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Show Decay of State Power. nMlE oleomargarine bill rs the latest J and most odious and offensive example ex-ample of the practice of using the national taxing power to prohibit a domestic do-mestic industry. The taxing power has '"'6 o-cn u.ru io i'icrni me importation importa-tion of the products of foreign industries indus-tries in order to give protection to the American manufacturers or growers of i-imilar products. Its use to "regulate" out of existence one domestic industry for the benefit of another industry or for the alleged protection of public health or morals is of later origin. There is a tax of 10 per cent on the circulation of state banks. That tax was not imposed as a revenue measure, meas-ure, but to destroy state bank notes and leave a free field for the national i bank issues. But the practical illustration illus-tration of the axiom that "the power to tax is the power to destroy" has served as a precedent for a similar use of the taxing power where its expediency expe-diency may be questioned, says the Chicago Tribune. The war revenue act of 1S98 contained con-tained a provision for the taxatiqn of j bucket shops which aimed at their extinction. ex-tinction. A brief controversy between the house and senate as to whether that provision shall be repealed with the war taxes or left in force has been determined in favor of repeal. The tax on bucket shops is to go w ith the other war taxes. The bucket shop business is objectionable from many points of view. It should be regulated, controlled or prohibited. The bucket shop itself is objectionable from the point of view of the moralist who sees in tolerated gambling an intolerable evil. But it is open to question whether it properly comes within the purview of the national na-tional authority to control bucket shops, policy shops, or any other kind of shops which are subject to the police po-lice powers of the several states. On the whole, we would like to see the bucket shop tax retained, but we cannot can-not help seeing in this and all similar legislation a dangerous abuse of the true functions of the national government. govern-ment. A few years ago the practice sprang j tip of mixing wheat flour with corn flour and selling the product as wheat flour. The millers took exception to it. They appealed to congress to use the taxing power for their protection against a new industry which they said injured trade in many ways. Congress granted the prayer. A special tax was imposed on the manufacturers of mixed flour and a tax was put on their product. These taxes produced $6,600 during the last fiscal year. The taxing tax-ing power has about destroyed the mixed flour industry, whose product was not an unhealthful one. Should the power to tax in order to destroy be usea in any suen case? Sixteen years ago a small tax was levied on oleomargarine at the instance of the dairymen. , The ostensible ob- ject was to "regulate" the business and obtain revenue. The hope of the dairymen dairy-men was that the business would be .destroyed. The hope was frustrated. Therefore they have asked congress for and are on the eve of obtaining legislation which will practically put an end to the manufacture of a food product which is not injurious to health, which a great many Americans have been buying because it was cheap and enjoying because it was an acceptable ac-ceptable substitute for butter. The practice of using the taxing power at the instance of one domestic industry to destroy another domestic industry is dangerous. It has been carried too far. If it Is to become a settled rule of action that an industry which can command the necessary votes in congress may use the taxing power to crush out home rivals the abuse of power may in time become intolerable. in-tolerable. It is time to put a limit .to this perversion of the functions of the national government. |