Huntsville gazette., 1888-12-01
INTERNAL REVENUE.

| AsHINGToN, Nov 26.-The annual re-
/ port OF Joseph S. Miller, Commissioner
4 or internal Revenue, was given to the
press last night The report covers not
/ only the operations of the bureau during
/ the fiscal year ended June 80, 1898, but
includes some very Interesting compare
tive tables relating to production in past
/ years, as well as additional information
relating to the work Of the Office during
Y the first quarter of the current fiscal
year. Mr.. Miller's report shows that in
/ ternal revenue receipts from all sources
during the fiscal year were $124 1926, 475 or
nearly four and half millions more than
his estimates. His estimates of receipts
for the current year is $125 200, 900. pro
vldlng that no changes are made in exist
ing rates of taxation. The cost Of collec-
ton during the past year aggregated
S3,9lo, ,2S3; being less than three and two
tenths per cent. of the amount collected,
against three and four tenths per cent in
1881. The estimated expenses Of the
/ service for the next fiscal year are put
\ down at S4. 1876 go
During the past year tobacco and its
manufactures yielded $50, ,662 431 revenue,
against $50 los, 067 during the previous
\ year; spirits, $50, 3o6, 116 against $50 800,
321 in 1887, and fermented liquors 500, 324, :
7 2lS last year, against 81, 922, 1S7 the year
( before.
The revenue from oleomargarine dur
ing the past year amounted to 50. S54. 129,
and for the eight months in 1861, when
the tax was first placed on it. it aggre-
gated $723, 9iS.
During the past year 518 Illicit stills
were seized and removed or destroyed,
and one officer, Deputy United States
Marshal Trammell, of Arkansas, was
killed. The year previous there were 456
seizures. The production Of tobacco,
snuff, cigars and cigarettes during the
year. compared with the previous year, is
stated as follows: Tobacco, pounds, 201,-
925, 613; snuff, pounds, 1896 $50. Total
tobacco and snuff, 209. 362,6) Increase
over the last fiscal year, 2,S63 0S1. To-
bacco and snuff exported, 13 504, 227. To-
tai production for the fiscal year 1888
222 S66, ,929: increase over the fiscal year
1887, $685. 375. Cigars number 8. S44, 1875, :
$50; cigarettes. 1852, 721, 100; total taxed,
5, 707, 452, $50; increase over the last fiscal
year, 334, 642 107. Cigars exported, 143 :
625; cigarettes exported, lS0, 769, 800; total
product for the fiscal year 1887 5,514 :
640 993.
the Commissioner says: Enquiry hav-
ing been made at this office by Members
of Congress as to the practicability of
Withdrawing snieits from distillery ware
houses free OF tax, for use in the me-
chanical arts and protecting the revenue
against fraud by methylating the spirits
in bonded warehouses established for the
purpose, the microscopes of this Office
was requested to make experiments in he
chemical laboratory for the purpose OF
ascertaining whether such spirits could
be demethylated. 1t appears from his
report that he has succeeded by the use
of small still in separating the methyl
or wood alcohol from the ethyl or taxa
BILE alcohol, and in deodoriziug portion
Of the alcohol through the use Of bone :
black and other chemical substances. 1t
may be urged that if the demethylation
can not be accomplished without the use
of a STILL the operator is readily liable to
detection because Of the special surveil-
lance required by the internal revenue
laws in the matter of stills and
this view Of the case. The
internal revenue laws do not prohibit the
use of stills by persons other than dis
| tillers Of spirits, and, as a matter of fact,
many druggists and others use stills on
their premises. 1t is true that these laws
prohibit the making of mash fit for the
disdllation Of spirits, except on the prem
ises Of a distiller, brewer or vim negar
manufacture 1t is also true that thu
| process of MASKING is readily discovered
by the peculiar smell which pervades the
premises on which the business is con-
ducted but the process Of demethylation
does not involve any process of mashing g
or fermenting, the use of the large still
which even the smallest distillers who
produce spirits from a mash are COM
peeled to use. The still used in this Office
was among the smallest Of the stills
which druggists and others, not distillers,
are permitted to use.
The Commissioner devotes consider :
able space to oleomarg arine, its produce
tion, manufacture and taxations; 81 557
527 pounds were produced at manufac
tories during the year, and q, 694 627 be
tween November 1, 1886, the day on which
! the Oieomargarine law took effect, and
June 80, 1887. There appears, he says, 10
have been a small increase in production
during the year, and the demand for con
sumption at home and abroad, is in .
creased A considerable decrease in the
number of manufacturers, as we'll as
wholesale and retail dealers, is reported.
Commenting on this, Commissioner
Miller says that the decrease in the num-
Der OF special taxpayers has become a
subject Of great solicitude to this Office.
as it may be partly due to fraud, and
adds: ''The statement (appended to the
repOrG as to the production and use OF
oleo oils shows that more that q, 900, 900
pounds out Of product during the year
Of 100000 pounds of this substance, in
vented for the sole purpose OF being used
in the manufacture of butter substitute,
was neither exported nor used, as shown
by reports received at this office, in the
manufacture of oleomargarine. The
| question as to what actually becomes o.
this material will never be satisfactorily
answered until the manufacturers there
of are compelled to account for it with
the same particularly as they are re-
quired for the article subject to tax II
is doubtless used in the manufa cture of
some food product, such, for instance, as
| cheese. 1t can not be economically used
as a lubricant in the face of the fact that
its market price is nearly double the
price of tallow
| b--
&c