738 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as has been above shown, than is borne by many other domestic 

 industrial products. Again, it is said that " beer is the poor man's 

 bread/' and therefore it ought not to be taxed. But if beer is ex- 

 empted from making a fair contribution to the revenue necessi- 

 ties of the state, the deficiency will be made good by increased 

 taxes on other commodities of general popular consumption, the 

 ultimate incidence of which, if indirect, as they are likely to 

 be, will fall heaviest on the consumer who, by reason of his 

 poverty, is forced to buy in small quantities. The most potent 

 source of opposition, however, to an increased tax on beer is 

 undoubtedly to be found in the popular assumption that "no 

 political party will commit itself to an additional tax of a dol- 

 lar a barrel on beer, because it is feared that it would involve 

 the loss of too many votes. It somehow happens that beer has 

 a great many friends, and, whether correctly or not, it is appre- 

 hended that doubling the tax on it would be resented by a large 

 number of voters." And if partisan politics is to become the 

 essential feature of the revenue system of every popular form of 

 government, as the experience of the United States and of France 

 seems to indicate it will be, nothing further need be said on this 

 subject. 



Tobacco. The present consumption of tobacco in all its forms 

 by the people of the United States will probably average about 

 four pounds per head per annum. The aggregate quantity which 

 the Internal Revenue took cognizance of for taxation in 1896 was 

 266,215,736 pounds, a gain of 18,136,846 pounds over the aggregate 

 for 1894. The number of cigars and cheroots subjected to taxa- 

 tion preliminary to consumption in 1896, was over four billions 

 (4,237,755,943), an increase over the number assessed in the pre- 

 ceding fiscal year of 73,983,503. As a basis for estimating the 

 revenue prospectively available from this source, the comparative 

 per capita consumption of tobacco in other countries is especially 

 worthy of attention in this connection. For the United King- 

 dom the amount for 1891, oflBcially reported, was 1*61 pound; 

 France (estimated). If pound ; for the population of the city of 

 Paris, 3y pounds ; Germany, 4^ pounds ; Belgium and Holland, 

 3^ pounds. The annual consumption of tobacco in the United 

 States is therefore certainly much greater than in most other 

 countries, and is equaled in not more than one or two. This 

 result may be referred to several agencies : to the greater cheap- 

 ness of the taxed commodity ; to greater ability on the part of 

 the masses to consume it, and to a larger use of tobacco for chew- 

 ing,* the quantity manufactured for this purpose in 1895 being 



* In France the sales of tobacco in 1885 were returned at 700,000 kilogrammes for 

 "cliewing" and at 16,400,000 for smoking. 



