Waterbury Democrat., 1902-02-06
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
House Passed q Bill Providing Tor
 Permanent Census Bureau.

partment of commerce and labor" was passed by the senate this week, anu the house passed a bill providing Tor permanent census bureau; but the most important step taken at the Cap itol was the action of the ways ana means committee determining upon the repeal of the war revenue tax Dill enacted at the time Of the Spanish war.
 Representative Claude A. Swanson of Virginia, q prominent member or the ways and means committee, made the following statement to your cor respondent apropos of the action of the committee:
 '.The democratic party, at the time the Spanish war was declared. insist ed that the special tax bill would pro- vide sufficient revenue without the sale of bonds. and accordingly the party voted against the section authorizing such sale. Events have demonstrated the correctness of the democratic con- tention. Tile war tax. the Dingley bill. and the sale of bonds have com bined to produce a surplus in the teraSury which has proved serious menace to business. In fact, financial disaster has been prevented only by the purchase of bonds at high pre- mium and the deposits of vast sums i in the national banks Of the country, on which. of course, the government received no interest. The government has paid millions of dollars in premf- ums which might have been saved had the democratic policy been pursued. The position of the republicans is i complete ratification of the policy ad- vocated by the democrats at that time.
 The democrats will vote for the re- peal of the war taxes because they realize that the present vast surplus Is dangerous to business interests and 1 to the government. They would much prefer reform Of the entire tax sys- tenn, including tariff and internal rev. enue taxes. We believe that food and clothing. In word the necessities pur- chased by the whole people, are erlti- ] tied to at least as much reduction as the republican party is extending to bank capital, the sugar trust. the Standard oil trust, circuses theaters, bucket-shops and spectators. All these are relieved while the extortion- ate rates of the Ding1ey bill are con- tinued oh all the necessities of the peo- pie.
 The democrats Oh this committee have Insisted that all trust-made goods which are so protected by the Dingley Dill as to enable the trusts to charge the American consumer double the prices asked abroad, should be allowed to come into the country free. This would have destroyed many rnonop- olies; but the republicans would not permit it. They are determined to ig- nore the advice given by Mir Mckinley in his Buffalo speech, to reform the tariff and so enlarge our foreign mar kets. The republican party Is deter mlned to persist in policy which is breeding trusts which is glaring in it's inequalities and which is bound to de- stroy our foreign markets The only possible reform lies in democratic su- prernacy, which would permit the dem ocrats to remodel the system of taxa ton along the lines of justice and equality"
 When the recommendation to abol ish the war taxes was before the com nittee, Francis c. Newlands of Neya- da offered an amendment providing that every industrial corporation en- gagged in manufacturing. whose annual receipts exceeded $1000,00O, should be compelled to pay a special tax of one tenth of one per cent on all gross re- ceipts in excess of S1,0OO.000 per annum. The amendment further pro- vided that corporations of the above magnitude should render. at the close of each year, a complete statement of it's capital and surplus, receipts, ex- penses and profits, and amounts and rates of wages paid. the statistics so provided to be classified and published by the commissioner of internal reve- 1 nr1e
 1 The amendment was reflected by l party vote. but Mir Newlands stated yesterday that he would offer it again when the measure was called up in ! the house. "The arnendment Is in complete accord with President Roose- velt's recommendation of publicity for the trusts said Mr Newlands. "Tt would insure contribution from those industries which the government is protecting at rate avera gfng close f 50 per cent of between S5,0OO. GOO and 1 $10.000.O00 a year to the federal ex- penses.. and would insure that publicity l the president so strongly advocates and which is essential before intelli- gent legislation can be enacted. either for the control of the trusts or the af- justment of the tariff rates. If the war revenue tax be repealed without the adoption of this amendment such gigantic monopolies as the sugar trust and the Standard Oil trust will be left in position where they contribute nothing to the support of the govern ment which deals sc bountiful1y with them. while the necessaries of life will
 be heavily taxed and the burden. from
 which corporate wealth is exempted, will fall on the poor and middle 1 classes,
 So severe was the storm of disap-
 proval which surged about Chairman
 Payne as soon as the action of hls committee became known that, after
 8 conference with the speaker, lie is-
 sued an official statement setting forth that the committee had no intention Of
 blocking the way to Cuban reciprocity
 by its revenue reduction policy, as had
 been charged. He protests that the
 committee has had no conference in
 regard to the Cuban matter and that
 its action was the result of a belief
 that our own people should be re-
 lieved from the burden occasioned by