Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-02-16

either. Such I conceive is our con.
dition now.
/ think can demonstrate
First. That it is not wise to dis
turb the financial measures of ths
last session except to remove am
biguities or meet new facts devel
oped since the last session.
| Second. That tho state of our rev.
enue and expenditures will not noH
justify the repeal fany taxes.
Third. That the modification OF
repeal of the Income tax should be
postponed until, by general revi-
sion of our whole revenue system,
we can determine what taxes bear
most heavily upon our people, and
| distribute the reduction so as to give
them the greatest relief.
Fourth. That the repeal of the tax
will affect injuriously the higher OBJ.
jects, namely, the funding of the
public debt and the resumption OF
specie payments.
know, Mr.. President, that this
is broad task; but l believe that il
Senators will give attention to the
facts l shall submit to them, can
make at least an honest effort to de-
monstrate each Of these propositions.
The income tax was an essential
element Of the financial legislation of
the last session. It was fully de-
bated in both Houses, aud formed 8
part of series of measure that was
and ought to be regarded as a whole.
/ insist that we should not disturb
these financial measures except to re-
move antiquities or to meet new
facts developed since they were
adopted. The fact now submitted to
us by the Secretary of the Treasury
show that our estimates last summer
were accurate. Some portions of
these measures are not yet in force.
The entire reduction of taxes made
will not occur until after May.1 Why
then exhibit the feebleness of uncer-
tainty?
Not only were these measures fully
discussed here, but they were ap-
proved by our constituents ct the
last election. Wherever the Repuh-
licans succeeded it was in conse-
quence of these measures and of the
general financial policy Of the Ad-
ministration. Wherever we lost IL
was in spite of these measures, AM,
mainly by local dissensions. Our
financial measures strengthened us
everywhere, and were a weakness
nowhere. These measures were the
currency bill, the funding bill, and
the bill to reduce taxation. The
currency bill, by enlarging the limit
of banking circulation, satisfied a
local grievance, by giving to the
West and South an opportunity to
establish banks upon the same
footing as In the eastern States. And
yet a little time has proven that there
is no great demand for new banks,
no idle capital to invest in them, and
no need OF more circulation. A
right withheld is grievance, even if
when granted it is not used; and l
trust that this right will be reserved
to the States in the West and South
until they can absorb the circulation
granted by that bill. 1 consider it
fortunate that it is not too rapid alb
sorbed. But this should not be the
pretext for charging the circulation
in other States until we reach specie
payments. In short time / hope
the specie sections Of that bill will be
.ne basis of our whole banking sys-
tenn, needing only one center of re-
demption and prohibition against
the payment of interest on deposits
to make it the best banking system
in the world.
The funding bill, had it been
promptly passed in the form report
to the Senate, would have led to the
conversion of at least five hundred
millions of our six per cent. bonds
into five per cent bonds before the
war in Europe, thus saving $500, ,000,-
900 per annum. But the refusal of
the Senate to grant the Secretary of
the treasury Indispensable facilities
in negotiating the exchange greatly
impaired the bill, and the delay in the
House, and their limitations on the
rate of interest, so crippled the loan
that, even if the war in Europe had
not occurred, its success must have
been partial. The enlargement of
the FIVE per cent. loan to S500,O00,-
600, authorized at this session, may
enable the Secretary of the Treasury
to take advantage of favorable state
of the money market to redeem the
first loan of five twenties with new
bonds, and thus save S5,000,000
annual interest. The funding bill
is now very much as the Senate pass
ed it but without the sections as to
the banks.
TIE bill to reduce taxation was the
largest measure Of relief from taxes
ever passed in single measure By
any legislative body in the history of
mankind. 1t was a repeal of taxes to
thu amount of SS1 1861 Itswept
away the taxes on employments and
sales-the most indefensible and un-
equal of all taxes and it reduced to
one third the tax on income, and to
one half the taxes on such prime
necessaries of life as are imported
from tropical countries. ~Every tax
that was retained was carefully scru-
tinized, and only one of them, the tax
on income, is tax on the property
of the rich, as distinguished from the
consumption of the poor. The pre-
else effect of that act can only be tes-
ted by time. 1t is not yet in full
force. And now we are met, in sea-
son and out of season, with a demand
that the only tax on property, esti-
mated to yield S13 900 900, shall be
repealed. No new facts are given
us; no petitions are presented; no
Official statement is made; no other
tax is complained of; but we are ur-
ged to repeal the only tax that bears
hardly upon each of US. 1 submit
whether it is better to leave well
! anount olona ond haor q, wall 90 Un