The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1898-05-17
THE BONDS KNOCKED OUT.
The Democratic Senators Control the
Situation-IncomeT Tax, Coinage of
Scignorage and Greehbacks Will
Furnish the War Revenue

Situation-Income Tax, Coinage of
Scignorage and Greehbacks will
Furnish the War Revenue
The war revenue bill has been radi-
caily changed by the finance commit
Tee OF the United States Senate. The
consideration of the coumittee's report
will engross the attention of the Sen.
ate for several days, as the provision
Tor the Issue OF coin bonds has been
totally eliminated: and the Republican
Senators FOR the most part will insist
upon the bond feature being restored.
The financial issues involved will have
a strong influence upon the fall elec.
tlons, and the debates are likely to be
intensely partisan.
With the assistance of Senator Jones.
OF Nevada, the Democrats had control
OF the finance committee and adopted
their amendments which include cor
poration tax Of One-quarter OF one per
cent, provision for the coinage of
seigniorage and the issuance of $780,
600, 900 of greenbacks.
The vote to strike out the bond fea-
ture stood six to five, as follows:
Ayes-Jones, Of Arkansas, White,
Turpie, Daniel and Chiffon, Democrats
Jones, of Nevada, Silver r. Republican.
Nays-Allison, Aldrich, Patt, Of
Conn.,; Wolcott and Burrows, Repubi.
cans. Senators Morrill,, Republican,
and Vest, Democrat, paired, Vest for
the motion and Morrill, against it.
The amendment for the issuance of
greenbacks, the coinage of the silver
seigniorage and the taxation of COZ DO
rations were all Incorporated bv the
same vote.
The Democrats changed their rate
OF tax on corporations at the last min
ute, reducing 1T from half to a quar-
ter Of per cent. 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
would, even at this low per centage, be
very large, but there was no opportuni-
ty for even aprroximating the figure.
This provision Is a comprehensive one.
1t covers oil corporations with few
exceptions imposing tax of a quarter
OF per cent. upon the gross receipts.
The exceptions are charitable, edu-
cational, religious and eleemosy nary
institutions and strictly mutual bene fit
associations, the exceptions exempting
mutual concerns being made so as to
include only those which loan money
to their own members.
Building and loan associations were
bill, but the House provision dealing
with this matter w8s changed, and the
language of the exemption in the Will
son German act practically substituted
FOR 1T. There was some discussion OF
the beer tax during the day, but it was
decided to leave the matter as it pass
ed the House, with an increase of the
rebate from 5 to u per cent. Tho pro-
visions in regard to the taxation of
bankers and brokers bills OF lading, in
heritances, Futures" proprietary me-
dicinal articles, etc, were left as rre-
viously fixed. The house provision for
tax on mineral waters was stricken
out entirely.
The committee decided to increase
the tax on manufactured tobacco from
II cents, the House rate, to l6 cents per
pound, and to exempt the stock on hand
from the operations Of the act
The committee also decided to re-
commend a reduction of the tax on
cigars from 81 to $3.50 per thousand
and on cigarettes from So to 81 so.
There was some general discussion
In the committee as to the amount Of
revenue the bill would produce The
estimate of the Democratic members
placed the amount of $3.50, 0,000,O 600 from
the revenue portion. The coinage OF
the seigniorage would increase the
amount to the extent of $42, 600 900, and
the greenbacks would make the total
$3i2, 900, 900 or $42, 000,000 in excess of
Secretary Cages estimate of the re-
quirements of extra revenue to meet
the first years expenses Of the war.
The bill hardly will be recognizable
by its authors when reported, as it has
been 30 generally amended In both
phraseology and rates as to make it
practically 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.