The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-11
The True Principle for the Taxing oil
Distilled Spirits.

DIStllI6u SpAAlhos
II seems 10 be the general impression that
CONGRESS-. at its next session, will make some |
important notifications in the Internal Reve-
nue. law relating to the manufacture OF dis
titled spirits. The necessity for this is very
apparent, If we may judge from the inefi-
cienoy and failure in the collection of this i'm
portant branch of the revenue under the law
as It now stands. Distilled spirits, which
ought to pay about one hundred millions per
annum into the treasury, now yield hardly one
third Of that amount. Of course this failure
imposes still heavier burdens upon other
branches of industry. But this is one Of the
smallest of the evils connected with it. The
widespread decentralization and corruption,
both of the people and of the officers of
Government, incident to this branch of
our revenue system, as at present
conducted, is much greater and more start
ling evil. That much of this is due to the
character of the law itself we do not doubt.
Other countries collect as large tax per
gallon from distilled spirits as we are endea-
voring to do, and collect it successfully, with
out any excess of fraud in that particular
There is no reason why we should not do so
too. Americans are not naturally any more
dishonest than other people, and the average
run of our internal revenue officials are pro-
baby as little inclined, priori to peculation
and fraud as those of other countries. The
difficulty is in our system ITSELF which offers
such occasions for fraud on a large and remu-
nerative scale, that it at once holds out tempta-
tions too strong to be resisted by men of ordi-
nary virtue. And, in the second place, volu-
minous and minute as are the provisions of
the law, it fails in practical operation to afford
the proper and requisite facilities for the con-
viction and punishment of those who violate
its provisions. AS an instance, we may men
ton that all important violations of the law
are made criminal offenses, punishable in many
instances by imprisonment; and yet though
infractions of the law are constant, and the
Courts are thronged with what are called
"liquor cases." we never, or at least very
rarely, hear of criminal prosecution.
ANY man who understands the business of
manufacturing distilled spirits would see at
once, upon reading our present law, that it was
reach certain results, but instead of doing so
by plain and direct methods, it resorts to a
hundred different checks and balances, which
amount to nothing practically. Under it the
skilful distiller will perpetrate frauds which
only an equally skilful distiller can detect.
The primary principle of the law, as it now
stands, is to find the product of a distilIery
from the oath Of the distiller, the very person
who, of all others, is most interested to make
a false statement. Now, the true ground to
go upon is the simple one of taxing the actual
contents of distillery, from day to day, as
the process of fermentation is going on. Let
the Government establish a certain percen-
tage of the "beer'' as the product in
distilled spirits upon which it will assess
the tax, and it will collect thousands of dol
lars where it now gets hundreds. For
instance, suppose six per cent. is
the proportion of distilled spirits to ''beer' in
the fermenting vats which the Government
establishes as its standard of taxation; then,
upon every one hundred gallons of "beer'
the Government will collect the tax due on six
gallons of whisky, and in this ratio for larger
or smaller amounts. The ratio should be
fixed low enough TO allow small margin in
favor of the careful manufacturer. The
amount of ''beerh in the fermenting vats car
be accurately determined by ocular inspection
1t is a mere question of arithmetic. This
should be the business of revenue officers paiC
by the Government. No reference should bt
made to the distiller at all. No questions
need be asked of him. All that he SHOULD
be required to do is to keep his doors open, 81
that the revenue officer may daily inspect hi
place Of business. The revenue officer makes
his daily round, reports the numbe
of gallons Of "beer' in fermentation
and the Government assesses III
tax according to an invariable rule. TIL,
whole thing is simple, direct, efficient Their,
is no ground of fraud by the distiller. H,
has been eliminated from the problem alto
gether. There is no attempt to follow up tn,
whisky, and keep hold on that. There il
no necessity for inspectors and gaugers, excep
for those connected with the bonded ware
houses. There is no door for fraud in tn
matter of production, except in the making @
false reports by the examining officers of tn
amount of ''beer'' in the Yats, and that wOul
be 40 easy and sure of detection, that it ma
be practically thrown out of the account.
This is the true principle of taxation as re
40 n