XII.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL ON CLEVELAND, AS EXPRESSED WHEN PRESIDING AT A REVENUE REFORM MEETING IN BOSTON, DECEMBER 29, 1887.

One, certainly, of the reasons that have brought us hither-one, at least, of those that chiefly suggested the opportuneness of our coming together here-has been the President's message at the opening of the present Congress. Personally, I confess that I feel myself strongly attracted to Mr. Cleveland as the best representative of the higher type of Americanism that we have seen since Lincoln was snatched from us. And by Americanism I mean that which we cannot help, not that which we flaunt-that way of looking at things and of treating men which we derive from the soil that holds our fathers and waits for us. I think we have all recognized in him a manly simplicity of character and an honest endeavor to do all that he could of duty, where all that he would was made impossible by difficulties, to the hourly trials and temptations of which we have fortunately never been exposed. But we are not here to thank him as the head of a party. We are here to felicitate each other that the Presidential chair has a man in it, and this means that every word he says is weighted with what he is. We are here to felicitate each other that this man understands politics to mean business, not chicanery; plain speaking, not paltering with us in a double sense; that he has had the courage to tell the truth to the country without regard to personal or party consequences, and thus to remind us that a country not worth telling the truth to is not worth living in; nay, deserves to have lies told it and to take the inevitable consequences in calmly.

If it be lamentable that acts of official courage should have become so rare among us as to be noteworthy, it is consoling to believe that they are sometimes contagious. "So shines a good deed in a naughty world." As courage is pre-eminently the virtue of men, so it is the virtue which most powerfully challenges the respect and emulation of men. We thank the President for having taught a most pertinent object lesson, and from a platform lofty enough to be seen of all the people. We should be glad to think, though we hardly dare to hope, that some of the waiters on popular providence, whom we humorously call statesmen, would profit by it. As one of the evil phenomena which are said to mark the advance of Democracy is the decay of civic courage, we should be grateful to the President for giving us reason to think that this is rather one of its accidents than of its properties.

Whatever be the effect of Mr. Cleveland's action on his personal fortunes, let us rejoice to think that it will be a stimulating thorn in that august chair for all that may sit in it after him. Would that all our Presidents might see and lay to heart that vision which Dion saw, that silent shape of woman, sweeping and ever sweeping without pause. Our politics call loudly for a broom. There are rubbish heaps of cant in every corner of them that should be swept out for the dustman. Time to cart away and dump beyond sight or smell of mortal men. Mr. Cleveland, I think, has found the broom and begun to ply it.

But, gentlemen, the President has set us the example, not only of courage, but of good sense and moderation. He has kept strictly to his text and his purpose. He has stated the facts and marshalled the figures without drawing further inferences from them than were implicitly there. He has confined himself to the economic question, to that which directly concerns the national housekeeping. He has not allowed himself to be lured from the direct forthright by any temptation to discuss the more general and at present mainly academic questions of free trade or protection. He has shown us that there was such a thing as being protected too much and that we had protected our shipping interests so effectually that they had ceased to need protection by ceasing to exist. In thus limiting the field of his warning and his counsels, he has done wisely, and we shall do wisely in following his example. His facts and his figures will work all the more effectually. But we must be patient with them and expect them to work slowly. Enormous interests are involved, and must be treated tenderly. It was sixty years before the leaven of Adam Smith

impregnated the whole sluggish lump of British opinion, and we are a batch of the same dough.

I can remember the time when bounties were paid for the raising of wheat in Massachusetts. Bounties have fallen into discredit now. They have taken an alias and play their three-card trick as subsidies or as protection to labor, but the common sense of our people will find them out at last. If we are not to expect any other immediate result from the message than that best result of all human speech, that it awaken thought, we can at least already thank it for one signal and unquestionable benefit. It is dividing, and will continue more and more to divide, our parties by the lines of natural cleavage, and will close the artificial and often mischievous lines which followed the boundaries of section or the tracings of bygone prejudice. We have here a question which equally concerns every man, woman and child, black or white, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Bay of Fundy. We have here a topic which renders nugatory all those problems of ancient history which we debated and settled more than twenty years ago by manly wager of battle, and that so definitely that we welcome here to-night with special pleasure some of the brave men with whom we argued then, and whom we insisted all the more on keeping as countrymen that they had taught us how to value them.

XIII.

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH BY THE LATE EMORY A. STORRS, AT AN AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN SPRINGFIELD, ILL., SEPTEMBER, 1870.

A surplus so gigantic demonstrates better than any argument could possibly do, that taxation is unnecessarily high. Still there stands, in a time of profound peace, an enormous tariff, the effect of which is felt in every department of business, and the maintenance of which enhances the cost of living to every man in the land. Why should that tariff be continued? The fact of the surplus demonstrates that it is not necessary for the support of the Government, and so those who are interested in maintaining it are compelled to place their demands upon what they call the "protection of American industry."

I will inquire precisely what is meant by protecting American industry? Against what or against whom is American industry to be protected? Who attacks o? proposes to attack American industry? How is the attack made? Is American industry so feeble that it cannot, without assistance from the Government, protect itself? These are all vital questions. If no one is attacking American industry, it needs no protection. The forms of American industry are wonderfully diversified. The great body of the farmers of the country constitute a large element of what may be called American industry, and I know of no attack upon them so serious in its character as that made by the tariff; and if the farmers need protection against anything it is against protection.

There are thousands of printers in the country; who attacks or proposes to attack them? No one, except it be the tariff, which enhances the cest of material with which their industry is carried on, of the clothes which they wear, of the coal which they burn, of the lumber with which their homes are built, of the salt which they consume, and of the books which they read. There are thousands of shibbuilders in the country; who attacks them and their interests, and from what enemy do they need to be protected? The deserted ship-yards of the East answer this question-they need to be protected against protection, and that is all the protection they need. The thousands and hundreds of thousands of carpenters and joiners, boot and shoemakers, blacksmiths, and the daily toilers with their hands, upon the land or upon the sea, are threatened with an attack against which, for their own protection, the intervention of the Government is necessary.

I apprehend that should the Government levy a direct tax upon all the property of the country, to be paid over directly to iron manufacturers, so that they might be

enabled to hold their own against the competition of the foreign manufacturers, but a few would be found who would justify such an exercise of the power of taxation. When reduced to its exact practical operations, the protection of American industry, so called, is simply the forcible taking from the consumer of a portion of his earnings and handing it over to the manufacturer. The proposition to the consumer is simply this: We, the Government, will take from you 10 or 15 or 20 per cent. of your earnings and give it to the manufacturer, and he will spend it so much more judiciously than you would; that ultimately and in the process of time it will in some curious and circuitous manner which we have not the time to explain now, redound more greatly to your advantage than it would had you spent it yourself and for yourself.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE TAXES OF THE RICH.

HOW THESE HAVE BEEN RELEASED FROM TIME TO TIME SINCE 1866-NOW THE REPUBLICANS FAVOR THE FREEING

OF WHISKEY.

[From a Speech by W. C. P. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, July 8.]

The Republican party claim the credit of large and repeated reductions of internal taxation. That the exact facts may be a matter of record, I ask leave to have printed the letter from Mr. Miller, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to Speaker Carlisle.

During the years in which these reductions were being made no burden has been removed from our tariff taxation, and the increased rates of duties imposed because of these internal taxes have not been removed, though the internal tax has been repealed.

And as this history given in this letter is carefully studied it will be perceived that as a rule these reductions removed burdens from capital and wealth, and rendered more improbable and difficult a revision of the tariff and a reduction of tariff taxation, and more firmly riveted the present system of excessive protective duties upon the tax-payers and consumers.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF INTERNAL REVENUE,
WASHINGTON, May 2, 1888.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith, in compliance with your request, a statement of the amount of internal taxes abolished under the several acts of legislation from July 13, 1866, when the first act was passed "to reduce internal taxation," to March 3, 1883, the date of the last act to reduce such taxation, as shown

First. By ascertaining the differences, when practicable, between the receipts from the several sources affected by the legislation for the years in which the acts were passed, at the rates of tax in force immediately prior to the passage of the acts, and the receipts that the new rates imposed by these acts would have yielded for the same years had they been in force.

Second. When, from want of necessary data, the foregoing method is impracticable, by giving the differences in the receipts for the years immediately preceding and following the years in which the acts were passed effecting the reduction or repeal of said taxes, except in cases where an act had not gone into full operation the first year after its passage, when the receipts for the next succeeding year are taken instead of those for the year before it, and

Third. In cases where the tax is wholly abolished by giving the largest amount of revenue collected from that source in any year as the measure of reduction.

Taxation under the present internal revenue system culminated in 1866, the receipts for that year amounting to $310,906,984.17. Under the laws then in force taxes were levied on raw products, upon all manufactures; upon nearly all professions, trades and occupa

tions, upon the entire receipts of transportation, express, insurance and telegraph companies, of advertisements, bridges and toll roads, and of lotteries, theatres and other places of amusement, upon auction sales and brokers sales of merchandise, stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, promissory notes, gold and silver bullion and coin (and later upon sales of manufacturers, dealers, liquor dealers, etc.), upon the income of individuals, upon bank profits, dividends and additions to surplus funds, upon canal, railroad and turnpike companies dividends, interest on bonds and additions to surplus funds, upon insurance companies' dividends and additions to surplus funds, and upon the salaries of United States officers and employes, upon articles of luxury kept for use, such as billiard tables, carriages, pianofortes and other parlor musical instruments, gold watches, yachts, gold and silver plate, upon nearly every kind of legal instrument, upon promissory notes, bank checks, friction matches and proprietary medicines, upon legacies and successions, upon passports, upon slaughtered cattle, sheep and swine, and upon the capital, circulation and deposits of banks, private, State and national. In a word, every available source of revenue was laid under contribution to pay the interest on the public debt and to meet the other necessary expenses of the Government. This system was probably more far-reaching and comprehensive than any system of taxation ever before devised.

The work of reducing internal taxation began August 1, 1866, and went on more or less rapidly until 1883, when, according to the following statement, taxes to the amount of $320,717,187 per annum had been abolished, and the system relieved of its most burdensome provisions.

TAXES REPEALED FROM JULY 13, 1886, to JULY 14, 1870.

First. Manufactures and products: The largest and most important class of articles taxed during the fiscal year 1866 was that of manufactures and productions. Exclusive or the tax on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, chewing and smoking tobacco, snuff, and cigars it yielded that year $127,230,609. The articles included in it were almost innumerable. One hundred and twenty-five were enumerated in the "schedule of articles subject to tax." One other heading-"manufactures not enumerated"-included the rest. Under this class taxes were duplicated and reduplicated. Among the articles that yielded the largest amount of revenue may be mentioned the raw products-coal, cotton, crude petroleum, and sugar; and the manufactures-boots and shoes, cloths and other fabrics made of cotton, same made of wool, ready-made clothing, illuminating gas, manufactures of iron, oil distilled from crude petroleum, and coal.

Taxes in this class were reduced by acts of July 13, 1866, and March 2, 1867, and were finally abolished by acts of February 3, 1868, March 31, 1868, and July 20, 1868, with the exception of the tax on gas. This was not repealed until August 1. 1872. As a substitute for the tax on manufactures a tax of one-fifth of 1 per cent. was imposed on the sales of manufactures in excess of $5,000 per annum. Largest receipts in 1866; amount, $127,230,609. Second. Gross receipts: Taxes varying from 1 to 5 per cent. were imposed on the gross receipts of canal, railroad, steamboat, express and insurance companies, of advertisements, bridges, ferries, stage coaches, etc. Taxes reduced by acts of July 13, 1866, March 2, 1867, and finally repealed by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1866 amount, $11,262,450.

Third. Sales: Sales of brokers on merchandise, produce, stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, gold and silver bullion and coin, auction sales, sales of dealers and liquor dealers over $50,000 per annum were taxed at rates varying from one-twentieth to one-fourth of 1 per cent, up to 1870. Repealed by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1870; amount, $8,837,395.

Fourth. Special taxes not relating to spirits, beer, and tobacco: An annual tax varying from $5 to $500 was imposed on nearly all professions and occupations. Few reduc tions were made in these taxes before their repeal. Abolished May 1, 1871, by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1866; amount, $14,144,418.

Fifth. Income: The tax on incomes from individuals was reduced by acts of March 2, 1867, and July 14, 1870. It expired by limitation December 31, 1871.

The tax of 5 per cent. on dividends and additions to surplus of banks, insurance, railroad, and other corporations was reduced by act of July 14, 1870, to 2% per cent, and expired by limitation at the same time as the tax on incomes from individuals. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1866: From individuals, $60,547,582; from corporations, $12,434,277; total $72,982,159.

Sixth. Legacies and successions: No reduction in this class before its repeal by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1870; amount, $3,091,825.

Seventh. Articles of luxury kept for use: Reduction by act of July 13, 1866; taxes repealed by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1867; amount $2,116,674. Eighth. Slaughtered animals: No reduction under this class; repealed by act of July 13, 1866. Lars est receipts in fiscal year 1866; amount, $1,291,571.

Ninth. Passports: The tax on passports was repealed by act of July 14, 1870. Largest receipts in fiscal year 1866; amount, $31,149.

Tenth. Stamp taxes: The stamp tax imposed on promissory notes for a less sum than $100, and on receipts for any sum of money or for the payment of any debt, and the stamp tax imposed on canned and preserved fish were repealed October 1, 1870, by act of July 14, 1870.

Total receipts from stamp taxes for the fiscal year 1870..

And for the fiscal year 1872...

Apparent reduction.........

$16,544,043.00 16,177,321.00

366,722.00