Year: 1871

Prosf.


We print at the foot Of this article batch Of
figures which are remarkable and instructive
statement In connection with the popular
movement for reduction Of the taxes. 1t is
the summary of the proceeds of our internal
revenue for the years ls6S-'69-'70, and we
particularly invite the attention Of the 1nan-
ciers in Congress to perusal Of It. Il con-
firms the soundness Of the views we have been
lately insisting on with reference to the public
burdens, and fortiHes the demands we make
for q reduction, immediate and sweeping, Of
the burdens under which we are all groaning.
In face Of these figures nothing but gross stu
pidity or corrupt purpose can longer delay
this consummation, and to resist 1t win amount
on the part Of Congress to positive defiance
Of the peoples just rights.


tappears from this table that in the fiscal
year 1868 the revenue from spirits, emitting
odd figures, amounted to eighteen million
dollars; in 1870 to ffty-ive million
dollars; while, as we all know, the duty
in the first period was two dollars per gallon
in the latter fifty cents-that is to say, duty
one-fourth in amount produced return to the
federal government more than three times In
amount. The lessons to be derived from this
overwhelming fact are numerous and forcible,
and it is to be hoped they will be taken to
heart 1t shows conclusively the absurdities
that may be committed in financial matters
where there is an absence Of individual respon-
sibility in arranging taxing system. An old
Greek poet said that there are some foolish
people who never will see that sometimes half
as in taxation. Duties, whether customs or
internal taxation, may be pitched SO high as to
defeat the object by provoking and almost JUS
tifying fraud and evasion. A great part,
therefore, Of the gigantic increase Of the reve-
nue. from spirits in these two periods may be
referred to the operation Of this principle. It
is true that there has been under President
Grants administration greater zeal and hon
esty in collecting the duties. But all the hon
esty and zeal in the world would have resisted
in vain the temptation to defraud the revenue
afforded by the higher scale of taxation.
Human faf1ire IS human nature, and people
who will resist stoically the seductfons of
cent will damn themselves cheerfully for dol
lar. 1t is grievous thing that it should ever
have been overlooked in framing the taxing
system of great country.


But there Is another and more practically
important conclusion which the table forces
upon us, and that is the superauousness now of
an immense portion Of the harassing taxation
raised under the head of internal revenue
We consider that we have established posi-
lively and peremptorily the folly of paying off
the debt at the high pressure rate of the last
two years and that we can and ought to sweep
away q hundred millions at least from the COM
bined import and internal revenue duties
which we now raise The total amount of the
internal revenue for 1870, emitting the figures
beyond millions, was one hundred and eighty
five million dollars, of which the far greater
part was from spirits, tobacco and fermented
liquors, which amounted together to
ninety-four million dollars. 1t is open, there
fore, to US now to knock Off at one blow the
whole Of the internal revenue system that
strikes at everything except these three items
Of spirits, tobacco and fermented liquors,
thereby taking load from our backs under
freedom corresponding in some decent mea-
sure to the political freedom we enjoy. After
all the one is not Of much use without the
other. What is the use Of freedom in all other
respects if we are the helpless slaves of the
tax-gatherer? The odious income tax might
thus be flung overboard-that tax which many
wise men say never should be levied In any
country except under the sovereign emergency
of war, when q country's life Is at stake; and
also all those minor items Of banks and bank
ers' tax, gross receipts sales, special taxes
mot otherwise enumerated" legacies, sue
cessions and the rest, which it is farcical
cruelty to retain, except, Of course, penalties
which must obviously be retained. Some Of
these other items are disgracefully absurd.
The last thing In the world that should be
taxed Is light in any form; and the figure Of
two million dollars on gas is one which should
never have been imposed, much less be re-
tanned. When Pitt ransacked all life to tax it
in England, early in this century, to provide fuel
for the work his country then pursued so merrily
of setting Europe on fire, there was nothing
that angered the people so much as the
window tax, Of which it was said with that
Neutrality-suspicious. which comes in Great
Britain from the close union between politics
and beer


God made the light and said twas good;


Pitt taxed the light, God d--n his blood.


We will not be SO uncivil as that. But this
gas tax, it is neither excessive nor profane to
say, damns the eyes of all Of us seriously by
causing the production of an inferior article !,
and light really must be free and pure.


The last and weighty illustration conveyed
by this memorable table is on that point to