The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-01-11
A QUESTION OF REVENUE.
Democratic Schemes to Replace the I.oss
 Occasioned by Tariff Reductions.


 Occasioned by Tariff Reductions.
 It looks now as if Mir. Cleveland com mitted double blunder when he an- nounced in his message that the ways and means committee had agreed to re- port an income tax Of course, every one knew that the broad statement was absolutely incorrect The ways and means committee, as an official body, had not even considered the proposition. What the president meant to say or intimate was that the demo- cratic members of the committee had determined upon such measure in secret caucus. But there are reasons for believing that he was also mistaken in this assertion or intimation. Even at this day nothing appears to have been settled concerning the matter.
 This is apparent from what has oc- cured in the ways and means committee While the tariff bill was up for discus sion eX-Speaker Reed offered a resolu- ton reciting that as it was shown that under the proposed bill the revenue would be reduced some seventy million dollars, it would be desirable that the committee should be informed in what way this deficiency was to be met Chairman Wilson replied that the short- age would be made up by internal revenue taxation, but that the schedules were not yet completed. Mr. Reeds resolution was laid on the table by party vote.
 It is apparent, then, that Mir. Cleve- land was too nasty ill proclaiming the action of the committee. In fact, there are those who say that he and Chair man Wilson, and perhaps Mir. Carlisle, were the only persons who had deter mined upon the income tax, and that there had been no agreement even among the democratic members of tho committee when the message was sent in. At any rate, it looks very much as if Mr. Cleveland and MT. Wilson delib- erately attempted to forestall the action of the committee and of the house They appear to have thought that if they could make the income tax propo- sition an administration measure they could force it through
 It would not be at all surprising if the tax should be abandoned in the committee, or rather by the democratic members. We do not make the predic- tion, but certain it is that the demo- crats are very uneasy about the mat ter. When the majority of the commit tee were interrogated by Mir. Reeds resolution Chairman Wilson talked vaguely about making up the deficit by internal revenue taxation and about the schedules not being completed, but not word concerning an income tax
 Unquestionably the taxation of in- comes is the most obnoxious and un- popular form of taxation ever tried in this country. The argument that the government has no right to pry into the private affairs of every citizen, which is essential to the collection of such tax, is familiar to every one. The plan first proposed, to confine the tax to corporations, was interdcd to avoid this objection, but the manifest in- justice of such a discrimination and perhaps the certainty that the limita- tion would decrease the receipts to such ul SAIcuI dS JO ueledJ IHe HedSure, have apparently led the managers to change the scheme. At any rate, the latest suggestion from the committee was that tho tax would be levied upon allincomes exceeding four thousand dol lars year.
 Bnt this proposition has aroused storm of indignation throughout the country; not from the republicans alone, but from the independent press and from many democratic papers and politicians The New York Herald has made feature of collecting the opin- ions of prominent business and public men. With one voice they denounce the tax. Even from business centers in the south, from Louisville, Charles ton and such places, come protests.
 The president and Mir Wilson nav bring the bill in and they may dragoon the house into passing it, but before they succeed in making it a popular measure, except, perhaps, among the non-taxpaying portion of the com munity, they will have to discover some way to revolutionize public opinion re- garding the matter.-San Francisco Chronicle