, 1870-05-04


forced by the officers Of the government at
Washington The power to ta1 is The
highest power that government can eIez-
else Under our constitution, that power is
vested exclusively in Congress, but, in prac-
tice, it is e1ercised.b by the Commissioner Of
Internal Revenue and his subordinates
who think it to he their chief duty to levy
nnl collect all taxes not prohibited by law.
We have had several Commissioners, and
each seems to have. been fred with an am
Lition to invent new forms Of taxation and
new modes Of e1tortion, not dreamed of by
his predecessors. The rule OF the Internal
Revenue Office is to construe" every law,
every section and every provision Of Law
into an authority to hara@ somebody with
tax not heard Of before. Il anybody OBJ
jects to paying it, the Commissioner senes
his place Of business, takes possession Of his
establishment, carries of his private books
and papers, and virtually ruins him The
victim has the choice to pay, the tax, or be
destroyed in business, he generally pays
the ta1, which, IN nine cases out, Of ten
where there is dispute, is Illegal Com
missioner Delano surpasses all his prede-
cessors, in this overbearing, e1tortonate
policy Of hunting down the public with
small technica1ities, which, Illegal in them
selves, arc doubly oppressive because they
are ve1atious, intermedd1ing exachons,
made in an annoJing and despotic manner
often by subordinates, who, copying the
style of their chief, consider themselves
sustaining his dignity. by making them
selves equally Offensive
From the date Of this system Of .taxation
until now, the government has been guilty
Of the folly of maintaining a corps of spies,
nominally to- hunt down those who evade
the lsws, but actually to divert revenue
from the Treasury into the hands
of licensed thieves Let the last two
yea1s Of Andrew Johnsons administration
OF the revenue laws tell the story of the loss
of revenue, and The enriching of the gov
eminent agents. There is no more ne
cessity for Spy IN the revenue service Of
the government than there is in the
revenue service Of the State of
Illinois. The officers Of the revenue
have their duty to perform, and, if they
do it faithfully, they want no detectives, no
spies, no secret agents. Il they do not per
form their duties faithfully, these are Of
little avail. We suppose it to be true that
nine out Of every ten cases of continued
fraud upon The revenue under johnson,
were pe1petrated.. with the knowledge Of, if
not instgated and shared in by, revenue
officials, detectives and othe.s; and If the
proportion be smaller now than it Was then,
it is because there has been change in tha
principal revenue officers and reduction
OF taxes, and not because of any change in
the system of the detective service. tits safe
TO ASSUME, without reference to any particu-
lar person in Office, that the detective force
of the custom and internal revenue service
instigate five cases of fraud to the two they
prevent or bring to justice. They suggest
the mode by which frauds mny be safely
and proftably prsctised, and, so long as
they are able to sha1e the profits, they pro
tect the swindlers and not the government,
The internal revenue Laws are admins
tered upon the theory that it is the duty Of
the department to make them as odious as
possible If clause Will admit of two
constructions, under one Of which man
mar he taxed 10 per cent once, and another
Interpretation by which he may be taxed 10
per cent twice On the Same transaction, the
department will travel out of its wny to es-
tablish the most s1tortionate rule, md put
upon the victim the expense Of a lawsuit if
he makcs fuss about it. If it be discover
ed TINT person, doing any lind of bust
ness, can be compelled to pay tar upon
some minute item Of his vocation, not worth
Of itself the cost of the bookkeeping, the
entire revenue force, from the Commission
or down to detective. becomes interested in
the discovery, and the tax is extozted ut
every hazard Il, by any accident, the
Commissioners Illegal e1action is arrested
by some indignant and beuicose taxpayer
appealing to the court, recourse is had in
nediately to Congress for an explanatory
law iustifyin the robbery in the past, and
authorizing it IN the future.
The American people are taxed as no
other people ever we're. They pay their
tn1es with rs little complaint as any peo-
pie in the world, and they have q right to
expect of the servants whom they employ
due respect for law and justice and that
they be not hunted, and oppressed, and
blackmailed by q lega1ized organization of
officials arrogating to themselves the fonc-
tions Of lawmakers, Judges, and e1ecn-
tiunera
If the government .were IN distress, or
suffering for the means of meeting its cur-
rent expenditures, something might be
pardoned to extraordinary zeal Of the
revenue officers but when the revenue is
SO greatly in excess that the Secretary can
purchase S11, ,000, ,000 per month Of the
bonded debt, and carry surplus Of S75,-
o,oO0 Of unemployed gold, all apology
for these hgh-handed measures is taken
AWAY, and they fall to the level Of any other
acts of robbery. The country wants re-
form in tho revenue laws, and it also wants
reform in their administration, and per
haps the latter is as much needed rs the
foune1- The present system tends strong
ly to educate the public in the belief that
the revenue -e1actions are, for the most
part, Inventions by the officers, to defea!
which is, morally. no offence, ind hence it
Is that the evasions gradually extend to
what the Law really calls for, and public
opinion, which is strongly against official
injustice, leans to the side of those who can
successfully defeat the sharpers and shys-
tiers Of tho Revenue Department.
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