The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-11-18
THE Whisky RINGS.
MY. MardnulIle journal. Z

sioY MY. MerCautlle Journal. 80i i9.'
The country may well be surprised at
the extent and success Of the q erations
ot the whisky rings; but the revelations
made In this direction will ha, Q small
effect unless they severely impress on the
public the general facts they illustrate.
They strongly show the difficulty, when
many articles are taxed, Of singing out
one and putting on il tax 30 high that
great profit will result from evasion. The
history Of the internal revenue is full OF
the most extraordinary and even laugha-
Bile devices for making crooked
whisky; and astounding corruptisn has
grown from the heaviness of this tax,
The wholesale makers and dealers, seeing
the position the law placed them in a
dozen years ago, resolved that if this tax
was to be put on it should be in a way
whereby they could profit byit So they
got the day when the tax should take
effect postponed as far as practicable,
defeated all efforts to tax whisky pro-
duced before that date, run their stills
night and day, made every gsllon they
could, and after the time fixed they sold
this whisky at the far higher price ruling
then, Afterward they took possession Of
- q
the internal revenue administration, filed
it with creatures of their own, and made
such quantities that the market price
actually fell below the amount supposed
to be paid as tax. Since that time the
law has been enforced with degrees of
striCtness varying mainly according to
their purposes; and by keeping well ad-
vised of every movement of the officials
which they did not dictate, they have
commonly prohted at the expense Of con-
sumers by each.
The disclosures also show the harm
wrought by fitful instead of periodic
changes in the revenue systems Were
revenue acts passed with an express pro-
vision that they shall cease to have effect
at the end of five or ten years from the
date whereat they take effect, and were
all acts amending the law passed to take
effct on the day when the existing law
expires, business men would know what
the Government would require Of them
for some years ahead, and could make
their arrangements with reasonable con-
fdence instead of the distrust that tricky
legislation has for years past helped to
breed. With such an understanding
statutes could be perfected with delibera-
ton, publicly, and discretion, instead of
with haste, secrecy and error. But under
the present method, whereby law is
changed without much warning at every
session of Congress, business men
anxiously await the action Of that body;
and only when it has adjourned do they
breathe freely and feel that the prospect
is for few months certain. The result
is that the whisky operators have wholly
controlled legislation on their commodity
rising and lowering the tax to suit them
selves, and proiting at the expense Of
their consumers by each change.
The net result of disproportionately
heavy tax, changed and Changeable at the
arbitrary will of the lawmakers, has
been to put revenue legislation in most
important particular under the control Of
the dishonest portion of the trade, and to
enable them to use the Government-the
supposed guardian ofthe peoples rights
in fleeing large part Of those whom
it should protect, This great outcome OF
years of experience practical men and
legislators should grayely heed.