Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-23
Must Be Levied to Carry
On the Present War.
GALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Has Added a Great Deal to the EX-
penSeS Secretary Gage Will Re-
commend Change in the Stamp
Act Errors to Be Corrected.

New York Aug ga special to the
Tribune from Washington says: Secre-
tary Gage is engaged in the task of as
certaining whence the funds are to come
to pay the largely increased army re-
Gently determined upon by the president
and Secretary Root. This increase
makes demands upon the treasury that
may we'll cause some concern among it's
chief officials. The receipts Of the gov
ernment did not meet the extraordinary
expenditures when the army was smaller
and the problem of how to meet the cost
of $4,000 additional troops gives the
treasury department some uneasiness.
These increased expenditures cannot
even be approximately figured out. The
mere question of pay is easily decided,
but to this must be added the enormous
expense of additional transportation, the
cost of subsistence, which, with the army
thousands of miles away will require the
expenditure of millions Of dollars. the
added cost of new equipment for 10000
men, and the innumerable items that go
to make an effective fighting army, prop
erly clothed, thoroughly equipped for
duty and well fed. All these things are
expensive and their cost is more or less
coniectural.
Paymaster General Bates says it would
be impossible to give rough idea Of the
cost of regiment or of the military es-
tabllshnlent in the Philippines without
weeks of careful investigation of the ac-
counts. This is now being done for the
annual report of the secretary, and until
definite figures are known the paymaster
generals department will not make
guess. With plans matured, therefore,
that involve expenditures running well
up into nine figures. Secretary Gage, on
whom is placed the responsibility Of pro-
vding funds, has begun to take his bear
ings and prepare to meet these new de-
ma nds.
The admnistra ton is unwilling to
make another bond issue, but If it cannot
be avoided, this will be done. Secretary
Gage has ample authority, it is asserted,
to issue more bonds for the prosecution
of the war in the Philippines. The war
revenue law authorized the issue of
$1Oo, 900, 900 worth of certificates Of indebt-
edness and $40o, 600 600 worth of bonds.
Two hundred million dollars worth of
! the.9a bonds We're offered at popular sub
scriptions ard subscribed five times over.
The law says that the proceeds of the
sale of those bonds shall be used 'tO de-
fray, expenditures authorized on account
| of the existing war (such proceeds when
| received to be used only for the purpose
of making such war expendtures)." 1t
is held by the law officers of the govern
ment that the lnsurrection in the Philip
pines is to al intents and purposes a part
| of "existing war" with Spain, for when
the law was enacted the present condition
| of affairs may have been anticipated.
Congress. too, authorized the increase
/ IN ba off Il al
| and at a time when it was known the
| only use to which it was to be put was
! in maintaining peace in the new posses
sions and quelling instructions. For
these reasons it has been held that the
! secretary of the treasury has full au-
thority to realize upon the securities au-
! thorlZed by the war revenue act.
! 1t can be said on the authority of the
! treasury officials who have been giving
| the matter careful study for several
weeks, that the Fiftysixth congress will
| not lessen the war taxes imposed by the
| act of June 13, 1898. In some quarters
| the camor for reduction of these taxes
! has already begun, but the enormous ex-
| penditurcS to be incurred in the next two
| years not only forbids curtalment of
| these special taxes, but requires an en-
largement Of the general scheme and a
stoppage OF the holes through which
those supposed to have been taxed have
| escaped. From ordinary internal reve-
hue taxation last year the receipts We're,
in round numbers, $173, ,0O0,O 900. The war
| revenues included. in round numbers,
800, 900. 600. With the customs duties and
miscellaneous receipts added, a big de-
| fcit followed at the end of the fiscal
| year. 1t is is admitted that customs
duties oupht not to be further increased.
The only course, therefore, from which
additional revenue can be derived is
| from war taxes or bonds. or both.
Errors that crept into the war revenue
law-errors unavoidable owing to the
haste in enacting tin some cases have
defeated the idea of congress- while in
others the courts have decreased the
| anticipated revenues. Section of the
| law regulating the taxes on patent medi-
cines, etc, eXempts from stamp taxes
| "any uncompounded medicinal drug or
| medicine" Under a decision of Judge
| Brown of the New York district court.
| this clause lifted out of the list of pro-
| prietary medicines that We're supposed
to be taxed. nearly all coal tar products
and every conceivable drug or chemical
! that can by any means be brought Witnn
| the definition of the word ''uncOmpound-
F., ed" This, the internal revenue officials
| say. has cost the government thousands
of dollars The effort will be made to
! persuade congress to remedy this defect
| in the law so that this discrimination
cannot exist. Congress will also be
| language imposing a stamp tax on pro-
prietary medicines so as to include many
that have hitherto been able to escape
At,,, II. 4