The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-12-01
THE BLAINE BOOM.

mistaken. While he has kept himself fol
months past closely secluded At his home
in Maine, diligently occupied, 1t has beer
given out In writing hook, it is cviden
he mas not failed to give large portion o
! his thought and attention ut The same TIME
to the business of studying up the means
of i.augurating II powerful boom IN be
half Of his candidacy for the Presidency
At length his cogitatiOns have irucniicc
and ripencd, and the result is given to the
world
Ia the Philadelphia Press of Nov, 29tb
Mr.. Blaine publishes letter upon the ba
SIS of which he evidently proposes to pros
ecute his presidential campaign, and which
proposes a financial scheme OF the highest
importance 10 the states and the nation
Assuming that the most difficult problem
u. present IN our national finances is how
to reduce revenue so rs to AVOID surplus,
or, Il surplus being unavoidable, what 70
do witb.it, Mr. Blame comes with grand
patent solution ofthe problem. The Penn
sylvania republicans, it will be remember
ed, in their last state convention, under
took to solve the problem by resolution
advocating the division ofthe surplus rev.
cnue among the states. Mr. Blaine
objects to this scheme for three
reasons: |. the amount from year
to year IS too uncertain; 2 II would impose
upon our senators and representatives in
Congress divided interest--frst to make
the revenue AS large as possible, and sec
ondIy, to make the appropriations as
small as possible, to leave more tor the
states and 3, Mr. Blaine objects to con.
tinued redundancy of the national income
as opposed to sound Administrative wisdom.
How to reduce the revenue at once, and
cheaply and easily, at the same time re-
lieving the government of its embarrass.
m ent and doing the greatest possible good
to the states and the people, says Mr..
Blame, is to turn orer the rhisky tar to the
states. The tax now amounts TO $3.50, OOO,-
600 year. Divide this amount among
the states according to population, it
would give nearly every state sufficient
revenue to abolish all other taxes for state
support. The proportion of Illinois would
be IS ,2SG 600, which is considerably larger
than our present annual revenue for all
state purposes. And having unfolded this
grand idea, MIR. Blaine adds: The ma
chinery OF collection Is today in complete
operation A bill Of ten lines could direct
the Secretary OF the Treasury to pay the
whole of it, less the small expense of col
lection, to the States and Territories IN the
proportion OF their population, and to con
tnue it permanently as a part of their reg
ular annual revenues.
The more | have reflected upon It the
more evident 1t has become to my mind
that it is wiser to tax whisky than to tax
farms, and homcs,eads, and shops, and that
it would be an act of incalculable folly to
remit the $50 100000 instead of giving !, TO
the States for the relief of oppressive local
taxation. trust have made the difference
between this proposition and the pennsyl-
vania proposition sufficiently PLAIN. The
one which have suggested gives the rev
cnue from specific tax wholly 10 the
States, and does not depend upon chance
surplus or an accidental remainder in the
National Treasury. 1t makes the tax on
sprituous aud malt liquors permanent
resource to ali the States, enabling them
thereby definitely to readjust and reduce
their own taxation. Each State could wisely
use It's share according to It's necessities. "
or course humble scrbes like ourelves
cannot undertake, on the spur Of the me-
ment, to enter upon anything like an anal.
ysls or lucid discussion of such a scheme.
AT first blush, 1t looks to us as the Gun
ningest and ut the same time mos, cIgan-
tic scheme of Capitalization yet proposed
If the national government Is to take upon
itself the function of providing revenue
for the state governments, how long will
ii be before 1t Will clam the right to super
intend the expenditure of that revenue, and
what use, upon the whole, Will there be Tor
State legislatures anyhow? John a. Lo-
gan proposed to turn the whisky tax into
a grand national education fund The
scheme didn't seem to take very well. This
Blaine plan Is certainly vastly more com
specious and practical Will
it find greater favor?
Yet isn't IN gorgeousiy cheeky, never
theless, Tor jim Blame, of the state OF
Maine, TO ask the general government to
pay over to his state enough OF the pro-
ceeds of the whisky tax to run its local
government, while the state itself makes ii
a crime for its people TO pay cent Of that
tax or 10 make gallon of he whisky or
rum upon which II is leviede
TEE UTICA BRIDGE.
Mr.. Ed. c. Lewis, who has been not a
little ccnsurcd for his action No sun.rvisor