The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-02-20
LIQUOR TAX DOUBLED BY
 AMENDMENT
Excise Measure Held Up in Senate for Surety
 Provision


 Senate yesterday afternoon was a Committee of the Whole hearing cn the Fish Trap Referendum mea- sure. but the Solons warmed up a bit first by passing one memorial and voting to double the tax on hard liquor consumed in the Terri tory.
 The increase in the liquor tax came about in the form of an amendment to Senator N. R. Walkers Senate Bill No. 24, which was up for second reading, having come out Of the Taxation Commit tee with the amendment tagging along. Committee Chairman Frank Gordon did not concur in the amendment and took a strong stand against it on the floor, be- fore it was carried by a g to ' vote.
 The memorial, passed was Sem ator Frank Whaley's No. ', peti- tioning Congress, the President of the United States, Secretary of the Interior Ickes and Alaska Delegate E. L. Bartlett to increase the ap- propriations for the Bureau of h. dian Affairs and the Biological Survey sufficiently to support an all-out drive against wolves prey ing on reindeer and game animals sof Alaska.
 There was no controversy over the measure and it was advanced to third reading without amend fnent and passed the Senate unani- nlously.
 Controversy a A
 Senator Walkers Liquor Excise Bill was a different story. It de- veloped a full share of controversy. The bill as originally offered. con- tained the levfes on all forms of liqucrs strictly "as is It provided cnly for change in the manner of collecting excises on beverages; eliminating the stamp tax Sen- ator Walker declared that S265 ,000 would be saved in collection costs necessary by the tax stamp.
 Only the levy on hard and dis titled liquors was the,y target of the amendment proposed by the committed The excises provided in the bill were: 5 cents per gallon on malt beverages. wines, IS cents per gallon, and on liquors of more than l9 per cent alcoholic content, S1 per gallon. The amendment proposed to increase the latter levy to S2 per gallon.
 lss Declaring that the Sl tax had brought the Territory $900,000 dur ing the last biennium, and that with the savings to be gained from eliminating the stamp tax that amount would be increased to more than Sl, 100000 for the. next two years, Senator Walker said he did not believe that ethe econ oriy of the Territory should rest on a 'whiskey tax; it does not look good for our record that our sec- ond largest source of revenue should be Whiskey,'' he said.
 Senator Tolbert Scott, who has a bill now being, held in commit tee which would double the whiskey tax, as provided by the amendment, stated he knew of no better way in the world to raise money" than by taxing whiskey.
 Senator H. H. McCutcheon came out against the increase on the ground that to make the tax ex- horbitant would only encourage the bootlegger"
 Consumption Not Cut
 Senator Whaley stated his regret that the increase had not been voted when proposed two years ago; The Territory lost nearly mill hon dollars in revenue by not having the S2 tax on whiskey, he declared. Estimating that the in- crease would amount to only about one and one-half cents per drink, he said he did not believe consumption of liquor in the Terri tory would be cut by it.
 Senator O. D. Cochran pointed out that not only had the Terri tory made previous increases in the liotiOr levy bllt that the Fadara