The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-13

sumption is steadily decreasing. The
natural increase in the population and
the consequent opening up of new ter
fritory where the saloon is permitted is
at present outstripping the advance OF
the temperance wave.
On the other hand. the official report
promises to show substantial increase
in the receipts from taxes on ferment-
ed liquors, under which heading beer
is largely predominant. This increase,
according to the figures now public,
| should amount to a million or upwards.
| This, taken in connection with the fact
| that the receipts from cigarettes, cleo
margarine and adulterated butter also
show a substantial increase, again en-
| phasizes the truth of the statement
| that history is in the habit of repeating
itself. With the entrance of Eight
money" the closing down of mills, the
reduction of fortunes, and hull in the
prosperity of the |'spenders, the ap-
petites that formerly fed on high class
drinks, fancy cigars and "Grade l"
creamery butter, turned to beer, cigar
cites and oleomargarine. In times of
great and general prosperity the trick
| is reversed, and the revenues plainly
| reflect it.
A notable innovation, from a revenue
standpoint, and one which to some ex-
tent may account for the increased re-
ceipts from the tax on fermented Il
auors, was introduced during the fiscal
year Just closing, almost entirely as a
result of the activities of the prohi-
bitionists. This is a substance becom-
ing officially and popularity known as
Temperance Beer It is the off
spring of the demand and desire for
beverage to be sold in the prohibition
localities that will at one and the same
time escape the federal special tax or
government license" and avoid pros
ecution in the state courts for ylo-
lating the local option laws.
This Temperance BEER masquer-
AIDES under various names, such as
g N ear to beer, - and other suggestive
titles. The scheme has proved quite
successful as money maker, and those
citizens in the prohibition communi-
ties who continue to banker after 1.-THE
cup that cheers have been able to
in some measure satisfy their appetites
through the use of this product. Some
peculiar situations, from fiscal stand
point, have resulted from the manufac-
ture and sale of this so-called tenn
perance beer. -
1t has been held in certain prohibit
ton localities that beverages contain
ing less than two per cent of alcohol
are Notwithstanding, and that they,
therefore, can be sold without violating
the local option laws; hence, in some
places, persons are paying the federal
tax as wholesale dealers in malt liquors
and handling lager beer with a slightly
alcoholic content in the face of local
laws passed for the purpose of driving
out all such supposedly evil substances.
In other localities the courts have held
practically that any beverage which
subjects the dealer to the federal spe
cial tax cannot be sold under the local
option laws inficting penalties for the
sale of Intoxicating liquors. Here again
the Temperance beer folks have
found relief 1t has been held by the
Internal Revenue Bureau that fer
mented liquor containing less than one
half of one per cent of alcohol may be
sold by a person not holding a special
tax stamp as a wholesale or retail deal
err in malt liquors.
Some breweries, therefore, are pro- |
ducing beverages through the regular
processes of manufacturing fermented
liquors upon which they pay the gov
eminent tax of one dollar per barrel, |
after which, by methods of evapora- |
ton the alcoholic content IS reduced |
to less than one half of one per cent |
bv volume. and the liquor is then ready |
for shipment to the merchant in the |
prohibition town, with all legal require |
ments fulfilled, and yet with the most |
remarkable physical resemblance TO
lager beer, in color, foam and odor, and
with the possible additional advantage |
that the consumer may be compelled |
to increase the dose in order to reach |
the proper spot.
One of the mysterious items of reve-
nue. is the sum annually collected on |
snuff, which pears the same tax as that |
levied on tobacco-six cents per pound. |
1t is true that the receipts for this fis-
cal year will show slight decrease, /
but no more than a sympathetic reduc-
tion in keeping with the general de-
cline in the revenues. 1t is very likely
that the official report, judging from
data just made public, will show a
production of twenty-five million
pounds of snuff during the twelve
months ending today Where this snuff
goes, who uses it, and why, nobody
knows, unless it be the large manu-
facturers in close touch with the trade.
One would suppose that with the pass
ing of the snuff-box, now only a memo
ry, and the advance of civilization in
those sections where clipping" is, or
was, INDUCED in, the production of
snuff would rapidly diminish. On the
contrary, it shows a healthy and yigor-
Gus growth. Ten years ago thirteen /
million pounds were taxpaid; last year
twice that amount was produced. Pos
sibly a great deal of it is exported
Notwithstanding the apparent deficit
in the receipts from the internal reve
nue. taxes on tobacco and tobacco prod
ucts, generally speaking, it is evident
that the cigarette habit is still firmly