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 system proposed by the Commission is entitled to the most favorable
consideration. The taxes levied during the war were multifarious in
their character. Although effective in producing revenue, they were
imposed without discrimination, and they bear heavily alike both on
producer and consumer, checking the industry of the one and swelling
unduly the expenditures of the other. The plan of the Commission strikes
the handcuffs from industry, lessens the expenses of collection, enables
our artisan to compete with the foreigner, and, as most of the
manufactures of the country are consumed at home, consequently reduces
the cost of living. It seems from the Report of the Commission, that
their leading idea is to simplify the system and reduce the number of
taxes; to shift them from the producer to the consumer, and thus
stimulate the creation of wealth; to diminish charges, and at the same
time lighten the weight of the impost as it falls on the consumer.
Another leading idea is to transfer a portion of our burdens to the
foreign consumers of cotton, and at the same time stimulate our
manufactures, and the production of cotton, by a remission of the tax on
cloth exported; while yet another part of their plan was to take from
the illicit trader and give to the public coffers the profit he now
realizes upon spirits, and to restore alcohol to the arts.
Let us give to each of these measures the attention it deserves; and
inquire if we may not take at once the steps, which the Commission defer
for the present, toward the discontinuance of all charges upon
transportation and incomes. In recommending the entire removal of taxes
on production as the first measure to be adopted, the Commissioners
advise: "That the capital stock of the country in the interval between
1850 and 1860, deducting the value of the slaves, increased at the rate
of 158 per cent, or from $5,533,000 to $14,282,000; and that, if a
development in any degree approximating to the past can be maintained
and continued, then the extinguishment of the national debt in a
comparatively brief period becomes a matter of no uncertainty. To secure
this development, both by removing the shackles from industry, and by
facilitating the means of rapid and cheap intercommunication between the
different sections of the country, is to effect at the same time a
solution of all the financial difficulties that now press upon us."
The policy of the Commission is the speedy abolition or reduction of all
taxes which tend to check development. This policy is eminently wise and
statesman-like; for while it removes some of our most onerous burdens,
it gives a stimulus to the creation of wealth that must annually
alleviate our taxes, and is entitled to the approval of an enlightened
nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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