Taxes in the United States.

Q. What is the average tax imposed upon dutiable foreign commodities by the United States?

A. For the years 1883-4, 42.6 per cent., or nearly one-half the value of the goods.

Q. What was the valuation of dutiable commodities imported into the United States during the year ending June 30, 1883?

A.£115,135,239.

Q. What amount of tax was paid upon these importations?

A. Over £42,127,000.

Q. By whom was this tax paid?

A. By the people of the United States.

Q. Was the revenue in 1883-4 more than was necessary to meet the wants of the Government?

A. It was very much more than was needed to support the Government, honestly administered.

Q. How do you prove this?

A. The net ordinary expenditures of the Government for 1883, and the interest on the public debt, were £53,081,600. The revenues were, during the same year, from all sources, £79,657,400.

Q. What was the rate of tariff before the war?

A. In 1860 the average tariff was 19.6 per cent, on all dutiable imports, and 15.6 per cent, on all imports.

Q. What is the total amount of taxes—national, state, county and municipal—at present annually assessed and collected in the United States?

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A. More than one hundred and forty millions sterling. The census estimate for 1880 was over £145,000,000. Of this amount the Federal Government collected, during each of the years 1882 and 1883, about eighty millions sterling.

Q. What proportion does the total annual taxation of the whole country sustain to the value of its total annual commercial product.

A. The taxes absorb or represent more than seven pounds out of every hundred of product.