The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
The Commission arrive at the conclusion, that all our manufactures are
by these taxes increased in cost from ten to twenty per cent. In the
language of Senator Sherman, when defending the Internal Tax Bill in the
Senate last year, the nation required funds to maintain its armies in
the field; it had put forth its arms and grasped the money of the
country, and would reduce and equalize the taxes when the war was ended.
The Revenue Commission find the taxes on our manufactures and their
materials an incubus upon the industry and a check to the progress of
the country, and recommend their remission. And this we may reasonably
expect from Congress at its present session. But, it may be urged, how
are we to meet the interest on our debt and current expenses of
$284,000,000 in the aggregate, if we repeal these taxes? The answer is a
simple one. The Commission estimate our imports at $400,000,000, and our
duties now average forty-seven per cent. Should this continue, we should
draw from this source alone $188,000,000. There is also the revenue from
public lands and miscellaneous sources, which the Secretary and the
Revenue Commission both rate at $21,000,000, making an aggregate of
$209,000,000; although the Commission, to guard against the effects of
any change in the tariff, modestly rate these items at only
$151,000,000.
To these they add for excise, viz.:--
From five cents per pound on Cotton, $40,000,000
One dollar per gallon on Spirits, 40,000,000
Duties on Tobacco, 18,000,000
Malt Liquors at one dollar only per barrel, 5,000,000
Twenty cents per gallon on Refined Petroleum, 3,000,000
From Spirits of Turpentine and Rosin, 2,000,000
-----------
$108,000,000
Licenses, $15,000,000
Stamps, 20,000,000
Banks, 15,000,000
Salaries, Sales, and Successions, 9,000,000
-----------
$59,000,000
They thus provide a revenue of $318,000,000, or $30,000,000 more than
that required by the Secretary,--a surplus which, with the annual excess
of duties, to say nothing of the future growth of revenue, would
extinguish our debt in little more than thirty years. But to guard
against all contingencies, they propose to levy on incomes taxes to the
amount of $40,000,000; and on the gross receipts of railways, bridges,
canals, and stages, $9,000,000. These change the aggregate to
$367,000,000; an excess of $81,000,000 over the estimate of our
requirements by the Secretary.
* * * * *
The Commission give us the Budget of France in the following summary,
viz.:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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