Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-04-12
Speech of Mr.. Milliken
Is OPPOSITION TO THE WHIsKEY BILL
SOUND ARGUMENTS.

SOUND ARGUMENTS.
The Congressional Record of the 9Th inst
contains a speech delivered by Hon. s. l.
Milliken in the House of Representative.
March 2Gth. The bill to extend the time
for the payment of the tax on distilled spirit:
now in warehouses was under consideration
in committee of the whole. Mr.. Milliker
said:
MK. CHAIRMAN: / have been much graft.
fed in listening to the remarks of the distin-
guished gentleman from New York Mr.
/ Hewitt. He says he does not desire to have
tar imposed upon immortality. | do; for
am sure that the democratic party will then
be ar at least its full share of the burdens OF
taxation.
But what has particularly pleased me in the
gentleman's remarks has been their frank
ness Unlike others who have advocated
this bill and who claim that its opponents
favor the repeal of the whiskey tax, he states
step to repeal He desires that the whiskey
tax shall be abolished and with that end in
view as his ultimate object he urges the pas
sage of this bill. This is logical position
to occupy believe that if this bill becomes
1 a law il will be found to have been but the
| entering wedge to the repeal of all law i'm
posing taxes upon whiskey. 1t extends the
time OF the payment of about $40, ,000. 900 due
from the distillers and whiskey owners to the
Government two wears. If this is done the
whiskey interest, relieved of its present en-
| barrassment and reassured by the action of
Congress, will continue to increase its sur
plus. The seventy millions will become one
hundred millions. Thus re-enforced, and
81. =
Congress demanding repeal where it now
asks only extension Of time, and perhaps re-
mission of taxes already due. The gentle
man from New York says he does not care if
these taxes are never paid He more than
intimates that he does not think they will be.
incline TO belive that his intimation will be-
| cone a correct prediction if this bill shall
| become a law.
! desire to say to the gentleman from Ken
lucky, who declared that the opponents of
this bill were friends to the repeal of the
whskey tax and that perhaps was one of
them, that will never vote for the repeal of
that tax so long the government has to
raise revenue to pay its debts and meet its
expenditures. | say this not as temperance
man. Ii is not necessary to say it as such.
would continue this tax as wise and patriotic
method of raising revenue, for if any method
of raising a revenue is better than all others
it is that which makes the burden Of taxation
bear most lightly upon the people. Such
certainly is the whiskey tax. 1t is levied
upon a harmful luxury. No man need bear
| its burden. Ii touches not any necessity of
life that goes in over the threshold of the
poor or enters by the portals of the rich. He
alone pays il VINO chooses to do SO, and it is
levied upon that which is the producer of
harm. | believe to repeal this tax would be
worse than throwi ing the monev it produces
into the sea, for | am satisfied that its re-
strictive power upon the sale of intoxicants
saves directly and indirectly more to the
people than the whole value of the tax.
Mr.. VI. then proceeded to discuss the prop
ostions to abolish the entire internal revenue
tax which he opposed, and then took up and
discussed the various propositions argued by
tho friends of the whiskey bill. We quote
again from the Record:
But let US see what this bill means as a
business proposition. 1t amounts simply to
this 1t proposes that the govern ment shall
loan to the owners of whiskey in bond S7O,-
600 900 on two years time at a per cent in
terest. That the government is the creditor
of the whiskey owner; that this seventy mil
lions will soon become due to the government
that he asks only an extension of the time of
payment changes not the nature of the prop
osition. If l owe my neighbor 81 200, due
at any future specified time, the day when the
| debt natures the thousand dollars is his If
consent to extend the time of payment that
constitutes new loan which he is under no
more legal or moral obligation to make than
If no previous transaction had existed be-
tween us.
The day when this whiskey tax becomes
due it will belong to the government. 1t
should then be in the treasury. To extend
the time of payment two years would be as
complete loan to the whiskey owners, as if
the money were taken out of the treasury
and loaned to them directly to enable them
to carry their stock. as this extension of the
time Of payment is proposed to do. Nov,
what are the reasons urged why the govern
ment should mske this great loan to the whis-
key-owners? We are told that the situation
is this: that the whiskey-msn have produced
their commodity in large excess of the de-
mands of consumption; that to force it upon
the market will involve them in great loss
and some of them in bankruptcy; they
therefore petition the government to come to
their rescue and save them from the legitimate
consequences of their own inprovidence.
| To say nothing of the good or harm of the
whiskey business. how do these parties differ
7
/ foresight. or overseeing svarice have led
them into distress? If this bill is to become
Law, why should not the shipbuilding inter-
/ est. so often depressed. come to Congress in
the day of its disaster for help? Why should
not the farmer when his crops are short and
bring him insufficient returns. the merchant
when he is forced to sell upon a declining
market and cannot meet his paper at maturi-
". the manufacturer when low prices and
dull demand stop his spindles and put out the
fires in his furnaces, seek relief from
the government treasury? But il is
said that the banks hold large amount
Of this whiskey as collateral security
and that if the tax is demanded when due
| they will be sufferers. Is whiskey the only
security which banks have held by which
| they have suffered or are likely te sntfer? l
think not A bank in my own town will be
glad to have the Government make good
quite large investment in railroad bonds
and | think that in all sections of the couu-
try national banks. savings institutions. in
dividual investors. and speculators of every
class NAV be found who would like to have
the Government come to their rescue and
save them from the consequences of their
improvident ventures. Why not they as
well as the whiskey dealers? Indeed this
bill as q precedent is full of mischief. II
/ l.,