The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-01-20
INCOME TAX.
The Iiii Goes to the House a. . 81 parass
Measure, Where It II Very Likely TO ne
KnocLed nm tMa Raad. "

Tho Bi1i G0es to the House a. q Ss pNraks
Measure, Where It IL Very Likely 10 Ne
Knocked on the Head.
WASHINGTON, Jan Is. The action OF
the majority of members in the ways
and means committee Friday in deter.
mining, by vote of six to five, to re.
port the income tax bill as measure
separate and distinct from the Wilson
tariff bill, is the first evidence that the
administration has regained control OF
the committee. .
Messrs. McMillin and Bryan, the
members of the committee who are
most deeply attached to the income
tax scheme, have lost no opportunity
to assert that under no conditions
would the two measures be separated,
for they recognize the ro1ssbility that
certain democrats in the house would
attempt to defeat the income tax bill,
II it appeared as an independent propo.
sition, by purposely breaking quo
tion in the adoption of the resolution
to report an income tax bill to the
house, Mr.. McMillin felt confident that
he would be able to keep his forces in.
tact for the incorporation of the in
come tax into the Wilson bill itself
Curiously enough, the member who
caused almost sensation by defeating
Mr.. McMillan's schemes Friday was
Mr. Bynum, of Indiana, who caused
almost an equal sensation when he
voted with Mr. Mcmillan and defeated
the administration by supporting the
income tax proposition.
The vote Friday stood: Messrs. Will
son, Breckenridge, Stevens, Cochran,
Montgomery and Bynum for reporting
the income tax as an independent
proposition, and Messrs Mcmillan,
Bryan, Tarsney, Turner and Whiting
for incorporating the measure in the
Wilson bill.
Mr.. Cochran, of New York, and Mr..
Stevens, Of Massachusetts,, the two
members of the committee who have
been most open in their hostility to the
income tax, are jubilant, to say the
least, over their success in compellin g
the submission of the proposition as an
independent measure, and do not hes
itate to predict it's defeat in the house.
In so far as these gentlemen count
upon repu blican aid in the defeat of the
income tax, they are likely to find
themselves mistaken. There is.no rea-
son to believe that the republican lead
ers are abandoning their original pro-
gramme of compelling the democrats
to enact or defeat all financial legisla-
tion by quorum of their own party.
1t is evident that one or the motives
of making the income tax bill an indie
pendent measure and thus necessitat.
| ing separate vote in the house was to
| force the republican minority to put
| itself on record, and as nearly every
! republican is known to be opposed to
an income tax, it was the calculation OF
| Messrs. Cochran and Stevens that the
repu blican vote. together with the re.
| bellious democrats in the house, would
suffice to defeat the bill. None of tn.
republican leaders, however, have
given Mr.. Cochran any assurance that
will warrant any such belief. On the
contrary, the republicans will permit
the democrats to fight out all their finan.
cial battles strictly INSIDE their own
party lines. Mr. Cochrans campaign
for the defeat of the income tax must,
therefore, be mapped out wholly inside
his own territory.
Furthermore, tho fact that Speaker
Crisp, who is notoriously friend OF
the income tax, was able on last Mon.
day to bring quorum of democrats in
TO the house ready to support any
| measure that his rules committee
might dictate, may be taken as a
strong indication that when the final
vote is taken on the income tax bill
there will not be sufficient democrats
whose courage will last them to the
| point of breaking quorum, and the
income tax will pass the house.
AS already stated, it will be defeated
in the senate, and the revenues which
it is expected to raise will be produced
in the senate bill by a largely increased
tax on whisky, a duty on sugar, the
abolition of the sugar bounty, and a
reduction of some of the heavy cuts
| made in the Wilson bill
The only result in the house of the
action of the ways and means commit
| tee Friday, was the threat of many o1
4 the friends of the income tax to EN-
barrass the passage of the Wilson bill
until they are assured of the success
of their bill for the levying of an in
| come tax.