

APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



APRIL, 1897. 



HOW CAN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEST 

 RAISE ITS REVENUES? 



By DAVID A. WELLS, 



BX-tTNlTED STATES SPECIAL COMMISSIONER OF REVENTTE, ETC. 



THE President of tlie United States, in one of his recent speeches, 

 was reported as saying : " I can imagine nothing more im- 

 portant than a revenue system that will provide money enough to 

 run the Government. We have 7}ot had enough money to run 

 this Government for the past three years, under a false system of 

 political economy. So the question is, How shall we raise that 

 money 9 Do you want to raise it by direct taxation, by taxing the 

 property and lands or the incomes and wages of the people 9 

 \Gries of ' No.''\ Well, then, the other way to raise it is by tax- 

 ing the products that come here from Europe in competition with 

 American products." 



Assuming the above authoritative utterance as in the nature 

 of a text from which deductions are both warranted and desirable 

 for the purpose of popular instruction, the following points ought 

 to commend themselves at the outset to the American people for 

 consideration : First. Notwithstanding the great and urgent ne- 

 cessity of currency reform, the need of providing a speedy, cer- 

 tain, adequate, and proper revenue for the Federal Government is 

 of immediate importance. Second. No nation exists, or ever has 

 existed, which has such great resources and facilities for obtain- 

 ing an ample and certain revenue with so little of friction and 

 annoyance to its people and with such a minimum of expense. 

 The amount of our national debt is not alarming, and ought not 

 to be a source of anxiety. As a matter of fact, the United States, 

 notwithstanding its present fiscal disturbance, is in a better finau- 



TOL. L. 55 



