The Washington times., 1902-02-19
FATE OF War TAX
REPEAL IN BALANCE
Tea Dealers Press for Re-
moval of Duty.
PRESSURE ON THE SENATE
Finance Committee of Ipner House
viii Probably Favor Passage of
HiIf-Scpator Hanna's influence
Waning.

Now that the bill 10 bring about the re-
peal of the Spanish war taxes has been
passed by the House, much interest cen
tres in the attitude of the Senate in re-
lation to this measure. and great efforts
are being made 10 learn the disposition
of the leading members of that body.
The fact that the bili was rushed
through the House fun day ahead of
schedule time. and that there was abso-
lutcly no debate upon the merits of the
bill, greatly surprised the Republican war
horses of the House, who had prepared for
strenuous oratorical efforts in support of
the measure II was learned yesterday
from an authentic source that leading
Republican Senators are strongly in ia
vor Of pushing the war tax repeal bill
through shortly after its reception.
A Resume of the situation
AS leading member of the Senate FL
nance Committee put it, the situation is
this:
The Finance Committee will probably
favor the passage OF the bill as it passed
the House, provided the finances of the
Government will admit of the removal o.
SO large an amount of revenue as provided
in the House bill 1t is the intention Of
the committee to obtain the opinion of
the Secretary of the Treasury and OF
other Government experts upon the mat
ter, and the action of this committee will
depend considerably upon the informa-
tion thus provided
On the other hand, Senator Hanna is
openly opposed to so large a reduction in
the war taxes as provided by the House
bill. But Senator Hanna s power in the
upper house, be il understood is by no
means so great as ii was in the ante
Roosevelt days. and the fact that he is
first looking after appropriations such as
provided by the ship subsidy bill and like
measures. it is believed. is the only OBJ
stacle in the way of his supporting the
House bill
Pressure on the senate.
Tremendous pressure is being brought
to bear upon the Senate from all sides for
the repeal of such taxes as the war tax
on tea, and it is believed that the Sem
ate will yield to the popular demand for
relief from this onerous burden. A flood
of letters and kilograms from wholesale
grocers, retail grocers, importers and
consumers of tea have simply over
whelmed the Senate, and there can be
10 doubt that the demand for the repeal
of the tax on tea and upon other articles
of home consumption is general through
cut the country.
The offer of leading retail merchants to
coll
tax on tea al a reduction of at least 10
cents a pound. and the support of this
offer with a positive pledge to carry out
the offer, has had much weight with lead
ing Senators in the argument that il is
the consumer who pays the tax. An eff
fort has been made to show that the re-
tail grocers of the country are not in
favor of the removal of the tax on tea
but il was c0nclusively shown by an Of
icer Of the National Tea Duty Repeal AS
sociation that this effort is backed by
few importers and tea brokers. who de-
sire present conditions to continue, for
purely personal reasons.
Unanimous for Repeal.
The facts presented to Congress thus
far show that fully 90 per cent of all
wholesale and retail grocers and import-
ers of tea and all consumers Of Tea favor
the repeal Of this war tax on tea. which
is 10 cents pound. or over so per cent
Of the average cost. Thus far thousands
of letters. kilograms. and memorials from
business men and householders in every
State in the Union have been received
by members OF the House and Senate.
The National Wholesale Grocers' Asso-
citation. the National Retail Grocers' As
ISOLATION, and many State and city asso-
Citations and chambers OF commerce have
memoriGlized Congress for the repeal OF
the tax While it is true that there was
some opposition TO the repeal bill at the
hearing before the Ways and Means Com
mittee, it is regarded as a noteworthy
fact that the only person in Inc trade who
appeared in opposition was an English
importer. who summoned TO his as
sistance an cX-Consul TO foreign coun-
try, while On the other hand there were
Representatives Of nine different States
OF the Union who presented memorials
and letters from every other State.
1t is believed that the Senate would
find it very difficult indeed to explain q
failure to remove the tax upon tea. while
removing the taxes from other articles
covered in the repeal.
1t is expected that hearing upon the
removal of war taxes will be had before
the Senate Committee on Finance, TO
which the House bill Will now go.