Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-07-11

cluding loss of receipts from brandy and
from spirits for use in the arts, may be
credited, the enactment of q bill into law
will leave the Government $4S, 900, 900
short of the sum necessary to the admins
tration of the Government and require
ments of the public debt authorized by
law, including debt incurred by payment
of pensions already allowed, the validity
of which we may not question and the
payment OF which is enjOined upon us in
the oath we have taken to support the
Constitution.
"YOur committee, unwilling to credit a
purpose so lacking in patriotism, so forget
full of the public faith, must believe these
and other provisions of the bill to DO the
result Of
FISCAL DISTEMPER,
hindering Just comprehension and intel
ligent treatment of the subject. In view
of its effect and purpose, so far rs it has a
purpose affecting the revenue of the Gov
ernment, the bill might well be left to that
neglect which, no doubt, it was expected
to receive. But, in the hope that even so
unwise measure may open the way for
the majority of the House to redeem its
pledges by the removal and reduction of
unnecessary and therefore unjust taxes,
your committee report the bill back with
the recommendation that it do not pass.
''The bill changes the duty or rate of
tax on articles yielding less than One-tenth
1917, 600, ,0O0) out of the S1Sl, 900, 600 re-
ceiyed from customs in 1885. 1t increases
those which yielded S11 800, 600 and de-
creases or removes those which yield ST.
OO9, 900 on the basis of imports for 1885. 1t
does not reduce the revenue from customs
s., SO, $40 at all, but does increase it
So, 50O,0 900.
Besides the articles added TO the free
list, the duty or
IMPORT TAX
is reduced on castor beans, castor oil,
starch, iron and steel rails, beams, girders,
lead, and other articles, yielding $500
600 of revenue, and the revenue is estimated
on the bill to fall off in proportion to
the reduced rate of taxation recon-
mend The tax on all clothing, whether
Of silk, linen, cotton, or wOOlen, and other
wOOlen goods, of tin plates, cotton ties
and other articles, yielding as already
stated, S1l, 500, 600, is increased, ana the
revenue is estimated to fall off in still
greater proportion than on articles upon
which the rate of tax is reduced. Appa-
rently the bill was presented in the belief
that a necessity existed for reduction,
not of taxes, but Of revenues, and that the
desired end is reached both through higher
and lower taxes. The estimates, with the
L l.
tiOn, and are entitled to no respect what
ever
The report then proceeds to cOdsider the
Randall bill in detail, and says: The
estimated and intended
EFFECT OF THE BILL
are believed to make plain the methods by
which taxation on the basis Of imports and
revenue receipts in 1885 would yield Sl4,-
OOO. 600 of revenues, and be made to divert
that sum from public purposes to private
gain. The introduction of this bill would
be considered the first avOwed attempt in
our legislative history to empty the Treas
ury by the use of the taxing power.
II this measure may be supposed to have
any purpose, relating TO a system of finance,
il points to direct taxation, for, when
internal revenue taxes are taken off and
custom house taxes are laid on so high
that the people get the burden, the
monopolists the benefit, and the Treasury
nothing, new sources of supply will be In
evitable. The measure is not supposed to
foreshadOw any such system or to do more
than indicate a mind unlearned in methods
and unmindful of results"
In treating of the proposed reduction and
removal of the internal revenue taxes Mr..
Morrison says they are the most lightly
borne and cannot be relinquished in the
face of the S4, 600, 900, 900 war debt yet un-
Maid. The report then says: This we do
know-that of the 2S, 900, ,O09 people who
do something, some work Orare engaged in
painful pursuits-10, 900, 600 of these earn
on the average, not more than $500 q year,
which is necessarily consumed in means OF
subsistence, while substantially the savings
90 to the other One-tenth. Ard now we are
OVeItaken by and arc in tho nilst OF IN
dustrial paralysis A million of worEmen
are idle for want of work TO do, and capital
in still greater proportion than unemploy-
ed labor lies died OF unproductive. Our
hills and mountains are full of mineral
wealth. Millions of acres of unproductive
| lands wait for the plOws. Homes for the
homeless millions are to be had for the tax
ing. Favored with plentiful harvests, hlest
with health, the only plague that aftiictS
| US is idleness. What we need Is
PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT.
There is an apparent puny effort in the bill,
through an increase of taxation, TO shut
out goods from abroad that they may be
made at home. If this effort was 80 sue.
cessful rs to prevent the importation Of al
manufactures we would have direct taxa
tion and three-quarters of million men
vet unemployed Their profitable employ
ment amounts to nearly the difference be
tween what is popularity known as good and
hard times. The removal of the tObaccC
tax will furnish no new employment
Neither its smoke nor juice will turn Q
wheel, shaft OF spindle. Wood, wool
hemp, salt, cheap food for toiling men liz
AT the foundation of great and successful
( industries. To free these from taxation
will cheaper production without lowering
the price of labor, and our idle men may
thus be enabled to make something whiel
may be sold proftably abroad, and witt