20,852,197
Grain Lands, 2,212,000
Miscellaneous, 14,967,183
-----------
Total $354,131,773

If from these returns we deduct the earnings of the Post-Office
Department, which are not included in the Commission's estimate of
revenue for the United States, that estimate will exceed the returns of
revenue for France or the United Kingdom by more than thirty millions,
although the expenses of each of these countries are at least fifty
millions more than the computed expenses of our own. It is obvious,
therefore, from the Report of the Commission, that we may dispense with
the fifty-nine millions from income tax and the duties on
transportation, and still have a margin of more than thirty millions to
cover contingencies and provide for the gradual reduction of the debt.
Such a victory in finance achieved the first year after the war would
give us a second great national triumph.

The system proposed by the Commission is entitled to the most favorable
consideration. The taxes levied during the war were multifarious in
their character. Although effective in producing revenue, they were
imposed without discrimination, and they bear heavily alike both on
producer and consumer, checking the industry of the one and swelling
unduly the expenditures of the other. The plan of the Commission strikes
the handcuffs from industry, lessens the expenses of collection, enables
our artisan to compete with the foreigner, and, as most of the
manufactures of the country are consumed at home, consequently reduces
the cost of living. It seems from the Report of the Commission, that
their leading idea is to simplify the system and reduce the number of
taxes; to shift them from the producer to the consumer, and thus
stimulate the creation of wealth; to diminish charges, and at the same
time lighten the weight of the impost as it falls on the consumer.
Another leading idea is to transfer a portion of our burdens to the
foreign consumers of cotton, and at the same time stimulate our
manufactures, and the production of cotton, by a remission of the tax on
cloth exported; while yet another part of their plan was to take from
the illicit trader and give to the public coffers the profit he now
realizes upon spirits, and to restore alcohol to the arts.

Let us give to each of these measures the attention it deserves; and
inquire if we may not take at once