Omaha daily bee., 1895-06-07
PROVIDING MORE REVENUE.


The next congress will he compelled to
make provision for more revenue, and
the question as to how this shall be done
is manifestly Of the greatest Importance.
1t can be done by increasing internal
taxes on whisky. beer and tobacco,
which has some advocates. but q propo-
sition of this kind would meet with
formidable opposition. The last CON
gress increased the tax on whisky, but
proposal to do the same with beer met
with small support, for although it was
urged that an additional tax of half
dollar barrel on beer would not
affect the consumers of that beverage
the politicians were not willing TO run
the risk of antagonizng the large brew
ing interest Of the country, which is
capable of cXorting a great deal of in
fluCncp. It Is hardly probable that
proposition to tax beer, which is pretty
sure to be made. will command greater
favor in the next congress than in the
last one. Another proposal is to restore
tea and coffee to the dutiablc list. plac-
ing such n moderate duty on these arti-
cles as it is believed would not bear
seriously upon consumers II is esti-
mated that from $25,OOO.O0O to $2O.0O0-
900 annually could be raised from these
sources, and it is urged III advocacy of
n duty on tea that II would tend to give
American consumers Il better article
than they now get. Importers say that
now this country Is the dumping
ground for the poorest quality of tea,
unstable elsewhere, and they profess
to think that n duty would remedy this,
or at any rate greatly reduce the
amount of such tea coming here. But
to put coffee and tea on the dutiable
list would be an assault on the "free
breakfast table" which would encounter
a very formidable opposition. so that it
is very doubtful whether a proposal of
this kind would be seriously entertained
by congress.
If neither of these plans for raising
more revenue shall be found practi-
cable the only other thing to be done
is to revise the present tariff law in the
direction of higher duties on certain
articles and the transfer of other arti-
cles from the free to the dutiable list.
But will the next congress make such
n revision, and if it should do so, would
Mr. Cleveland approve it? That the
next house of representatives. with its
large republican majority. will propose
changes in the tariff law with view to
increasing the revenue of the govern
ment is to be expected, but the repub-
lcans will not have control of the
senate. 1t is possible that few con-
servativc democrats in the latter body,
like German, Brice. Murphy and Smith.
would join with the republicans in in
creasing certain duties but it does not
seem at all probable that any measure
for this purpose could pass the senate,
compelled, in order to avoid self-stulti-
| ficatiOn, to veto it.
There is thus presented very serious
dilemma, out of which may come
trouble and embarrassment for the
treasury quite as great as it has expert
enced during the last two years. The
expenditures of the government con-
lihuc W run considerably Ill excess OF
the receipts The treasury statement
for May is no more favorable than were
those of the preceding months of the
current fiscal year, which will close with
the present month. No very material
| increase OF revenues is to be expected
during the next six months. and as ex-
pendtures will be maintained the def
cit is almost certain to grow. The
balance in the treasury will meet the
obligations of the government until the
| meeting of congress, and if something
is not then promptly done to increase
the revenue another sale of bonds will
be necessary. The situation calls for
the exercise of wise and patriotic states
manship.