El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-07-14
REVENUE STAMPS.
Inc Commissioner Decides Who
Shall Pay For Them.

- SAoil ray TUT HSM. =. 4
A Washington dispatch ssys:-The
commissioner of internal revenue is
receiving hundreds of kilograms and
letters from merchants. manufacturers
and boards of trade, as well as from
senators and representatives,, asking for
construction of the war revenue law OF
1898 upon the points as to who shan
pay or aftix stamps upon telegraphlc |
messages and upon express receipts or
ollis OF lading given by express, rail-
road and steamboat companies, and |
other common carriers, for goods trans |
ported by them.
He has made general answer to all
such inquiries to this effect:
AS to the stamp on teleRraphlc
message, the law does not specify who
shall furnish it. It simply imposes the
tax OF l cent upon each message, ana
graph company or its agent or employe
shall transmit to any person any dis
patch or message without an adhesive
stamp, denoting the tax imposed by
this act, being affixed to copy there
of, or having the same stamped there
upon. and in default thereof shall In
cur q penalty of $1O.'
s'The commission holds, therefore
that the sender of the message shall
stamp it. In the case OF the stamp re-
quired to be affixed to express recelpto
bill of lading given by an express OF
railroad company, or other comm on
carriers, the law specifically states
that it shall be the duty of every rail
road or steamboat company ,carrler.ex
press COMPANY or corporation. or person
whose occupation it is to act as such
to issue to the shipper or conslgnor
or his agent, or persons from whom
any goods ara accepted for transporta-
ton, bill of lading, manifest or evil
dence of receipt and forwarding for
such received for carriage and trans
portation, whether in bulk or in boxes,
bales, packages, or not SO 1nclosed or
included, and there shall be duly at
tached and cancelled, as in this act
provided, to each of said bills of lad
ing, manifest or other memorandum,
and to each duplicate thereof, STAN
of the value of cent. rH@N
cit is held therefore to be clearly
evident that if an express company or
other carrier accepts goods Tor
| transportation it must issue to the
consignor a bill of lading or receipt
duly stamped and the stamp can
lcelIed.
| s'If such company or carrier refuses
to accept goods offered for transporta-
ton, except on condition that the con
signer shall pay the price of the
stamps for the service performed, OF
proposed to be performed, the In
ternal revenue laws afford no re
nedy. 4 ...-. l.-.. ...-- ... ~.
:tAs to whether the law imposing
obligations upon common carriers. Il
appealed to, would supply remedy
the commissioner holds that the courts
must decide" ..t ..aa. -c-3 4r
1 O.
A special dispatch to the Globe Dem
ocrat from Topeka says: The Kansas
board of railroad commissioners re
lquested q ruling from the attorney
general relative to affixing revenue
stamps to bills of lading or receipts TO,
goods issued by express companies
The attorney general holds that the
law makes it q duty of the express com
lpany to issue q receipt for every con
lsignment of goods received for ship
lment. and such receipt is not valid un
less the same has q 1c stamp affixed
thereto aud cancelled. ,- s-.r... .,- I'll
The stamp, on cancellation thereof
CONSTITUTES an essential part of sucl
receipt, which is to be given the con
signor by the express company, ant
the law provides a penalty OF $5t
against the express company for fail
ure to issue such receipt.
No penalty is provided against an.
consignor for failure to affix staml
to such receipt, nor is there any provi
sion in the law implying in any wa!
that it is the duty of the sconsignor t.
affix said stamp and cancel the same
. AS the law clearly requires the ez
press company to issue q receipt TO
every consignment under penalty, it i
clearly the duty of said company to af
fix the stamp required by the law an
to cancel the same.
A consignor should demand q receip
for every consignment made by him
and he should not accept such receip
unless it is stamped according to Law