The daily gazette., 1882-07-20
DOES REDUCTION REDUCEq
A Bnl That xtedaees Taxatlon in EFaanen
That VIII Least be Felt by the People,


over So 900, 900 annually, and the estimate
for the next year is about five millions and
a quarter. ! wish the Senate to note that
there is not to be the diminution of one
farthing in the expense of collecting the
internal revenue, by the abolition of any OF
the taxes proposed. There is not to be one
clerk the less there is not to be one dollar
Of cost the less. The cumbersome, inquisi-
torial, expensive machinery of the Bureau of
Internal Revenue stands undiminished by
the proposition now before the Senate.
There is the fact not one official the less,
not one dollar the less salary, not saving
in any way, not an amendment, as | said, of
those inquisitorial, un-American features Of
the excise law, which will be ALWAYS stand
ing objections to 1.-THE right OF the tax
gatherer to invade the place Of business of
the citizen whenever and wherever he
pleases, by night or day. OF these excise
taxes, which so often have had the history
Of their enforcement written In blood, " hich
have frequently been executed at the cost Of
the lives of innocent men, not one of those
features, not one of those objections is IN
any degree ameliorated or lessened by the
bill now before us.
There are also some very unimpoftant di-
munitions in the tax for licenses for certain
dealers in manufactured tobacco. There is
no change whatever in the regulations or
their stringeney, but simply diminishing the
cost of the annual license. That is all that
is found there. That is small relief, and for
such relief no doubt we will have the thanks
of very limited body of our citizens.
There is also diminution in the tax on
cigars from So to 81 thousand, a difference of
So a thousand. To the consumer ofeigars, who
buys them singly or in small numbers,
apprehend that the diminution will prove
very immaterial, for, as said before, there
are reductions to the consumer which
are so small that we have no coin to express
their value, and this is one of them. 81
thousand is the fifth of a cent apiece, and
while there may be upon wholesale prices
result in a diminution of 33 per cent. it is so
laid upon these articles that doubt the re-
lief TO those who are the actual consumers
of tobacco, and therefore we will have
simply diminution of the revenue Without
practical diminution of the burden upon
the consumers of the commodity.
now pass from the internal tax to the
| external or tariff taxes, and will consider for
moment what that amounts to. The first
OF these is the reduction, as it is called, of
| the tariff on sugar. On March g. 1873, an
increase of % per cent. al valorem was en-
acted upon the descriptions of sugars,
melada, molasses, and the like, embraced
| In this bill. 1t Is now proposed to repeal
| that 25 per cent. advance, but while it
nominally takes from the duty a subsequent
| clause restores it. The duties of our present
| tariff upon sugar are very high, complicated
and obscure. They are neither ad yalorem,
nor are they specific They are nominally
| specific, but testing that specific duty by the
Dutch standard of color, they virtually be-
4 come ad valorem 1t is an obscure, compli-
Gated and impraeticable tariff It has led
| to litiga tion of most disastrous character
to importers, and ultimately to the public
| Treasury. 1t has led to an illegal imposi-
| ton by the former Secretary OF the Treasury
of the test which is sought by this bill with
his favor and influence now to make lawful
and that is the test for obtaining the sac
charine strength as the basis for taxation,
virtually disregarding the standard of color
which is specified in the present tariff law.
The bill proposes to give discretion to
the Secretary of the Treasury in the em-
ployment of the polariscopic test to ascer-
tain the saccharine strength, which contains
as fear too wide discretion for public
safety Every one knows that as a CONNER
cial fact the polariscope is used by buyers
and sellers of sugar everywhere, but every
one also knows that in determining the sac
charine strength no two tests by the polari-
| scope are found often to agree 1t is per-
fectly easy for the examiner at the custom
house by using polariscope in which his
eve may detect crystals of certain sac
charine strength to place sugar above or
below a given number in the Dutch standard
of color and consequent rate of duty. He
may either make it pay ~ cents duty per
pound or he may make it pay 215 cents, and
the difference is ruin to the owner or an
enormous and unjust advantage to the pur-
chaser.
As a practical fact merchants do employ
the polariscope in their purchases and sales
of sugar. As practical fact, those tests
seldom agree and then an accommodation
takes place by way of bargain and arrange
ment between the buyer and seller, which
enables something like justice, with
certainly voluntary bargain; but what is to
become of the importer who can have no
test of his own to set up against the Govern
ment examination and who is bound by it.,
although after he has paid that duty the
polariscope In other hands may disclose a
wholly inferior strength of the saecharine
CRYSTALS, and he may have been taxed to
death by the error or by the wfllful act of
the Government agent over whose action he
has no control and from whose decision he
has practically no appeal
Here is commodity of universal con-
sumption, that paid last year into the Treas
ury S47 ,000. 600 revenue. Its proportions
are vast. Every change in our sugar tariff
has wrought change in our trade with
foreign countries. The examination of the
subject has been most painstaking, able and
profound Courts have sat upon these ques-
lions experts have been examined under
oath every thing has heen done; and yet
you find the question SO filled with doubt,
so surrounded by variant opinions, that the
House of Representatives wrestling with the
question in their Committee on Ways and
Means for the last six years have been unable
UP to this time to present a measure accept
able and admittedly just upon all sides.
The conflict of interests is violent; it has
proven so far to be almost incapable of re
tonciliantion and here when we have not
before the Senate or its committees one line
of testimony, when we have not the word oi
| single witliess, we are called upon by this
bill, In July weather, suddenly to decide
upon question SO fraught with importance
to our native producers, to our importers
and reiiners, and to the Treasury Of the
country
It so happens that scarcely have the per-
sonal acquaintance of those who are en-
gagged In the growth orthe manufacture and
refining of sugars, but am conscious oil the
ruin which may be inflicted upon the
grower, upon the importer, upon the man
, ufacturer, by dealing hastily with such u
, question. Go over to the city of Baltimore
and see there the sugar reineries on the
f most extensive and admirable scale once
operated with abundance of capital, with
ample intelligence, with long experience in
. the trade, and find those grand buildings
empty and deserted the business broken up