3 o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the creation of supervisory districts and the appointment of 

 supervisors ; the origination of the use of stamps for the collec- 

 tion of taxes on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, tobacco, and 

 the sales of stockbrokers (the last in place of a general tax of one 

 twentieth of one per cent on sales) ; and the creation and organi- 

 zation of the Bureau of Statistics as a branch of the national 

 Treasury. These modifications brought the internal revenue du- 

 ties within a reasonable compass, introduced systems where the 

 want of it was working mischief, and by their ready application 

 in administration reconciled the people to a maintenance of im- 

 portant sources of revenue and a continuance of taxes, which have 

 by their stability and steady increase enabled the Government 

 to meet financial exigencies otherwise awkward and dangerous. 

 The service thus rendered met with recognition at the time both 

 in and out of Congress, and was strongly indorsed by those most 

 interested the head of the Treasury and the industries taxed.* 



The work of taking down the vast and complicated structure 

 of internal taxation, which had been built up during the war, 

 having been once seriously entered upon by Congress (in 1866), 

 it was prosecuted so vigorously that in the comparatively short 

 space of three years the aggregate annual receipts from such 

 taxes were reduced from $310,906,000 in 1866 to $160,039,000 in 

 1869 a reduction of $150,865,000 and to $102,644,000 in 1872, a 

 further reduction of $57,395,000; while the sources of revenue, 

 the annual receipts from each one of which were specifically 

 reported, were reduced from about two hundred and seventy- 

 five in 1866 to nominally sixty- six in 1872; but practically to 

 three distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco the re- 

 ceipts from which alone in 1893 were $150,865,000 as compared 

 with $91,464,000 in 1872. It should, however, be noted that this 

 remarkable increase of revenue, coincident with a large reduction 

 in the number of taxed articles, was due mainly to an increase of 

 consumption consequent upon an increase of population during 

 the period under consideration (26,230,000) rather than to any 



* " I do not believe that any man appointed by the Government in the civil war has 

 done for his country more work, and more valuable work, than David A. Wells. Into the 

 financial chaos resulting from the war he threw the whole weight of a strong, clear mind, 

 guided by an honest heart, and he has done more, in my judgment, to bring order out of 

 chaos than any one man in the United States." (Speech of General James A. Garfield, 

 Member of Congress, United States House of Representatives, July 13, 1868) 



" There are few of my official acts that I look upon with more satisfaction than the ap- 

 pointment of David A. Wells to be Revenue Commissioner. All the reports that were made 

 by him exhibited the most careful, painstaking, and intelligent investigation. In clearness 

 and accuracy of statement, and in logical force, they have not been surpassed on either side 

 of the Atlantic. Their ability was admitted, even by those who disagreed with the writer 

 in his conclusions.''' 1 ( Men and Measures of Half a Century, by Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of 

 the Treasury during the Administrations of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Arthur.) 



