The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-22

The Senate's scheme of Taxation.
The amendments which the finance COM
mlttee of the Senate has made TO the bill
to provide the means for carrying on the
war do not appear to command very much
attention. The discussion Of them in the
Senate is not arousing a great deal of in
terest. The reason is probably that it is
not generally believed that the House will
approve them, even If they should be
adopted by the Senate. They are neither
Democratic nor Republican in their char
acter. They are distinctively Populistic.
The only party which has made a decla-
ration in favor of issuing greenbacks, and
crowding corporations to the wall by.
means Of taxation is the Populist party,
and the Democrats of the Senate are
favoring these amendments TO the war
revenue bill for the purpose apparently
of giving the PopuHsts no excuse for re-
naming outside of the Democratic party.
If the Democrats are not careful, how
ever, they will lose rather than gain
strength by catering to the Populists
The greenbacks which we now have in
circulation have been the source Of a vast
amount of trouble. The claim that they
represent a loan on which the people have
never paid any interest is not well found
ed. Many millions have been spent to
keep them on a parity with gold. They
have been a source of disturbance in our
finances ever since they were issued, and
they promise to continue to be until they
are withdrawn from circulation and can
celled. It is doubtful if there is a financier
of prominence in the country who if he
were not Influenced by political reasons,
would recommend the issuing of any more
greenbacks.
The tax which it is proposed to put on
corporations of about all kinds would
wreck them if 1t should be imposed pro-
vided the corporations did not collect it
from their patrons and customers In the
case of the proposed tax on banks the
chief sufferers would be the depositors in
savings banks. The aim of those who pro
posed the tax is to hit the rich. but theEi
succeed in striking the thrifty poor The
savings banks are just about ableAto make
the interest which they pay their deposit
ors. If their deposits should be taxed
they would have to lower the rate of in
terest. The customers of other banks
would have TO pay the bank tax, the poor
farmer as well as the rich merchant Only
a few of the banks make more than a
small dividend, and nearly all of these few
are in the large cities. The Senate fnan-
ciers seem to think that the earnings of
all banks are enormous. They could east
~ discover their mistake.
The railroads are now declaring that
they are not earning dividends. 1t is true
that only few of them are in a prosper
Gus condition. The great majority of
them would not be able to pay the pro
posed tax unless they raised their traffic
rates or cut down their expenses. The
state commissions wouldn't let them raise
their rates Therefore the poor employees
would have to suffer a reduction in wages
The promoters of the Populistic tax, how
ever, would claim credit for putting a
heavier burden on the rich owners of rail-
roads, when, as a matter of fact, their
scheme. if carried into effect, would bear
the hardest on the railroad wage earners.
II is no time now to complain of the
folly of the war. The time for that has
past Every patriotic American citizen is
going to do his share towards making the
war a successful one, now that it has been
undertaken, but If the Senate tax scheme
becomes a law the burden of the war is
going to be felt so keenly by about all
classes of citizens that senators and rep
resentatives will not find themselves so
popular with their constituents as they
would like to be.