Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-06-26
ABOLISH THE INTERNAL REvE-
NUE. SYSTEM.
A Brief but Powerful speech by the
HOP. 3. 3. Cox.

Congressional Record, June 10.
/ beg the attention of members to say
that enough has been developed, owing to
the unfortunate colloquy that has taken
place, to show honest people who are
watching our proceedings with more care
for our own honor than we seem to be
doing. say the revelations which have
been made in connection with the internal
revenue system have begotten much sus-
picion. Whether well or i'll founded, DO
not say; but it calls for very careful in
vestigation. The result will be, and not
very remote either, that the whole internal
revenue system will be blotted out. 1t
ought to be.
believe If the tariff we're properly ar
ranged, II the number Of articles upon
which duties are levied was cut down from
more than 2, 900 to some smaller number,
aud with revenue qualities, 1t would not re-
quire a commission to frame tariff that
would yield revenue enough to pay all the
expenditures of frugal government.
would hail the day when this internal reve-
nue. system shall be abolished, and our rev.
enue purposes, neither political, partisan
nor protective.
We have had it now twenty years. 1t was
q war measure. 1t has done its work. 1t is
past its usefulness. l know the effect OF 1t
in my own State. You gentlemen who favor
free ballot and an honest count perhaps
do not know how the internal revenue OIL
GERS, the storekeepers, the gaugers, and all
of the employees of that bureau, force by
their espionage and terrorism the free ballot,
It is a power which l could, had time, dis
play here in its enermity, and from pub
lished and notorious facts.
1t is an expensive system. 1t is costly In
country and city. Go to North Carolina.
defy any man of common sense to tell me
that the system in North Carolina paws
either morally or economically. Take the
several districts of North Carolina as you
find them in the report OF the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue. Take its Sixth Dis
trict. You will find that 1t costs to collect
$50 ga of revenue over 1914, Ais. 1t is
over 81 per cent. for the cost OF collection.
Yet that same State, quiet and orderly as
it is, they collect their State taxes for
per cent, or SCI. 5lS as the cost Of collecting
$3.50, 1858.
This expensive system does invade the
towns and the cities. As / said, it forces
the ballots. 1t uses spies and informers-
persons of bad fame throughout all history.
or all those which history hands down as
most execrable are the spies and Informers.
They are The voluntary witnesses for con-
sideration, which the amendment OF the
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. White)
would cut up by the roots.
With permission l quote the description
of the detested informer given by the Irish
orator Curran. 1t was familiar to our school
boys. 1t ought to direct US on this amend
ment:
In a case of life-of honor and of infamY-to
credit vile informer, the perjurer of an hun
dred oaths, wretch whom pride, honor or re-
ligion could not bind? The forsaken prosti-
tute of every vice calls upon you with one
breath to blast the memory of the dead and to
blight the character of the living He measures
his value by the collins of his victims; and in
the field of evidence appreciates his fame as
the Indian warrior does in fight, by the number
of scalps with which he can swell his triumphs.
He calls on you by the solemn league of eter-
nal justice to audit the purity Of a conscience
washed in his own atrocities He has promised
and betrayed; he has sworn and forsworn; and
whether his soul shall go to heaven or hell, he
seems altogether Indifferent, for he tells you
he has established an interest in EACH
make this speech now not for the pur-
pose or with the expectation that any spe-
cial reform will be made in this bill. But
we cannot fail to see that a reform must
commence some time and somewhere. This
whisky stencil, which has been ventilated
in this House, may be the means, under
Providence, OF so arranging parties In the
next election that we will tear up this inter-
nal revenue system by the roots.