New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1898-10-26
r .26, 1898. WHOLE NUMBER LOSS.

course, in the long reach of events, would
be far wiser than seeking by legislative
or judicial action to shift those burdens
upon shoulders already weighted down.
st is we'll worthy of note that tax
on incomes has this striking advantage
over a tax on commodities that are
bought and sold-namely, its rate can
be raised or lowered to meet exigencies
of revenue without appreciably disturb
ing prices. Change ever so little the
rate of your tariff or excise tax and
Immediately there is futterlng of pric-
es IN the market, business is upset and
speculation becomes rife, with its atten-
dant evils; but change in the tax rate
on incomes could produce no such re-
suit. The pulse of commercial life would
beat cn with normal stroke.
''Again, the low cost of collecting an
income tax in connection with our pres
ent excise system must commend it to
our favorable reconsideration. According
to. the highest official authority, the cost
of collecting the income tax in 1866 was
less than 2 per cent, lower than TIE cost
of collecting any tax then, existing ex-
cept that on banks, which was paid d.
rectly at the treasury.
IN
tions now existing and soon to be inten-
sitied which make properly adjusted
income tax peculiarly desirable. We
find ourselves at present struggling un-
der tariff law carrying hi CHER aver
age rate of duties than any law ever BE-
fore enacted. No better proof could he
gwen, that even the chairman of the
committee on ways and means recogniz-
es that this law of 1897 has about reached
the limit 0: endurance, than the fact that
he has brought in the pending bill to
raise the war revenue entirely from in
ternal taxes instead OF increasing or ex-
tending tariff taxes. 1t would certainly
have been wiser and more patriotic to
make foreigners pay the extra millions
than to take them out of the pockets of
our own people. Clearly some insuper-
able obstacle stood in his way.
"The fact is, our manufacturers are
fast outgrowing our home markets and
are beginning to feel the burden that has
been long resting on our'agricultural ex-
porting industries. Natural expansion
must he repressed unless our markets
can be extended. Our tariff rates put
around us a wall more or less high,
which stands as barrier against foreign
trade, for IN its last analysis tax on
imports is tax on exports. Lighter
tariff burdens in the United States will
be commercial necessity in the not dis
tant future. Even If the rates remain
the same, our revenues must relatively
decrease, because importations must re-
lativcly decrease as our home 1uanufac-
turers supply more and more complete-
ly our home markets.
"But whether this tariff law be right
or wrong, good or bad, we can only hope
for gradual changes. Such vast special
interests have grown up under it that
moderate tariff duties will no doubt con.
tinue for generations. In this situation
it is incumbent upon US to devise some
additional means of raising revenue.
No better companion tax for a moderate
tariff could be devised than fairly ad-
justed income tax. The tariff rates
could remain stationary at reasonable
figures, thus insuring, as far as practica-
BILE, stability of prices, while the income
rate could be varied to meet deficiency
or surplus without materially disturb
ing prices. Every variation would meas
ure- the willingness or unw1llingness of
the we'll to do people of the country to
bear additional burdens of taxation, and
thus we would be insured strict scruti-
ny and wise economy in public expen-
ditures:
''An income tax is not mere dream
of the abstractionist and nlorailst. It
has been tried. It was first established
in England in 1899, but was repealed in
1916 After a suspension of s6 years,
during which time 1t received thorough
economic discussion, it was re-enacted
in 1912, and with slight variations of
form has remained to this day one of the
malnstays of the British exchequer. This
form of tax exists also in British India,
in France, in Germany, IN Russia, in
Austria, in Norway, in Sweden,in Swift
erland, in Italy, in Spain lin fact, in al
most every nation of the civilized world.
$50 that whether we test it by reason
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