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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1898)
Conservative. f Ife mal expenditures in the last fiscal year ? A comparison of the items will dis close the facts. Statement of revenue under the Ding- ley act in the fiscal year ending Juno 80 , 1898. Per Amount capita. Spirits and wines $07,008,838 $1 .31 Beer 40,135,722 .54 Tobacco 40,140,805 .02 $18 .lBlHfV5 $2I" Hnmll internal revenues 2tJ07,6W 01 $180.559,001 , $2.51 Miscellaneous : Perma nent receipts 18,852,278 25 Sugar and molasses. . 29,378,033 .40 $231,000,280 , $0.10 Miscellaneous duty other tlian liquors , tobacco , and sugar 104,537,701 1 40 $3311,327,981 $4 5(1 ( It , therefore , appears that the Dingloy act did not yield the necessary sum , live dollars per head , for the conduct of the government economically administered. The deficiency was forty-four cents per head , which being computed on the es timated population of 74,889,000 persons amounts to $32,7.51,1(50. ( The actual expenses of the government were greatly increased by the war with Spain amounting to 'live dollars lars and ninety-six cts. per head $5.00 $4.13,308,582 , Revenue 4.5(1 ( 30J27 : , ! > 81 Revenue deficiency . . . . $1.40 $104,030,001 Received from Union Pa cific 05,0i)3o4 ; ! Actual deficiency $38,037,247 A comparison of the revenue under the Dingley bill with the receipts per capita under the previous systems , of 1883 , under the McKiuley bill , and the Wilson bill combined , will be interesting. Revenue per capita Revenue per year bv year 1878 capita under to 1807 inclusive. Dingley bill. Subject of taxation- Liquors and tobacco . . $2.470 $2.47 Small internal revenue. . .110 04 Miscellaneous permanent .457 2r. Sugar COO 40 Miscellaneous imports other than liquors , tobac co and sugar . 2.100 l.-K ) $5.81 $4.5C It will be observed that the deficiency on duties , on imports other than liquors , tobacco , and sugar is GO cents per head as compared to previous acts , which amounts in round figures to $50,000,000. IV. Would the Dingley bill have yielded a revenue in the present fiscal year end ing June 80 , 1899 , sufficient to meet the normal rate of expenditure under normal conditions at $5 per head ? The total revenue on the computed population June 1 , 1898 , which is the date established in the practice of the treasury department for ascertaining the per capita of receipts and expenditures at $5 per head on an estimated popula tion of 70,011,000 , would amount to $350,055,000. Bearing in mind that the revenue in the lost fiscal year was at the rate of $4.56 per head- was attained under th < ? disadvantage of a very largo stock of su gar imported before the increase of duty , and that the tax on tea had only begun to yield revenue , it is probable that the present revenue taxes on sugar , tobacco , and tea , will come to an increase of not less than 44 cents per head. On the other hand the import of goods which are subject to the miscellaneous duties is diminishing , notwithstanding the ex haustion of any stock imported before the Dingloy bill came into force , July 24 , 1897. On the whole it may bo deemed fairly probable that the Dingloy act without the subsequent war taxes would have yielded $ o per head , but this favorable view is rendered doubt ful by the diminishing imports of mis cellaneous dutiable goods since Juno 30. In this estimate , however , many facts must bo considered in comparing the very small yield of revenue from the miscellaneous duties under the Dingloy act of $1.40 per head , with the $3.10 yielded on the average of the previous twenty years. No considerable revenue may hereafter be counted on from metals and motalic goods formerly yielding u large rev enue. No sum of any moment will bo secured from iron , steel , or copper , or their products which formerly yielded a largo revenue. Supremacy in making the steel plates which are the principal element in the cost of tin plates has been coupled with the substitution of machinery for the hand work of Wales in this branch of industry. Under these conditions a relatively very small force of skilled workmen at high wages is en abled to convert black plates into tin plates at so low a cost that it is more likely that we shall become largo exporters - porters of tin plates , rather than im porters. The duties on wool are yield ing much less than the expected rev enue , having raised the cost of imported wool so much as to have forced the manufacturers to resort to cotton and shoddy as a substitute. Aside from these subjects of former revenue the progress in many other manufactured products formerly imported has enabled us to export rather than to import. It therefore follows that even if the mis cellaneous duties of the Dingley bill were reduced for the purpose of increas ing , the revenue , the result would prob ably be followed by as great a disap pointment as has followed the enact ment of the Dingley act , which was ex pected to increase the revenue in the sum of $112,000,000 if I rightly recall the speech of the framer on its introduc tion , which sum , had it been realized , would have carried the per capita rev enue in the last fiscal year to six dollars ( $6) ) per head in place of four dollars and fifty-six cents ( $4.50) ) actually yielded. V. Will the Diugloy bill , with the receipts that may bo expected from the war * "V ' revenue taxes n51vjj\f \ force , suffic - to meet the future oxpemliWres o.n tlie 0sy \ - sumption that the surplus in tKo'.taeas- ' ury at the beginning of the wnrvith > . the proceeds of the war loan of $200- / 000,000 , will have sufficed to cover the actual cost of the active war which is a fair assumption ? The answer to this question will depend - pond entirely upon the more important question of how long wo must endure this state of passive war into which the active war with Spain has brought us. By passive war is meant , First. To what extent are we to con vert our navy , now more than ample for defensive purposes , info an offensive force ? Second. In what numbers , at what cost , and for what length of time arc wo to bo subject to the burden of maintain ing great armed forces in the Philippine islands , in Cuba , and in Porto Rico ; also in Hawaii , if expensive fortifica tions and naval stations are undertaken , where only a police force of not over two hundred picked men will bo re quired to keep order ? Third. In what measure and to what numbers will the burden of pensions bo augmented for the support of the very large proportion of the white troops ( or their widows and children ) , who will either die of climatic diseases or bo dis abled by fevers , malaria and venereal disease , so as to be more or less incapa ble of self-support after the term has expired of their enlistment , or for which they may hereafter bo drafted ? Fourth. How much will the present revenue from sugar and tobacco be di minished when the products of Cuba , Porto Rico , and the Philippine islands come under the same revenue acts as those which now apply to the United States and to Hawaii ? It has been made plain that the utmost revenue that can bo honed for under the Dingley act may bo five dollars per head $5.00 In that computation the duties on sugar must go np from 40 cents to 75 cents per head , while the disadvantage of foreign tobacco on account of duties may now be about 5 cents nor head. Sum of reduction not less than , pro bably more .80 Remainder . . . . . $4.20 The war revenue act is now yielding a little less than two dollars per head and may bo safely computed at that sum as the chief sources are from the stamp taxes , which took effect at their probable per capita maximum at onco. and the increase on beer which will not probably diminish its consump tion. Additional war taxes $2,00 Total $0.20 On this estimate the increase in rev enue above the normal expenditures of five dollars per head will bo one dollar and twenty cents , which , assessed on the computed popxilation of the present fiscal year , would yield only $91,218- 200 a sum probably wholly insufficient to meet the increasing burden of the state of passive war which the occupa tion of the Philippine islands , Cuba , Porto Rico and Hawaii has imposed
