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