Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-31
TO REPEAL WAR TAX
Committee Decides Upon AL
 most a Clean Sweep.
TAX ON MIXED FLOUR RETAINED.
Democrats Offer Many Amendments, but Are Defeated by Party Vote. Treasury Has Sufficient Cash
 to Warrant the Change.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31-The ways and means committee by unanimous vote has instructed Chairman Payne to prepare bill repeating all the war revenue taxes except the tax on mixed four. The action taken was in the form of resolution to the effect that the bill should provide for the repeal of the remaining war taxes, to take effect on July 1, 1902, except that the repeal of the duty on tea should go into effect Jan l, 1903. The only di- vision in committee was on amend ments proposed by Democratic mem bers
 Representative Richardson lenn) proposed an amendment to put trust made articles on the free list This was defeated by party vote, as was the amendment of Representative Robert son (La.) to continue the tax on "buck- ct shops''
 Representative Newlands (Nev) of fered two amendments, one excepting from the repeal the tax on petroleum and sugar reineries and another i'm posing a tax of one-tenth of l per cent on the gross receipts of any industrial corporation having receipts of $1, ,O0O,- GOO annually. Both amendments were defeated by parry votes.
 Chairman Payne made the following statement on the proposed repeal:
 ''The treasury now has an available cash balance of something over $174,- 100000. It is not likely that this will be increased materially during the present fiscal year, as the treasury is buying bonds at rate that will use up the surplus to accumulate between this and the end of the fiscal year. June 30 next. The secretary of the treasury's report estimated a surplus for this year of $100, 0,000.OOO, and sub- sequent results seem to confirm this estimate
 '"The committee therefore thought it was entirely safe to repeal the re- mainder of the war revenue taxes. amounting to $6e, 100000, and the tax on tea of $9,000.0O0, in the aggregate SIT 100000, at this time This will still leave a surplus, estimated upon this years receipts and expenses, of 100000 or 1928, 100000 for the year. while we start upon the next fiscal year with $1T4,000,OO0 available cash in the treasury.
 'The committee deems it wise to have the repeal of the tax on tea take effect on the 1st of January next in order to enable those, especially re. tailers and small dealers who have small stocks of the duty paid goods on hand, to dispose of them before the repeal takes effect
 We can provide a rebate on the tobacco tax and guard against any fraud upon the revenue for the reason that the internal revenue department has this trade under close surveillance and can and will take an account of the stock in the dealers hands on the 1st of July next. But this will be i'm possible as to teas, which come in as customs duties and of which the gov ernment has no account save as they are imported in large quantities by the Importers. Continuing this tea tax to the lst of January will give us six months revenue in the next fiscal year upon tea and will make the ulti- mate reduction for the next year con- siderably less than $T5,oOO,0OO. The bill will be presented to the house as soon as 1t can be prepared.''