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have been engaged in studying the protozoa, and the general principles of morphology of the metazoa. At present they are examining and making sections of the elementary tissues of the metazoa as a basis for comparative histology. In all cases the students have been obliged to make their own observations and diagnoses and to make drawings of all the principal points of structure seen. In this way they become practically familiar with the chief characters and structure of the animals they study, and the text-book is only used as an aid to confirm and fill out points they have not been able to observe.

The first annual reception of the Provost to the graduating classes was given on Friday evening, November 4th. In addition to the Senior Classes in the Collegiate Department, Towne Scientific School, Medical Department, Law Department, and Dental Department, including about three hundred students, the members of the several Faculties, and other instructors connected with the various departments, were invited. Provost Pepper received in the Chapel. The students appeared to be unanimous in their attendance, and it was pleasant to find those of the different departments interchanging conversation, uniting in college songs, and otherwise exhibiting an acknowledgment of their common maternity. The University buildings were lighted, and presented a bright and inviting picture from without, visible at a great distance. A liberal but temperate banquet was provided, and the hearty joyousness everywhere manifested was spontaneous and altogether independent of any stimulus more exhilarating than coffee.

The series of receptions thus inaugurated will be continued annually, and other measures taken throughout the session to bring together the professors and students of the different departments, and thus establish and cement the relations which should exist among members of the same family.

ON

BRIEF MENTION.

N the 6th of September last, Mr. Wharton Barker addressed to Senator Morrill a published letter, in which he states, with great clearness and force, the reasons for a material reduction in the internal revenue taxation to which the country is now subjected. Mr. Barker's argument is, that the taxes in question were imposed under the pressure of the burdens of the war, and that it is unreasonable that they should continue to be extorted sixteen years after the war came to an end, and when they are not needed for the current expenses of the government, nor for the punctual payment of interest on the debt, nor for the establishment of confidence in our financial resources, nor for the facilitation of processes of refunding at lower interest rates." Mr. Barker also calls attention to the fact that since August, 1865, more than $950,000,000 have been paid upon account of the public debt, and, that on the 1st of October last, that debt amounted to something more than $1,566,000,000, reductions having been made during the last quarter at the rate of $146,000,000 per annum, with the treasury showing a surplus, over and above all expenses, of nearly $100,000,000. Mr. Barker further argues: (1) that the taxes in question, being unnecessary, are irritating to the people; (2) that the accumulation of an unneeded surplus in the treasury is an incentive to extravagance and corruption; (3) that the reformation of the public service is retarded by the large number-exceeding four thousand--of government employés required for the collection of the taxes; (4) and that the taxes fall heavily upon the southern States, more than $30,000,000 out of a total collection of $130,000,ooo being paid by those states, and that if those taxes be remitted it will liberate for purposes of state taxation an amount which would enable those states to put their finances upon an honorable basis. Mr. Barker concludes with the suggestion that any reduction of taxation should come from a diminution of internal instead of import duties.

Mr. Barker's letter has been followed by an editorial in The American of 29th October, which is directed to meet and answer the argument that the true financial policy of the government is the total extinction of its debt, and, that for that purpose, the taxes must be kept at their present figure.

The article condenses and analyzes the treasury statement of October 1st, showing the total interest-bearing debt of the United States at that date to amount to $1,593,102,250, of which $589,754,450 is in loans now payable, and $988,710,850 in loans not now payable, $250,000,000 of the last amount being the four-and-a-half per cent. loan of 1891, and $738,710,850 being the amount of the four per cent. loan of 1907, and that the treasury operations of the last quarter have accumulated a surplus applicable to the extinction of the debt amounting to $41,742,866.21. The article contends that, at this rate, the payable debt will be extinguished in about three years, and that then a period of seven years must elapse before any more of the debt can be by its terms payable; and that the government securities will command so high a price in the market that no secretary of the treasury of that time is likely to propose that the government should extinguish its obligations by purchasing them at their high premium.

On 29th November, the Hon. William D. Kelley delivered before the Tariff Convention in New York, an address, whose force of argument and clearness of statement must command the respect of even those who do not accept his conclusions. He also took strong ground for the abolition of the internal revenue taxation. He reiterated the views to which Mr. Barker and The American had given expression. He stated that the government has, between 1865 and 1875, and between 1879 and 1881, paid for premiums on its purchase of its own bonds $63,594,736.93, but he did not state that that expenditure was justifiable, because it enabled the government to extinguish obligations which were bearing 6 per cent. interest, and to refund at lower rates, and was more than counterbalanced in amount by the lower rate of interest at which the loans are refunded. But all the loans now payable having been refunded at lower rates, it is very clear, as Mr. Kelley stated, that the "attempt to burden our industries and harass the producers of great staples by the collection of such amounts of money to be bestowed as largesses on the holders of our debt, would not be tolerated by the American people ;" and that "the effort to enforce such a policy would sweep from power any administration and party by which it might be proposed."

Mr. Kelley quoted the resolution which he offered in the fortyfirst and forty-second congresses, and which passed both bodies almost

unanimously, asserting as “the true principle of revenue reform” the" abolition of the internal revenue," and the " repeal, at the earliest day consistent with the maintenance of the faith and credit of the government, of all stamp and other internal taxes." Mr. Kelley argued that the abolition of those taxes is demanded in the interest of Civil Service Reform, in order that the country may do without the four thousand internal revenue employés.

The most onerous and the most productive of the taxes are those on whiskey and tobacco, and on the capital circulation and deposits of banks and bankers. While it is true, that the government has not the power to levy taxes either for sumptuary or moral purposes, yet it may be contended that in any general reduction of taxation, the burden should last be taken from whiskey and tobacco. The postponement of their consideration is certainly defensible on economic grounds, for those articles, apart from the consideration of their pernicious effects, are not necessaries, but luxuries.

Of the other taxes the most important are those upon banks and banking operations. Banks organized under the laws of the several States, and private bankers are subject to federal taxation, which is practically prohibitory of their circulation, and also to taxation at the the rate of one-twenty-fourth of one per cent. per month upon the average amount of their deposits of money subject to cheque or draft, and to a like tax upon the capital employed in their business, exclusive of the average amount invested in United States bonds, and exclusive also of money borrowed from day to day in the usual course of business. Under one of those edicts of the internal revenue department, which are called "decisions," this exemption is so limited as not to include money borrowed on time. The amount of this taxation constitutes a serious incumbrance upon the business of private banks and brokers.

The question is even more important with regard to national banks. While it is true that the national banks are institutions organized for the purpose, primarily, of private profit, yet they have deserved well of the government and people, and they perform some public functions of great importance.

During the dark days of the war, the national banks sustained the credit of the government by their purchases of government bonds, and at the very darkest period, in July, 1861, after the armies of the Union had been beaten at Bull Run, and the

fate of the Union was trembling in the balance, the banks in the cities of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, which subsequently became national banks, subscribed for $50,000,000 of bonds, and afterwards for $150,000,000 of bonds that could not have been otherwise negotiated. The national bank circulation is elastic and it is cheap. It circulates at par throughout the United States. It has all the facility of production in times of emergency which a circulation issued by the government directly would have, and, unlike a governmental circulation, it is not open to the objection that while it cannot be supplied in sufficient amounts for the wants of of the people when governmental expenditures are reduced to equality with the revenue, or below it, yet it must flow forth with a dangerous expansion, when, through waste and corruption, or otherwise, the governmental expenditure exceeds its revenue. The circulation, being based upon the bonds of the United States, constantly creates a large demand for government securities. Every stockholder in the banks, every depositor, and every citizen through whose hands the circulation passes, has an interest in the stability of the government.

The 2,115 national banks of this country had, on 30 June last, an aggregate capital of $460,227,835, with a surplus fund of $126,679,517.97 and other undivided profits amounting to $54,683,492.73. Their outstanding circulation was $355,042,675, secured by the capital and assets of the banks issuing it, and also by $358,287,500 in United States bonds deposited in the treasury; they had deposits (not including government funds) to the amount of $1,031,731,043.42. They had out on loans and discounts $1,140,750,198.65; they had in their vaults $128,038,927.50 in gold and silver coin, $58,728,713 in legal tender notes, $9,540,000 in government certificates of deposits and $372,140.23 in fractional currency; and they had $47,834,060.20 invested in their banking houses.

business which the system upon which

These figures show the magnitude of the national banks transact, the stability of the they are founded, and the security which they afford to all who do business with them, but, while they indicate, they do not fully show, to how great an extent the business of the country has been developed by, and is dependent upon, those banks. The adequate presentation of that branch of the subject would require a volume.

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