The age-herald., 1898-05-29
CURIOSITlES OF TAXATION.

l OOuIOOI iILO UT HAM IUlNs The Dingley tariff law in the first ten
 months of it's operation. from July 1,
 1884, to May 1, 1S9S has averaged a gross
 revenue of $12,179, 733O9 per month. Pen
 sions and arrears of pensions alone con
 sume now about s13,O000O0 per month, av-
 craze, with an historic certainty of in-
 crease in the amount. The government lives wholly on the internal revenue and 1 sale of bonds.
 It Is quite important to the advocates
 Of the Dingley tariff, and especially to | those corporations who advanced large
 sums for political campaign uses upon this | law in posse, that the war revenue now | proposed to be assessed shall be in excess
 of the estimates of the war department,
 and the navy department to so great an
 extent that congress may borrow from the new war fund ample cash to cover up the
 deficiencies of the peace income without
 exposure of the ignoble failure of the
 Dingley law.
 To be positive. the peace income of the
 government from taxation for the fiscal | year ending June 30, 1S9S will fall about | $75,OOO.OO0 short of it's expenditures. The
 actual deficit will be reduced by the $63,-
 0O0,OO0 paid into the treasury on account
 of the recent sale of the Union Pacific
 and the Kansas Pacific railroads.
 The war departments estimates for 125,- | 900 volunteers and GA. 900 regulars, plus 1S | coo immunes and engineers is $150, ,923 527. .0S, l up to July 1, 1899; the navy department s | estimates, up to July 1, 1899, is s75,556, ,250 l These estimates include $3e000 900 un- l known contingencies. The known items | and the gross contingencies amount to l $226, ,479 777.0S all of 1t for new expenditures | and none to be charged with outlays here 1 tofore made.
 The government has gold and other funds | now on hand immediately available aggre- l gating $162 000, ,000-enough to conduct the | war, on the above estimates, eight to nine months, should the whole of it's cash in | hand now be set aside for war purposes and the peace expenses from this time on for eight or nine months be limited to taxes collected.
 The house sent to the senate a war rey-
 enue bill raising by taxation on consump-
 tion about $105 100000; also $1OO 900 in in-
 terest bearing notes; also $500 900 O0O on long
 time per cent. bonds, making a total of,
 say, $700 900 000, approximating three fold the estimates of the departments combined
 for twelve months active warfare. MT. Dingley is the author of the house bill and 1t was prepared without consulting the de- partments.
 The senate committete on finance amend ed the house bill as follows: Raise $200,- 100000 by taxation, in part, tobacco. liquors, bankers, stamp taxes, legacies, on gross receipts of corporations. including bank deposits etc. Also to coin the Seig-
 niorage on the silver bullion, $42, 900 900, and | issue 900 new greenbacks. The sen- ate committee plan would furnish legal tender to aggregate of $392 000, ,000. ap- proXimating double the estimates of the departments for twelve months without
 any bonded debt. A minority senate com mittee plan is to tax the country now s150,000,000 and to borrow $300, 900, 900 on in terest bonds.
 The debatein the senate covers the meth ods and the principles of federal taxation and is exceedingly instructive. At this point in the discussion the tax of one- | quarter of per cent. on gross receipts of corporations is the clause most dwelt upon. A corporation doing business in groceries, for example. to $10O000 year, gross, would pay $250 to the war revenue, but simple partnership or a single dealer would pay no tax under this bill. Why the distinc- tion? Because a corporation is a legal creation entitled to special protection. for instance, in the right of foreign incorpora- tors to do business here and spend the profits elsewhere and in the right of the corporation to continue in business even after the original incorporators die off. The tax proposed is tax on privilege It is not improbable that the senate minority report, supported by Murphy, of New York; Gray, of Delaware; German, of Maryland; Faulkner, of West Virginia; Lindsay, of Kentucky; Caffery. of Louisi- ana, all democrats; by Wolcott and some other silver republicans. along with all the other republicans, will be adopted by that body and be accepted by the house. If so. $300 000 900 bonds will be marketed. Not dollar of gold will seek a bond. Greenbacks. treasury notes and silver certificates will
 buy the bonds. The money that buys the bonds will pay the soldiers and sailors. pay the contractors, the suffers. m litary tailors. horse vendors, wagon builders, railroads. etc., but every bond and all the interest will be paid in gold derived from sale of fresh bonds. So there appears more than one endless chain in American non- descript finances.
 To the extent that bonds are sod cur rency is contracted temporarily and indus | try crippled: to the extent new silver coin and new greenbacks issue, business re- wives.
 | The debate. as it touches the decree of | the court against an income tax, is en- | frightened. The court held that a tax on rent of land is tax on the land and is unconstitutional. The rent of land may consist in KlondyIe gold. in no way allied | to the land, physically. But here is tax on tobacco that Is comprssd of the vey | clements of the land itself, part Of the soil! Moreover. on chewing toracco ana pipe smoking tobacco the house bill rate of | tax is an average of 100 per cent. That is
 the kind soldiers, on s1s a month. and la- borers on six bits day, use Cigars pay an average of only 10 per cent. tax. Rich men use cigars The house bill abounds in | examples of careful protection of the | wealth of the country against the burdens nf Inc snanish war. The house bill was nrepared by Mr. Dingley to assist the | 5ingley tariff in It's work of making the rich richer and the poor poorer for long | time to come. r,,.,, ,,ro,, a