
nearer ten per cent than four and a half
per cent Uncle Sam, under the present
system, appoints one set of men at high
salaries to collect the revenue, and an
other set of men also at high salaries to
watch them. Yet the revenue, or very
large (and some say, growing) share of it
is not collected. As all our financial le-
gslatiOn hitherto is but experimental, and
we are continually supplanting one system
which has not worked well, by another
which we hope will work better, why not
try new deal?
After these sensible remarks, We hope
to see the Commercial abandon its old
party associations and come out in sup
mort of the Ohio Damocracv