The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-02-21
TARIFF AND INTERNAL REVENUE.

chances of passage are.
In the report accompanying the
Covles bill the majority of the COM
mittee Oh appropriations explains
that sections l and 2 repeal all in
ternal taxes after June 3Oth, 1889,
on cigars, cheroots and cigarettes,
snuff, manufactured tobacco, the
special tax on manufacturers of to-
bacco, dealers in leaf tobacco, and
on pedlers of tobacco. The amount
of revenue received ssfrom these
sources during the fiscal year ended
June 80, 1888, was S3O,662,431.
The enactment of the bill would re-
duce the estimated surplus for the
fiscal year 1890, from S53,432, 511
TO $22,755, 165, a result-whether
viewed from the standpoint of an
excessive revenue or as a relief for
unnecessary taxation upon the peo-
ple-most desirable.
The report says: The internal
revenue taxes levied because Of the
necessities of war have heretofore
been all removed from capital and
from all manufactured articles, leav-
ing the products of agriculture to
bear all the burdens of the internal
tax system. The taxes proposed TO
be repealed by the bill reported are
particularly oppressive on the far
mer, both in the amount of tax lev
led against his product as well as in
the vexatious manner of its collec-
ton.
There is no longer, in the opinion
of the committee, any justification
for the continuance of these taxes.
There are no bonds which are due
and payable at par at the option of
the government. Under existing
eouditionsEssbonds will have to be
purchased at a high premium in the
market with the surplus revenue or
else the accumulation of money in
the treasury will result detrimental
~ to the commercial interests of the
country. The committee believes
that the bill furnishes a practical
and simple means of reducing the
surplus revenue, as it is evidently
impossible at. this late day of the
prssent Cong ress to pass any bill
involving a complete revision of our
whole revenue system. The con-
Guiding portion of the report is de-
voted entirely to an analysis of the
bill.
But there are two other bills
which have also been reported-one
the minority report of the Appropri-
atoms committee and one (the Nc
MILAN bilD by Mr.. Breckenridge
from the Ways and Means commit
tee.
The minority report presented by
Mr.. Forney is confined to a simple
recommendation looking to the pass
age of substitute bill made up of
the sections of the original Cowles
bill repeating the taxes on chewing
and smoking tobacco and snuff. all
special taxes on manufacturers and
dealers in leaf tobacco, and fixing at
u aud 81 the annual tax on cigar
manufacturers and dealers in tobac-
% respectively. All of the sections
Of the Cowles bill relating to the adj
ADMINISTRATION of the internal revenue
laws are excluded.
The bill reported by Mr.. Breck-
saridge is a compromise measure
providing for free wool, free tin
plate, the repeal of the tobacco tax,
and the reduction of duty on woolens
and equalization of wooden and
vorsted duties, provided in the Mills
bill. The two measures are reported
With the sanction of all the Demo-
cratic members, and are given equal
standing, except that the Mcmillan
bill will go first on the calendar.
The House may choose between The
swo.
The Mcmillan bill, alluded to, is
similar to the Mills bill, with the
cotton, metal, and chemical sched-s
sles left out, except that part of the
metal schedule which provides for
Tree tin-plate, free cotton ties, and
9eduoed duties on structural iron
pnd steel rails, and retaining the in
berual revenue provisions. It is es-
emated to reduce the revenue $92.-
Doc, 900 per annum.
The issue raised by the WAYS and |