Year: 1862

The Proposed Tax Upon Ncwspa pers.


The proposition 10 include newspapers among
the numerous objects which will have to contri-
butte their quota to the revenue henceforth to be
derived from taxation has excited good deal
OF controversy both in and outside the press.
Some journals grumble at the proposal from
misapprehension of the effect which it will have
upon their interests, whilst there are amongst
the general public many who are averse to the
enhancement, slight though 1t may be, of the
price Of an article so necessary to their daily
comfort. Granted the principle that all taxes
to be equitable must be uniform, there need be
no reason on the part Of we'll conducted and
respectable journals to apprehend the effect Of
taxation on their property. If there is any sub
stantial foundation flor their existence in the
public wants, it will not be impaired by the
small addition made to the price of their issues
by the tax. Should, on the contrary, their cir
culation be a forced one, and not due to any
healthy or legitimate influence, it will undoubt-
edly curtail it. And it is precisely in this very
fact that the advocates Of q uniform stamp
duty find the strongest argument in its favor


AAO OAA CAy Va shV hiJuohSC Shu AuOAPO0A-
ency of imposing taxes upon knowledge has,
like many other modern shibboleths been
qualified by the results Of practical experience.
In England, previous to the abolition of the
stamp duty, nothing could be more decorous
than the tone of its press The most exciting
questions were discussed with calmness and
propriety that the rest Of the world admired,
without being able to initiate With the re-
mOval of the stamp duty change became i'm
mediately observable. The old established
journals, such as the London Times had to
make preparations to meet the keen competi-
ton to which they were about to be subjected
by the penny papers. Instead of the cultivated
intellects and ripe experience which they had
been previously able to employ, they were
compelled to resort to the services of writer's
of a lower grade of capacity. But the deterio-
ration did not stop here. The penny papers,
met, as they were, by reduction of price on
the part of their older rivals, had to find
some other means of forcing their circulation.
This they endeavored to do by giving sensa-
tional character to their sheets, and by excel
ling each other in violence and scurrility. 1t
was in that way that the Telegraph, the organ Of
JEFF. Davis, made its enormous circulation.
Since its success became so decided the London
Times, the Herald. the Chronicle and the Post
have been running race with it in exaggera-
ton of views and language. A more general
and amusing trucking to the supposed taste of
the masses has rarely if ever been witnessed.
When the rebellion broke out in this country
it was Immediately seized upon as sensational
theme to influence and excite the public mind.
Of tue unprincipled and scandalous use that was
made of it we need not remind our readers. 1t
is sufficient to say that no press ever disgraced
ITSELF by such an open disregard of common
honesty and decency.


We are persuaded that if the stamp duty upon
newspapers had been still in operation the tone
Of the English press towards this country would
have been very different. In the FIRST place, the
class of writers who would have been at its
head would have been inaccessible to Southern
gold and Southern convivialities, and in the
next there would have been no necessity for
creating and keeping alive fictitious excitements
for sensational purposes. II is to this point
that we should like to see the press of this
country brought. A moderate tax of say
quarter or half cent on each copy would 60
far to improve and elevate its character, by in
Producing into it higher class of writers, and
wedding it of the demoralizing influences which
in the shape of spiritualist womans' rights, free
love and abolitionist publications, now degrade
it. This can only, we repeat, be done by uni
form tax; for none ether can accomplish the
double object Of effecting these reforms and o.
securing sufficient revenue to render it an OBJ
jcct worthy of the attention Of government
linancers. The benefits resulting to the majority
of readers from the change that will be thus
brought about will, we are satisfied, reconcile
them to the slight addition that it will make to
the cost of their newspapers.