The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-12
CONSOLIDATION OF REVENUE
TRICTS.

From the NJ Y. Times.
We hope that the Senate bill for the con-
solidation of the revenue districts, introduced
some weeks ago, is not destined to be sacri-
feed at the close of the session to measures
it may be, of larger pretensions, but certainly
of less relative utility to the country, or,
worse STILL in the interest of placemen who
enjoy lucrative offices and have little or
nothing to do.
That the administrative methods prescribed
in our present revenue system-however
necessary and effective during the Rebellion,
when almost every conceivable class of goods
was liable to tax, and gave rise to complicated
legal questions-are unwise, wasteful, and in
consistent, under diminished taxation, can
easily be shown. For one thing, the perpe-
tuatiOn of the plan of territorial organization
originally established has necessitated the re-
tention of the full corps of collectors and as
SCISSORS, without any reference to the reduc-
tion of receipts or of the labor incident to
their collection. 1t is found, therefore, that,
as receipts diminished, the comparative cost
of collection has largely increased
In 1866, when collections were greatest,
the rate of cost was only 2'47 per cent In
1867, under changed law, receipts fell off
almost sixty million dollars, yet the expense
of collection in that year was nearly one per
cent. greater, or 3'41. In 1868 there was
still further dininution of taxes to the extent
of over seventy millions, but cost of collec-
ton had risen to "a per cent. or one and
half per cent. more than the year before. In
1869, with further reduction of over twenty
five millions, the cost was 4'75 per cent. The
inconsistency of this state of things is rem
dered still more striking by the fact that, as
the scale of expense assembled, the labor and
care required for collecting the taxes still re-
naming steadily decreased. Only a few,
relatively, of the articles liable to taxation
in 1866 remained so in the following years.
The ten thousand details of our earlier tax
laws were also stricken out. In word, the
execution of existing statutes has been so
generalized and simplifed, that one-half, if
not two-thirds, of the work formerly re-
quired in the districts has been abolished.
Yet, under the system now in force Gov
ernment presents the anomaly of paying as
high price, out of diminished resources for
the performance of this fractional portion of
the labor.
But there are other aspects of the case
hardly less important, in which consolidation
of revenue districts commends itself. 1t will
be found that the reduction of several inde-
pendent districts under one general head will
simplify details of administration, and pro-
duce harmony and certainty of operation,
where so far there have been conflicting prac-
| tees and want of conformity. A vast amount
of the more difficult and laborious business
| of the Revenue Bureau has arisen from the
diverse views held and the varying methods
of procedure followed by such large force of
Independent officers. This, too, has confused
taxpayers and inspired them with distrust of
the Revenue law itself. OF course it is OBJ
vious that the fewer the number of clerks
employed at Washington, in this branch of
the service, the greater the ease and satisfac-
tion taxpayers will experience in their deal
ings with the Government. L
The diminutiop in the number of the tax
districts viii tend, moreover, to remove
what once was, and still is, a cover for frauds
on the revenue No plan could have been
more favorable to the enormous whisky and
tobacco frauds which have been perpetrated
in this city than that creating so many sepa-
dealer, if held to his obligations by the officers
of one district easily and quickly changed
his sphere of operations to another, where
the officials might be less vigilant. 1t may
be imagined what boundless opportunities
for illicit transactions the ten districts of
this city and Brooklyn thus afforded, with
their independent officers maintaining no
concert of action among themselves, but
oftener actuated by feelings of jealousy and
official antagonism. Further, it was no un-
usual thing for property seized by the officers
of one district to be rescued and run off into
another, where they could exercise no official
right of pursuit or recovery. No inconsider-
able amount of forfeitable property was thus
lost to the Government, and the authority of
the law itself was brought into contempt.
For these and other reasons, which need
not be stated, 1t must be apparent that there
is an urgent want of effective legislation on
this subject, The bill before the Senate,