The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-04
REVENUE REFORM.

ments of the Government
REVENUE REFORM.
From the N. y. Euening Post.
1t is one of the infrequent but pungent de-
lights of the revenue reformer, to agree
heartily with the Tribune. That journal has
been retained to defend monopoly and privi-
lege under the name of projections" but its
natural instincts are SO strongly for liberty
its long habit of fighting against one form of
slavery has given such prepossession against
all other forms of slavery, that it does more
hurt than good to the cause of monopoly
and to those who employ it to defend the en-
slavement of trade. Thus, while in one
column it supports the atrocious salt mono
poly and earns the gratitude of the tyrants of
Syracuse who nearly double the price of salt
to American farmers by the duty which the
Tribune has to support, in another, one of
its leading writers, making confession of
what he knows of farming, laments that ''salt
is too dear for general use as fertilizer;" and
adds, ''where the refuse produce of salt works
can be cheaply bought, good farmers will
eagerly compete for it, if their lands are all
like mine" .r.
So, few days ago, revenue reformers
were favored by the Tribune with defini-
ton so accurate, SO precise and concise, of
their principles, many of us suspected that
only strong desire to help along the great
cause of revenue reform or free trade could
have led to the insertion of that definition in
journal which apparently belongs to the
monopolists.
''They are free-traders, said the Tribune,
speaking of the opponents of the Schenck
tariff that is to say, their distinguishing
tenet is known to the world as free trade
They mean that no duty should be imposed
on the importation of foreign products ex-
cept for revenue, and that the highest rate on
any article shall be that which will put most
money into the treasury. That is distinct,
definite principle, and is everywhere known
as free trade" .. ..
the whole land could have stated the case
better or more accurately. We hold that no
duty or tax of any kind ought to be laid by
the Government upon the people, except for
revenue; we hold further that all taxes,
whether external or internal, ought to be
made as simple as possible; that the expert
ence of other countries and of our own shows
that an abundant revenue can be collected
from a few articles, with less trouble to the
people than from many articles; and finally,
we hold that the less Government interferes
with the business of the people the better off
the people will be.
And we point to facts in our own expert
ence to prove the truth of these statements.
When the war began, in 1861, in order to
raise large revenue, it was thought neces-
sary to tax everything, home made or foreign,
which the people used. Our tax schedule,
internal and external contained at one time
the names of more than twelve thousand
articles; and an American citizen was so
covered and bounded with taxes that he could
scarcely breathe-could certainly not exist
without paying tribute to the treasury.
So imperative was the necessity for great
revenue that Congress, seeing that money
came in, and ignorant of the principles of
taxation, would not venture on a change,
until, with the end of the war, less revenue
was needed. Since then, slowly and eau
tiously, the once insignificant free list has
been largely increased; this has been done to
decrease the revenue; but so beneficial is
freedom that it may be said every addition to
the free list has brought an increase of the
revenue; and only by the most sweeping and
general reductions has the revenue been kept
down.
1t is the duty of Congress to continue the
simplifcation of the tax system by abolishing
unproduetive taxes, and by cutting off those
which bear most injurlously or oppressively
| upon the people. We who urge this duty
upon Congress are denounced by the monopo-
lists, and it is attempted to make the name
Revenue Reformer" odious.
Yet Congress is compelled to do what we
ask. 1t has repeatedly revised and reformed
the internal tax system; and will, at the pre-
sent session, still further benefit the people
by abolishing the tax on sales and all or most
of the special taxes, and reducing the income
tax to three per cent. 1t ought at the same
tim to revise the external taxes; but this is
resisted by the monopolsts, who have organ
lied a huge lobby to keep their plunder.
There is no reason why the people should
| pay the pig-iron masters twenty millions, for
one million of revenue secured to the Gov
ernment; but the pig-iron lobby and the
| Tribune defend this monstrous robbery under
the specious name of protection, and the
agents of the pig iron, salt, lumber, coal, and
copper monopolists, in Congress, have now
wasted two long months in a struggle for the
protection" of these robbers.
They have been steadily beaten the House
is no longer in the humor to do their bidding;
only last week Kelley was laughed down; the
Schenck bill has been so amended that it now
pleases the free traders better than it does the
monopolists; and so weak have these last
become, that it is doubtful even if they can
prevent the passage of the bill, now so hate
| full to them. Meantime, the Republican
party in the West, Northwest, and East is
rallying for revenue reform; and there is
little doubt that in the next fall elections the
monopolists will be overthrown and the Re-
publican party will elect revenue reform men
to Congress from almost every district which
it can carry.