The Washington times., 1911-05-02
REVENUE PROBLEM
COhPL|CATES PLAN
OF TARIFF REV|SERS
House Democrats Must Raise
One Hundred Million
Dollars.
HIGHER TAX ON
BEER SUGGESTED
Also Levies on Proprietary Medi-
cines and Certain Danger
Gus Weapons.
By JUDsoN c. wELLIvER.
Wanted: 500, 900, 900


Large numbers of people want it;
but nobody more ardently than the gen.
tlemen of the Ways and Means major
ity. Other folks, who want 1t, manage
TO get on without 1t; they can't.
The free list bill. the revision of cot
ton and wooden duties, and the reor-
ganization of the sugar schedule that
is to come later, will lop of a huge
slice from Federal revenues. 1t must
be made up somewhere else. The in
come tax is not yet here.
1t could not possibly be made to pro-
vide revenue for the next fiscal year,
anyhow. Appropriations for that year
have been made; the new tariff will
cut off a large revenue, and 1t must Ibe
provided, at least for the year or two
before income taxes can be invoked,
from other sources.
Internal revenue taxation is being
discussed various plans are proposed.
Among them are:
An increase of 81 or 81 per barrel an
the excise on beer.
A tax on deadly weapons of the sort
that, because they can be concealed,
are most dangerous.
Levies against all proprietary medici-
nal preparations.
A countervailing duty of Brazilian
double purpose of smashing the Coffee
trust and raising some new revenue.
To Cut Wool Schedule.
To remove all duties on sugar, wool
and woolens would subtract just about
$10O,O0O,OOO a year from customs reve-
nues. There is strong Democratic sup
port for the free wool proposal, but the
best information is that even if the
committee and the House stood for it,
the Senate would reject it However,
there will undoubtedly he a big cut in
duties. The same is true of sugar:
free sugar is deemed impracticable; !;
doomed in advance because the sup
porters Of the home industry are too
strong. But the duties will be dis
tinctly lowered.
The wool situation is giving the Ways
and Means Committee much worry.
Senator Aldrich's reputation as a tariff
authority suffered sadly in the last re-
vision epoch: but he never said a truer
thing than his famous observation that
the textile schedules-especially wool
constituted the cruX of the whole tariff
situation.
The Democrats have discovered, in
connection with their wool feud, how
correct he was.
The Ways and Means Committee voted
to take up wool ahead of cotton, despite
some sage advice to put cotton first. It
Is Oeep water. CHAIRMAN
Underwood and a minority on the COM
mittee oppose free wool; a majority Of
the committee-that is, OF the Demo-
cratic side of the committeeman prob
ably 80 per cent of Democrats in the
House want free wool
And the House, with the bride of
speakership authority off, is Embossed
and likely to prove, unbossable.
Opposition to Free Wool.
IL od ~
block the whole revision program, for
the conservative House leaders insist
that free wool will not possibly get
it up carefully, and here Is their con-
clusion:
There are eleven New England SEN
ators, opposed to 1t.
There are eighteen Rocky Mountaia
State Senators, also opposed.
Total, twenty-nine in these two
groups. Add to that two from Pennsyl-
vania, one from Ohio, and various
others who are regarded as certain to
oppose, and an anti-free wool majority
can be figured out from the Republican
side alone saying nothing of a num-
Der of wool Democrats.
Free Wool's Fate.
Free wool, in short, is regarded by the
moderates as impossible. But the house
u very hheIy 10 pass IL, ana py so DONG
give the high-tariff Senators fine basis
for a log-rolling program that would
menace many other schedules. A COM
bination of wool, cotton, sugar, and
lumber Senators might imperil the
whole program, and that is just what
the moderate Democratic leaders in
the House fear.
1t is calculated by the conservative
revtsionists that by lowering cotton and
woolen duties very much, and thus let
ting in a larger amount of foreign
goods, the revenues can actually be in
creased: whereas free wool and woolens
would cut off these revenues. The sit
uation is getting so complicated as to
threaten a serious schism among the
Democrats and to menace the whole
revision work.