Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-09
REDUCING THE SURPLUS.

REDUCING THE SURPLUS.
Since the President and his party are so
Solicitous to reduce the surplus, why do
they make no response to the general
demand of the people for the repeal
of the war taxes? The internal reve-
nue. taxes are nothing less than war
taxes levied in time of tranquility, and
so long as they are maintained after the
cause for their erection has ceased, they
cross at right angles the solemn compact
between the Federal Government and the
States, for there is no emergency to justify
their levy. We have long and patiently
examined the Democratic organs in the
hope to find some reason advanced for re-
tanning the taxes in any part whatever,
but none is offered beyond that advanced
originally by some Republicans of promi-
nence, that tax upon spirits is in the in
terest OF temperance, an argument that
has been repeatedly shown to be fallacious.
Besides, the devoted advocates of the tenn
perance cause have denounced the tax, and
the temperance conventions have passed
strong resolutions against its maintenance.
The tax upon liquors is very nearly as
direct as one upon incomes, and
touches vastly the greater number of
the people. As the League Bulletin shows
The internal revenue taxes are pre-
eminently taxes upon the poor, for the
poorer classes, and not the rich, consume
the articles which pay this enormous tax
of more than $1OOOOO,OOO annually, con-
shutting one-third part of the whole reve-
nue. of the Government
The truth is the Democracy secretly in
most parts, openly in some quarters, OPP
poses all influences set on foot to secure
removal of the internal revenue taxes. be-
cause such a consummation would be a
death blow to the so-cailed "tariff reform"
schemes of the party. There can be no
excuse for putting wool, for instance, on
the free list in order to cut off income, if
the tax upon liquors and tobacco is abol-
ished and the "$11S,000,0O0 of internal
revenue is shut Off" Moreover, there are
$500 internal revenue officers, and these
the administration has held to the public
teat SO briefly that it cannot make up its
mind to pull them off. The whisky ring
is the close friend Of the Democracy, and
it protests against the removal of the
liquor tax, because it would open manufact-
uring to unrestrained competition.
If the Democracy is sincere in its iterated
declarations about the necessity for reduc-
ing the surplus let it leave the tariff
alone and turn its attention to the re-
Mobilization of the American navy, the
strengthening and multiplying of our
coast Notifications; the greater expendi-
ture OF money for the preservation of in
land navigation-the restoration of the
navigatility of the Sacramento river for
lnstance-and the payment of the national
debt, of which nearly two hundred and
fifty millions falls due prior to the close of
1891. 1t is more than strange as we have
several times remarked, that the Admins
tatlon while pressing the scaling down of
the tariff, should have been SO obIiyious
Of Its duty to buy in the evidences of Fed
cal Indebtedness, as it was hidden to do bv
Congress. The claim of Mr.. Cleveland
and his Secretary of the Treasury was
that the order applied only to the term of
the appropriation bill that contained it.
The present Congress rebuked them for
this false Interpretation, and declared the
order to be continuing Under this ruling
the Treasury has been entirely successful
IN securing the bonds of 1907. (4s) at q
fair advance, and the debt in a single week
has thus been reduced 81, 19S,000, at a cost
of $5,29O,000, which, had the bonds run to
maturity, would have cost the Govern
ment $209S,656 in excess of that sum.
In the preceding week over three and a
half millions of Indebtedness was called
In. 1t has been demonstrated by this ex-
perience, and the freedom with which
bonds offer for surrender at fair rates. that
If the Administration desires it can easily
dispose of the surplus by any one of four
distinct methods, without touching soli-
tary item in a tariff schedule.