Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-05-14
FOR WAR REVENUE.
New Bill Provides for Total of
X34S 900 900.


Washington, May 12.-With the ex-
ception of few administrative features,
the war revenue bill is ready for report
to the senate, though consideration of
the measure will not be begun before
Monday. With the assistance of Sena-
tor Jones of Nevada. the Democrats had
control Of the finance committee and the
committee adopted their amendments,
which include corporation tax of one
quarter of one per cent, provision for
the coinage of the seigniorage and the
issuance of $50, ,0OO, 900 Of greenbacks
The bond provision Is eliminated.
1t required only u little more than an
hour for the committee to dispose of the
Democratic amendments. 1t was soon
made evident that Senator Jones would
vote with the Democrats on all their
amendments, and as his vote turned the
scale against the Republicans they did
not enter into stubborn struggle to
prevent this consummatlon. The vote
to strike out the bond feature stood
to g. The amendments for the issuance
of greenbacks, the coinage of the silver
seigniOrage and the taxation of cor
pOrations were all incorporated by the
same vote. The Democrats changed
their rate on corporations at the last
minute. reducing 1t from half to a quar-
ter of one percent They made this re-
ductiOn because of the uncertainty as
TO the amount of revenue the amend
ment would produce 1t was the gen.
orally expressed opinion that the sum.
even at this low percentage. would be
very large, but there was no opportunity
for even approximating the figure. This
provision is very comprehensive one.
1t covers all corporations, with a few
exceptions, imposing tax upon the
gross receipts. The exceptions are
charitable, educational, religious and
eieemOsynary institutions and strictly
mutual benefit associations. The ex-
emptiOns Of mutual concerns are maze
So as to include only those which loan
money to their own members. Building
and loan associations We're exempted
from the operations of the bill, but the
provision dealing with this matter was
changed and the language Of the exemp-
tiOn in the Wilson German act prac-
tlcally substituted for it.
There was some discussion of the beer
tax. but it was decided to leave the
matter as 1t passed the house with an
Increase of the rebate from to I l-o
percent. The provision in regard to
the taxation Of bankers and brokers.
bills Of lading, inheritances. futures"
proprietary medicinal articles, etc, were
left as previously fixed. The house pro-
vision for a tax on mineral waters was
stricken out entirely.
There was some discussion of the
omOunt of revenue the bill would pro-
duce. The estimate of the Democratic
members placed the amount at $15O,00O,-
600 from the revenue portion. The coin
age of the segniOrage would increase
this to the extent of s42. .0OO,0 900. and the
sreenbacks would make the total $342,-
100000. or 42,O0O.OO0 in excess of Sec
retary Cages estimate of the require
ments of extra revenue to meet the first
years expenses of the war
The bill hardly will be recognizable
by its authors when 1t is reported, as it
has been SO generally amended in both
phraseOlogy and rates as to make it
practically a new bill. There are few
paragraphs that have not received some
| attention. The changes yet to be made
are only of minor Importance and will
! deal with the administrative features
and in some cases with the grammatical
! construction Of sentences.