Huntsville gazette., 1893-06-17
A TROUBLESOME PROBLEM.
Ihe Besetting Difficulties of the Demo-
cratic Administration.

cratic Administration.
Democratic leaders are as sorely trou-
bled to know what to do for revenue as
as they are over the currency situation.
They are pledged to reduce the tariff,
with such publicity and solemnity that
they cannot wholly evade it. That they
will fulfill the demands of their own
platform, and destroy utterly the pro-
tective system which they denounced
as fraudulent" and Unconstitutional /"
nobody either within or without the
democratic party believes. But to leave
the tariff altogether untouched would
be equally disastrous to them. Some
changes they have to accomplish; Just
what and in what direction their ex-
perts are now laboring to determine
But these, whatever they may be, will
necessarily involve reduction of reve-
nue.. And the treasury needs to find
new sources of income rather than to
sacrifice any Of the old That is the
troublesome problem, toward whose
solution the administration tries to feel
its way by an occasional cautious sug-
gestion in the way of a financial policy,
TO see how it will take with the people.
There are only three possibilities
mentioned thus far, of which one seems
to have been discarded as unavailable
This is the reimposition Of taxes on tea,
sugar, coffee and few other articles of
general consumption. A handsome reve-
nue. could be produced in this way, and
it is in harmony with the English sys-
~, IL u
apparently desires to follow at re-
spectful distance. But it would be
dangerously unpopular. The people OF
this country have a notion that they
like "a free breakfast table" And the
party does not dare risk the adverse
vote which would probably follow the
raising Of the prices Of these common
est necessaries of life to something like
the figures at which they stood during
the war.
The next, and apparently the most
favored expedient at present, is the
levying of an income tax. Democratic
organs are discussing it tentatively,
and it is much applauded at the south
and by the more ignorant class Of
tion upon stale prejudice, and advance
the theory that an income tax will
force men to contribute to the support
of the government in proportion to
their means. Those who know any
thing about it know better. They are
aware that an income tax is inquisi-
torial unequal and unjust; that it
ff
moderate means, and allows the very
rich to escape almost as readily as the
very poor. The records of other coun-
tries, our own experience during the
civil war, aud the failure of the per-
sonal property tax to reach the for
tunes Of millionaires in the great
money centers afford proof. The ex-
perience of Great Britain is much
quoted: but Great Britain is country
of social classes where man will pay
willingly to the government as an ac-
acknowledgement of the distinction of So
cial rank And even in that country of
immense fortunes and large incomes,
the return from the income tax is a
beggarly resource. If democrats lean
on it in this country, they are likely to
find out their blunder as well as to get
themselves thoroughly detested.
The last device mentioned, whose
boldness shows the straits to which the
party has been reduced, if that of direct
taxation. If, says one Of the most prom
inent democratic journals, the state can
levy direct taxes on real estate and per-
sonal property, and collect them
through local agents, why cannot the
general government levy precisely the
same taxes for its support, and collect
them through the agency of the state?
Perhaps it can, but we do not think
the experiment likely to be tried. In
deed. a people who have been relieved
from all taxation in the past, who have
supplied to the public treasury enough
money to support the government
handsomely and pay off colossal debt,
without feeling the burden in any
way, and with the Consciousness that
they were at the same time helping to
build up prosperous industries of their
own, are not likely to be too patient
with any device that tbrusts the demo-
cratic hand into the popular pocket.
That seems, however, to be the inevita-
BILE; for we have yet to hear of any
democrat who advises such reduction
Of federal expenses as will make even a
reduced revenue sufficient for national
support.-St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The Sugar Bounty.