The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-08

receipts for the year 1916 on the assump-
 tion that the emergency revenue measure
 passed by the last Congress will not be
 extended beyond it's present limit, De-
 cember 31, 1915, and that the present duty
 of 1 cent per pound on sugar will be dis
 continued after May l. 1916, will be S670,-
 365,5 800. The balance of June last and these estimated revenues come, therefore, to a
 grand total of STA, ,535, ,605. 7S. The total es- timated disbursements for the present fis- cal year. including $25, 5,000,000 for the Pan-
 anna canal, $12,00O,0G0 for probable de- ffcienoy appropriations, and $J0000 for mis- cellaneous debt redemptions will be S753,- S91, COG and the balance in the general fund of the treasury will be reduced to $2O, GA IS. The emergency revenue act, if continued beyond it's present time lim- itation, would produce, during the half year then remaining about $41,000000. The duty of cent per pound on sugar, if continued, would produce during the two months of the fiscal year remaining after May l, about $15,0O00 600. These two sums, amounting together to $56.O00.000, if added to the revenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would yield the treasury at the end of the year an available balance of S76, GA, COLTS
 The additional revenues required to
 carry out the programme of military and naval preparation of which I have 1 spoken, would, as at present estimated, be Tor the fiscal year 1917, $93, 800 900. Those figures taken with the figures for the present fiscal year which I have al- ready given, disclose our financial prob lem for the year 1917. Assuming that the taxes imposed by the emergency revenue act and the present duty on sugar are 1 to be discontinued, and that the balance ! at the close of the present fiscal year will be only $20.644, 6O5.7S, that the dis- bursements for the Panama canal will a he a nd tIo+ i ditional expenditures for the army and navy are authorized by the Congress, the l deficit in the general fund of the treas- ury on June 30, 1917, will be nearly s235,- 000,0O0. To this sum at least s50000, 900 | should be added to represent a safe SIP 000,000 to include the usual deficiency 1 estimates in 1917; and these additions would make a total deficit of some $297,- 1 0O0,000. If the present taxes should be | continued throughout this year and the l next, however, there would be a balance 1 in the treasury of some $500, coo at the end of the present fiscal year, and g. deficit at the end of the next year of only 1 some $50,000,000, or, reckoning in $620O0,OOJ l for deficiency appropriations and safe ] treasury balance at the end of the year, | a total deficit of some $112000,OO0 The
 obvious moral of the figures is that it is
 a plain counsel of prudence to continue
 all of the present taxes or their equiva- Tents, and confine ourselves to the prob- lem of providing SIP. 100000 of new revenue | rather than $297, ,000,000.
 SOURCES OF REVENUE
 I How shall we obtain the new revenue? l We are frequently reminded that there are many millions of bonds which the l treasury is authorized under existing law | to sell to reimburse the sums paid out | of current revenues for the construction of the Panama canal, and it is true that | bonds to the amount of approximately
 $222, ,000,C00 are now available for that pur- pose. Prior to 1913 O134, ,631, ,9SO of these | bonds had actually been sold to recoup | the expenditures at the Isthmus, and l (Continued on Page Nfne)