The times., 1898-05-23

schedule that would omit the things he
did not want taxed and at the same time
tax those which everybody agreed should
be taxed The fight in the committee was
long drawn out and bitterly contested
and the friends of more general system
of taxing proprietary articles have not
yet abandoned the hope that they may
be able to force the committee to see the
justice OF their demands.
Corporations Protest
AS the bill was reported TO the Senate
it levied a tax upon everything that was
made or sold under a trade mark or pa
tent right, in addition TO medicinal and
other preparations. This struck at so
many things manufactured by large cor
porations that the protests against the
proposed tax became so influential thai
the members of the committee retreated
to cover and took that section again un-
der advisement with the intention of ma
terially modifying it. They have modi-
fed it by eliminating everything that
could possibly have been taxed under the
section except medicinal preparations. and
for fear mineral waters might be taxed
under the amended text they have in
serted a proviso that natural spring wa
ters'' shall not be taxed.
A proposition suggested as a substitute
was advocated by some members as af-
fording a satisfactory solution of the
trouble in which the committee found it
SELF but il was not agreed to. This sub
stitute assessed a tax of one-half of one
cent on each one dollar of valuation,
wholesale prices. on all articles manu-
factured or sold under patent right.
trade mark. or trade name, that could
not be adopted for general use. This, it
was argued would be a tax on the fran
chise which the law gives the manufac-
turer in the use OF a particular name or
distinctive mark. Such a tax lightly as
sessed against all such articles would fall
lightly upon everybody. but in the ag-
gregate would yield a very large revenue
The advocates of this plan point out that
under it not a thing taxed could escape
taxation while under the committees
plan anything can escape taxation by sim
ply dropping the distinctive name from
the articles taxed. If the use of a parti-
cular name made an article more salable
and designated it as superior, it was con
tended that by virtue of that article being
protected in its name il should be taxed
as war measure.
Great Revenue Producer.
The argument was also made in the
sibIe to enforce the law requiring stamps
to be affixed to. every article as this plan
provides, but this was met with the coun-
ter argument that the tax would be so
small if scattered over the whole range OF
manufactured goods that there would be
no inducement for the commission of
fraud. Private dies for tax paid stamps
would be permitted and these stamps
would not only show that the tax had
been paid but would afford a protection to
the purchaser, who would be guaranteed
in his purchase of the genuineness of the
goods by the presence of the private StamE
issued by the Government. The result
would be similar to that attained by the
recent law permitting the bottling of
spirits in bond, the Government stamp
guaranteeing the purity of the spirits
Another argument advanced by the men
who favor this substitute is the very large
revenue it would bring without causing
hardship to fall upon any particular
industry or Individual and entirely with
out the element of discrimination. Ac-
cording to the last statement of the
Treasury the manufactured products of
the United States aggregated fifty bill
lions of dollars. Probably half of this
was manufactured under patent rights.
trade marks or distinctive trade names.
A tax of one-half of one per cent would
yield revenue of s125. 000 0l0. This could
be reduced if necessary without interfer-
ing with the plan by simply making a
cut in the amount of the tax. An aggre-
gate business of 81, 600 would entail a
tax upon such a firm of $4,000.
The druggists of the country are be-
ginning TO realize what the proposed bill
as amended by the committee will do to
them and are protesting vigorously
against it. The druggists have shown
heretofore what influence they have. for
it was the united efforts of the 45. .0OO drug
gists of the country that defeated the
passage of the bill for the use of free al
cohol in the arts and sciences on the
ground that it was for the exclusive ben
eft of the wholesale pharmacists. These
compounders are large corporations and
if that bill had become a law the drug
gists claim their business as compounders
of medicines would have been utterly ru-
ined.
Glass Legislation.
Git Iz-Az