734 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



centages of alcohol by volume not infrequently from seventeen 

 to twenty-six per cent which probably accounts in a high degree 

 for their great popularity, and for the wonderful curative results 

 contingent on their use. Country druggists also report a special 

 demand and consumption of these medicinal preparations in towns 

 that have voted " no license," and in which a sentiment in favor 

 of total abstinence predominates.* 



Again, if the legislative department of the state decides that 

 it would be expedient to establish or stimulate the manufacture 

 of certain commodities, no one under a free Government would 

 venture openly to justify such action, except on the ground that 

 public welfare would be thereby promoted. Suppose, with this 

 purpose in view, it is decided to stimulate the manufacturers of a 

 comparatively few articles by exempting them from certain forms 

 of taxation, would it not be expedient, and the part of a wise fiscal 

 policy, that the state, by proper rules and investigation, should 

 ascertain the rightful amount that would accrue to each claimant 

 from such exemption, and then raise the money to pay it in the 

 same manner as it raises money to defray its other expenses, and 

 not allow private interests to exercise the great sovereign power 

 of taxation by practically determining what the state shall levy 

 and what the people in general shall pay ? 



Fermented Liquors. The internal revenue tax on fermented 

 liquors (beer) has been practically uniform since its first authori- 

 zation in 1863, nominally one dollar per barrel of thirty-one gal- 

 lons. As, however, a deduction of seven and a half per cent is 

 allowed to brewers on the purchase of stamps, which is assumed 

 to represent the difference between the theoretical barrel unit of 

 thirty-one gallons and the quantity contained in the commercial or 

 trade supply barrel, which, owing to redriving of hoops and re- 

 pitching, averages from twenty-eight to twenty- eight and a half 

 gallons, the net tax is, accordingly, ninety- two and a half cents, 

 which is made payable in stamps, one of which, " denoting the 

 amount of the tax, shall be affixed upon the spigot hole or tap (of 

 which there shall be but one) in such a way that the stamp shall 

 be destroyed upon the withdrawal of the liquor from the barrel 

 or other receptacle." There is also a special tax, in the nature of 

 a license on brewers, which yielded the Government in 1896, 

 $163,779 relatively a small matter. A tax of one dollar per thirty- 

 one gallons is equivalent to 3'225 cents per gallon. On a basis of 

 $5.25 per barrel, the price at which beer of good quality could 

 recently be bought in quantity, or at wholesale, in the city of 

 New York or vicinity, the present tax is about twenty per cent 



* For more specific information on this subject, reference is made to an official bulletin 

 of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts lor March 14, 1896. 



