The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-08-14
EDITORIAL MATTER
pm rrl.weekly issues Of Monday and FRIDAY
Mississippi's Federal Taxes.

places the amount collected IRON th'
people of Mississippi for the pas
wear, at S50,000 in round numbers
! This is clearlya blunder, gross ant
inexcusable, for we have it on th'
authority OF a very eminent politica
economist in this city, and recent,
published here for the edifcation O.
! the world, that the people of Mis-
! sissippi pay annually two or thret
millions of dollars in Internal Rev
enue taxes. Mr.. Evans will.of course
correct his figures. = pachsburS
Herald.
The Herald must not fall into the
error of crediting the actual payment
of Internal Revenue upon liquor to
the manufacturer instead of the con
sumer. The distilers of the city o1
Peoria Illinois hand over to the COLI
lector more money in payment OF
taxes upon whisky than is received
from that source in any other one
place in the Union, but it is not their
money: They simply make the
whisky, have it guaged and turn 1t
over to the U. S. Storekeeper, and
thence forward have no more right
to touch it or draw a single drop
from barrel than any outsider un'
til it is withdrawn from "bond' by
pa, ment of Revenue taxes.
When a distiller makes q sale OF,
say o hundred barrels, or 4,0OO gall
Ions. he may give his customer ninety
days credit on the liquor but he re
qulres him to "plank down" the
amount of the taxes, ninety cents on
every gallon, $4,000, and takes this
money around to the collector, OBJ
tains his receipt for the taxes and an
order for the warehouseman to roll
him out the barrels aud they are
shipped to the dealer or consumer
who furnishes the tax money.
Now the City of Aberdeen in her
retail and iobing trade handles about
500 barrels of liquor per annum, and
therefore her dealers pay to the
Government $4,000 in Internal
Revenue taxes, more than a third of
all reported as collected in Mlssis-
sippi, though the actual transfer OF
the money sent from here goes on
the Collectors books in otherStates.
We think it quite likely that Vicks'
burg with her extensive river trade
handles fully 5000 barrels OF liquor
every year, and if this is so, her deal
ers send off in addition to the distil-
lery value of the goods, fully S1OS,.
600 in tax money TO be credited else
where; and as it is with liquor so it
is with tobacco, except that the con-
sumption of the latter article is much
greater and more general in its vari'
GUS shapes, than liquor
Internal Revenue taxes like custom
house duties are necessarily credited
on the Treasury ledgers to the cities
where collected, and to the agent
who pays them, whether he be dis
tiller OF importer, and not to the
middle man elsewhere who buys at
wholesale or the quiet citizen who
consumes the goods. For our part
we have not the least doubt but that
"two OF three millions of dollars 60
forward from Mississippi every year
to pay the Internal Revenue duties
upon the liquors, tobaccos, etc.,
handled by her merchantn-in their
trade with the people of this and
neighboring States.
Picking up the report OF the
Bureau OF Statistics for 1877, because
that volume happened to be handy,
we see that the entire collections of
custom house duties in our State for
that year amounted to but 1886.
This was collected at the mouth of
Pearl river upon railroad iron and
fruit, landed there we presume as a
matter of convenience for transpor-
ton on the Mobile & New Orleans
railroad. Now is there any man who
doubts that more money than that is
paid by every little village in the
State on imported goods, at the Gus
Houses of New York and New Or
leans, to be credited to the ports
where the foreign freight was landed?
The consumption of taxed goods,
whether assessed for Internal Rev.
enue or Import duties, is very nearly
uniform throughout the Union, and
inasmuch as the consumers pay the
taxes, fair estimate of Mississippis
contribution to the revenue may be
obtained by ascertaining the ratio of
Federal taxation to population and
crediting our people with their per
capita share.
Hon las T. Harrison. of Colum.