Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1897-03-25
THE TAX ON

The following article we find
in a recent issue of the Boston
Herald, which we copy with n
tire approval:
In arranging for new sources
Of revenue, the ways and means
committe in Congress have I'M
d%oubtedly to take into account
the internal revenue as we'll as
the tariff laws. and under such
circumstances it is incumbent
upon the committee to consider
whether Of not the present meth
cd of taxing alcohol should not
be revised. Commercial-that is
high test-alcohol has been sell
ing lately in the distilleries, bes
fore the duty has been paid, and
without charge for the packages.
at the rate of about 10 cents a
gallon. The tax upon this is
$2.07 a gallon, so that the impost
is equivalent to a tax burden of
more than 1000 per cent. There
is probably no tax imposed by
the United States, whether in
customs or internal revenue,
that begins to compare with this
in extraordinary proportions. It
is absurd on the face of it that
alcohol used in, say, the manu-
facture Of varnish, or in the
preparation of medicine, should
be made to cost by a tax $2.17 a
gallon, when without the tax the
-- L. 10
a gallon. The only reason that
can be advanced for this impost
is that, as a beverage, our own
government and all of the civil>
lied governments OF the world
believe that alcohol is a com>
modify which can be easily made
to pay an enormous tax But ais
cohol as a basis for varnish does
not call for a tax any more than
turpentine would when similarly
employed. and the only reason
urged against exemption in these
respects is that if determinations
we're made it might be difficult
for the government to prevent
the practice of fraud; that is.
persons would obtain exemptions
from the tax and would then use
the alcohol thus freed as a bev-
erage instead of i'll the trades
and arts. 1t is asserted, and ex-
perience proves the assertion to
have Il good basis to rest upon,
that in other countries of the
world it is found possible to make
this division; to impose a consids
cradle tax upon alcohol which is
used as a beverage, and yet to
make a remission of tax in those
cases where the alcohol is used for
other than drinking purposes. 1t
is, o than this, urged that the
government should grant to our
domestic manufacturers, as it does
not at the present time, the right
TO receive a rebate on the alcohol
used in manufacturing goods in
tended for export. If an Ameri-
can manufacturer imports his al
cohol and thus uses it, he can,
when the goods T exported, claim
a rebate from the government, but
If he buys American made alcohol
and thus employs it no rebate is
accorded him. The entire, subject
is one calling for reasonable con-
gressional action. The ques
Of rebates and exemptions
has been made a study by a con
gressional committee, of which
Senator Plat of Connecticut is
chairman, and with the data re-
to the experience of foreign
that have been collected,
the ways and means committee
should be in a position to formu-
late a law that would remove the
burden now imposed on legitimate
business enterprise, while still Sc
curing for the government the :
revenue hat it needs by heavy
taxes upon alcohol consumed as a
WOODS PHOSPHODINEe
W. r---A LA