The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-02-08
From Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 81. =
More Revenue Inequalities.

Continuing our exdmlnatlOn Vi tne
present distribution of the internal reve-
nue. taxes Of the country, we call atten-
ton TO further irregularities quite
as startling, unjustifable and outrage
Gus as any heretofore noticed.
Under The changes wrought by the
laws as amended in July, 1870, the six
Eastern States OF New York, Massa
chusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Maryland, with
eighty members OF Congress, will pay
Sfl 81 600 ofthe internal revenue tax,
being an average OF $524,OOO in each
Congressional District, while the six
Western States of Ohio, Indiana, Hi
nois, Kentucky, Michigan ard Missouri,
with butsixty-tve members of Congress,
will pay,$j0,6l3,00 being an average
of $4,000 an each district, or about
fifty per cent more than the average in
the six Eastern States. In other words,
by the new deal of tax adjustment each
We stern member finds his constituents
euchered annually out of $3.50 900.
Again, all of the New England States,
with twenty-seven members OF Congress,
will pay but $6,50S,0 00 or an average
in each district OF S24l 900 In Ohio,
with nineteen districts, we will pay
SIC, 062, 900, being an average of Ssh
900 in each district, while in Illinois the
average will be 81 100000 in each dis
trict. The States of Indiana and Hi
nois, with twenty-five members of Con
gress, will pay $l9,7OO0O0, or three
times as much as Few England, with
twenty-seven members.
The six Southern States of Georgia,
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia
and North Carolina, all Of which have
been suffering in their industrial inter
est 10y reason of the ravages OF war and
long deferred reconstruction, with TWEEN
tv-nine members of Congress, will pay
s, 9S7 900, or forty per cent. more than
all OF New England, with her vast accu-
mutation OF wealth and immense in
dustries. The single State of Kentucky
will pay thirty-three per cent. more than
all the New England States.
BY what considerations of equity can
our lawmakers have been governed
in so adjusting the burdens OF taxation
as to impose upon an agricultural State
like Kentucky, with much less than an
average OF accumulated wealth and
invested capital, a greater burden than
is placed upon six of the Oldest and
wealthiest States in the Union?
We have sought in vain for some
good reason for such imposltlons on the
West 1t can not he that we have been
neglectful of duty in payment OF our
Government dues, for it is found, by
comparing the collections of 1869 and
1870, in the twelve States above COM
pared, that the increase in 1870 over
the preceding year was less than six
per cent, in the six Eastern States
while it was more than twenty eight
per cent. in the six Western States,
showing that of the very handsome col
lections made under the successful
management Of Commissioner Delano,
nearly five-sixths OF that increase came
from the West.
OF the five and one-third millions OF
dollars paid as tax on gross receipts in
the twelve States named, which tax
was abolished last year, .one-iourth
alone was paid in the six Western
States. The same States paid $3O,416,-
600 Of the income tax last year. Abol-
ish all this, and the six Eastern States
are relieved of So, $4,000, and the six
Western States OF but St, S02, 900.
We have heretofore cited only such
impositions as have been practced upon
us by act of Congress. But In addition
to this, we are now called upon to con-
template the spectacle Of an Eastern
officer of the Revenue Bureau, render
ing a decision in the first week Of his
term of office by which the six Eastern
States are to be relieved Of tax upon
dividends amounting to three millions
o. dollars. but which affects the six
Western States but $9S0,00O. We no
tice the further interesting fact that
the same officer has entered the
lobby, and is eXerting his in
huence TO secure further leglsla-
ton for the immediate benefit OF his
own section, in the repeal of the re-
mainder of the income tax, under the
erroneous and absurd pretens!on that 1t
requires more money to pay the ex-
penses of collecting that tax than 1t will
amount to when collected. This absurd
idea is sent out in the face OF this well
known fact that it cost only four and
oue-half millions OF dollars to collect
the entire internal revenue OF the coun-
/ try in the year ending June 80, 1870,
while the tax he seeks to have abol-
| ished will amount to over twelve mil
! lions OF dollars
! Thus one by one are the taxes that
have borne. with some show OF equality
upon all sections of the country, being
wiped out, until we have reached a
point where the very hghtest burdens
of taxation are borne 10y those States
most able to pay them, leaving the agri.
cultural States Of the Great West to
bear the great financial burdens
of the nation We see the natural
result of this condition of things
in the paralysis which has stricken our
business, and the pecuniary distress
which is driving many of our most en-
terprising citizens into bankruptcy.
Will nothing avail to put stop to this
injustice? Surely no party which will
fully closes its eyes to such a state OF
things can long survive the odlum which
must attach TO such glaring imposi.
tons. The loval traditions of the domi-
nant party, albeit very fresh and glow
ing in the hearts of the people OF the
great West, must become rapidly, faint
under the sufferings which thefsubse-
ouent acts of the same party have en-
tailed upon us. Even now the people
are inquiring what they must do to be
saved from such crushing injustice. We
can not hope for relief until the rule