Year: 1868

Committee


natory Of the Revenue AK Hill reported


by him from the Committee of Ways and


Means 81 .sa4as


Mr.. CHAIRMAN: A great deal that
may have to say on this project Of law
which we have now placed before the
House and the country, shall reserve
for the debate that will necessarily arise
on the various amendments that may be
offered and points made in the progress
Of its consideration and discussion.
The bill is long-the longest, perhaps.
ever submitted to Congress in the form
of a single act, but the gentlemen must
not be alarmed on that account. Itneed
! not occupy much time in disposing of
it at all in proportion to that length.
The long and patient labor Of the Com =
mittee on Ways and Means will be found
to have abridged in considerable degree,
think. the labor of this committee.
Gentlemen will please to observe the
title of this. 1t tells truly and success
| fully the character and extent of Our
work. 1t is bill to reduce into one
act and to amend the laws relating to
| internal taxes. When the Committee
on Wars and Means at this session en-
! tered first on the task of considering
what legislation might be required in
relation to internal taxes, it was with
the expectation--an expectation shared
| in, probably, by most Of the members
around me-that their attention and
their labor might be confined to changes
Of some parts of the law to meet gen


orally the altered condition of things in
the country. and particularly to satisfy
the reasonable desire Of the people, some
| OF the industrial interests which hal
been heavily burdened under the neces-
sites Of the state of war, but from which
a portion, at least, of those burdens
might now be lifted. Added to this
was the conviction Of an evident need
for more ingenious devices and more
vigorous provisions to prevent or pun


ish the sadly dreadfully incl easing bold
ness and fraud, the practices of tax


payers and of officials-practices which
/ were threatening, if unchecked. to rob
the Government of large proportion
Of the revenue legitimately accru;ng
and needed for its uses. 1t was appa


rent, however. that our work. to he
Thorough, could not stop with such Ear
tial accomplishment. The present laws
relating to internal revenue. are enr


braced in twenty-five different acts,
spreading through the statute book from
August, 1861, to the present session.
These acts, in succession, enlarge, re


strict, modify, repeal, and not unfre-
quently repeat or contradict much of
what goes before. SO that the whole
mass of them, if not chaotic. are at
least in many respects anything but
clear and easy to be understood by the
people who are to obey, or the officers
who are to enforce them The obscur


tiles are only in a degree removed by
interpretations and regulations. l beg
to be understood in speaking thus as
not meaning to imply any disparage


ment of the work of any former com


mittee or former Congress. Internal
taxation was an experiment, a necessity
to which we were driven, and it was
not to be expected that a new system
should be built up and adapted to the
business and habits Of our country and
our people, hastily and under the pres,
sure Of circumstances, without it's being
in many respects imperfect in form, if
not crude in substance. So we found
it. / do not for moment pretend to
claim perfection for the bill before you,
and by which we have sought to remedy
some of these defects and evils in the
! existing law, but we have done the best
we could with these views of what it
was our duty to attempt. The compila-
ton and condensation of the Internal
Revenue laws prepared at the office of
the missioner of Internal Revenue,
contains one hundred and forty one
pages Of closely printed matter. The
pamphlet edition of the bill we present
shows one hundred and twenty four
pages. but allowing for the differences
in the width Of the print, the contents,
perhaps, are about the same. This is
owing to the fact that while we have
codified and very much compressed and
abridged what is now in the law, we have
also added a great number Of new pro-
visions that seemed necessary for effec-
in regard to the general scope of labor
and the spirit in which we have con
Quoted it, I will now proceed, Mr.. Chair
man, to make some brief explanations
and analyses of the bill we are consid-
ering, so as to give the gentlemen some
idea of its structure and its most mater
ial points in which it differs from the
present law. The keynote of one great
change which we propose, and which
pervades and distinguishes our bill
throughout, is to be found in the first
Immediately succeeding sections, We
propose, it will be seen, to make the
office Of Commissioner of Internal Rev.
enue an independent department By
this do no: mean a department with
an officer at its head, who is to be ex-
pected, under the usage of the Govern
ment, to be invited to the Cabinet coun-
ellis of the President, but one rather like
the Department of Agriculture, with a
chief styled, not Secretary, but Com
missioner. The provisions which fol-
low immediately after this will make our
purpose obvious. We desire to give
this independent character to the Com
missioner of Internal Revenue in order
not only to mark and secure his own
responsibility and accountability for the
conduct and management Of all affairs
in the department, but to enable him un-
Ii tho .,f d<a