Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1899 — RAISING MONEY FOR WAR. [ARTICLE]

RAISING MONEY FOR WAR.

Question of How Uncle Sam Will Kaiae Funds for Philippine War. Secretary Gage, of the Treasury, is engaged in<the task of ascertaining whence the funds are to come with which to pay the largely-increased army recently determined on by the President and Secretary Root. The recipts of the government did not meet the extraordinary expenditures when the army was Smaller, and the problem of how to meet the cost of 30,009 additional troops gives the Treasury Department some uneasiness. The administration, it is said, is unwilling to make another bond issue, but if this cannot be avoided it will be done; and it is asserted that Secretary Gage has ample authority to issue more bonds for the prosecution of the war in the Philippines, which is regarded as a part of the war with Spain. It seems to be generally conceded that custom duties should not be further increased and thus the means of'raising necessary funds lie in war taxes, or bonds, or both. The following are some of the suggestions that find favor among the revenue officials: The imposition of a stamp tax on all patent protected articles, the theory being that the value of the article is greatly enhanced by the protection of the patent laws of the United States, and that, as a war measure purely, the government would be justified in demanding a fractional part of the profits secured through the establishment of a monopoly by virtue of the patent laws. It is also proposed to place a stamp tax on all slot machines in which there is any element of chance. It has been found that the manufacture of these machines has attained gigantic proportions. In each of them the percentage of profit to the proprietor is enormous, and the tax would not be oppressive. Of course, this would not strike those machines which dispense chewing gum, for in them there is no element of chance, and the gum already pays a government tax. Another proposition that has met with favor at the hands of the Treasury Department Is one to put a stamp tax on all firearms, except such as are used for national, State or municipal purposes;