River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-12-18

TO 1874, INCLUSIVE.
Fiscal year Aggrete pound al
ended June 80. Pounds. Cost At place place 0
OF shipment Of shipt.
1871 S1,,992,O4s $4,000, s69 pa cents.
1872 ........ .2qS s05, 946 81 942. 225 1863 -
1878 :. ...... .2g3 zb7.27I 44,lo9.6 ell 1900 :"
Is74.......... 2s5,I lisp 5504s,967 1884 g
-Tea----Ay Cost per
Fiscal year Aggre'te pound a
e.. ed June 30 Pounds. Cost at place place o (
Is7I......... 51.36l,9I9 sI7.25l,6l7 $500 cents.
1872. 600. 6S, sli,O03 22943.A75 $500 .
1873 ........... 64,s15, 80 24.46o,l7O 5l,4 a"
1874. .......... 55,sil ,605 2l,li2,2A 1872 "
This record of foreign prices for coffee tends
strongly 10 the conclusion. making due allow
ance for the effect of short crops on prices.
that the duty repealed by the act of 1872 was
added To the selling price abroad. with no ad-
vantage to consumers here. while the country,
"a a whole has paid more than before for the
entire stock. The repeal of the duty ON tea
caused little or no reduction of prices to con-
sumers here but an increase of prices abroad.
The circumstances under which duties on
imports are collected are such as to bring into
play the most powerful forces of self
interest The contest between reg .lar i'm
porters for precedence IN the market,
and, therefore. for success on the one hand,
as against failure on the other, often turns
upon very small distinctions, apparently of lit
tie consequence at the moment. slight diff
ference in the rate of duty paid III one case.
less than another. often becomes of the great
est practical importance to the importer Ii
Is somestmes said that the interest of the
merchant to evade the duty IL not q eat enough
&c induce the attempt; but experience has
shown that none other than the most rigorous
enforcement of law. aud the power to infiict
severe penalties suffice to protect the interest
of the Government and Z" meet the efforts
constantly made for evasion Of the duties
ag.f oil
countries where customs duties are imposed
have been uniformly and necessarily severe,
declaring forfeiture and penalty az the indis-
pensable condition of the violation of revenue
laws. The history of Legislation in this re
spect in Europe is unbroken. A series of pre-
ventiye and penal acts of the most DECISIVE
character may be found everywhere, whatever
NAV be the recent relaxation of the rates of
duty or the increase of the list of articles free
of duty In the United States, the rates of
duty for some years past have been high,
much higher than are imposed IN most other
merchandise is large and the market eager and
undiscriminating, the quantity taken even at
high cost being greater in proportion to the
population than in any foreign country lnl-
porting from other countries.
At the last session of Congress measures
were proposed, and. in part, enacted, looking
to the relief of merchants and others who com
planned of what they claimed to be unneces-
sary severity of the revenue laws, imposing
penalty and forfeiture for violation, thereof.
Whatever errors may have existed IN the adj
ministratiOn of these laws. or whatever ex-
treme steps may have Oceasioned the leSisla-
ton of the last session. it is still true that the
penal provisions, in most important particu-
lars. were no more stringent than those exist
ing since the early history of the country.
The earlier acts relating to duties on inn
ports, perhaps, imposed the severest penalties
known to our statutes, and these laws remain
ed almost without material modification III this
respect until the last session of Congress- but
their administration modified, by the pow
er of remission conferred upon the Secretary.
so far as to rarely involve forfeiture of vessels
or the imposition of the EXTREMIST penalties
Ii was the conspicuous character of the penal
ties recently imposed that excited pubic at
tention and induced the mod ticatlOns emDod-
led in the act of the last session.
In the light of tie experience OF tins and
other countries IL the collection of duties ON
imports, it must be considered that any mate
rial change in the policy or manner of protect
ing the revenues ly the imposition of penal
ties and forfeitures is necessarily tentative. Ii
is absolutely indif pensable that the revenues
shall be collected, and in their collection the
interests of the government and the honest
importer are the same. Both require that
whatever the law declares to be the rate OF
amount of duty shall be equally and lniieMbly
enforced Evasio - of an apparently small
proportion of these duties become lie means
of serious injury, if not rum, to the honest
merchant whose business is undermined by
such competition and often result IN great
loss of revenue. While it is not yet demon
strable that the present tendency to decline in
revenue from customs is sensibly influenced
by any other cause than the decline of impor-
tatines there e grave reasons for apprehend-
ing serious results from any Legislation de-
priving the government of the most efficient
4 e H. 20
infiict the seyerest penalties in extreme cases.
1t cannot be doubted that the legislation OF
the last session of Congress has created a
popular belief that smuggling Is less hazard
GUS and violations and evasions of the law
less dangerous, than formerly, and it is NOT
difficult to see to what results such belief Ii
likely to lead
The sum placed at the disposal of the Sec
retaTy, ty the act of the last session of Con
gress. is Inadequate for furnishing compensa
ton for the detection of frauds upon the
revenue. The last section of that act makes
it the duty of the Secretary to make compen
sation to persons who would. under former
laws. have been entitled to share in the dis
trihntiola of f0Tfeftures, and, under THIS proVIs
ion, large proportion of the sum placed at
the disposal of the Score tary by that act be
came unavailable for use in cases of future
violations of the law.
The decline of receipts from customs is sug-
gestive of the Importance of reducing the
aggregate expenses of collection. and the at
tenton of the Department has recently been
given to this subject in a way that has already
produced some favorable results, and still
further reduction will be accomplished. 1t liz,
however impracticable to make such reduction
exactly. or even approximately, proT ortionate
to the falling off IN receipts, since cost of
maintaining the minimum organ ations at
any given port Is the principal part IF the ex-
pense and this cannot be avoided, or dlmin-
4 of lraa nf
revenue at such port.
RECEIPTS PROM INTERNAL REVENUE.
The report of the Commi ssioner of Internal
Revenue presents a satisfactory exhibit Oh the
revenues in charge of that bureau.
The decrease from each source of internal
revenue for the year ending June 30, 1874, a.
compared with the fiscal year 1873, appears
from the following statement
Sources. 1873. 1874. Decrease.
Spirits O99 s7I IS $40 444 0s9 IS S2655, 2sl 93
Tobacco 1885 3O3 90 Sl,24l,S75 60 l,l45.42l AZ
Fer. Hq'rs. 9,s2I,937 81 9,sO4,6I9 Y 2o,25S IL
bankers s,77IOsl 46 1881, 81 sss,s7J 70
Penal's, &c 46I, G53 0j 364, 2I6 "a 97,436 y
"a. stamps 7,7a2,5T6 81 6,1s6.s4t Ga l,5G5,532 p
Back taxes
pTdiaws. G,s2e. 7S2 90 764. $50 u 5,56I,9 Sc
Total 114O75, 456 os 1O2,e44, TAG 9s ,4sO7O 10
The decrease in the receipts from spirits is
due 70 the small production of brandy in 1874,
in consequence of the partial failure of the
fruit crop in 1873: the earlier collection of
special taxes in 1874 than in 1873; the reduc
ton in the value of warehouse, rectihers. and
dealers stamps by act Of June 6. 1872. which
reduction operated during the whole of the
fiscal year 1874 Int during only eleven months
Of 1878: and the smaller collections from re-
pealed taxes relating to spirits in 1874 than in
1873.