740 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the total customs and internal revenue yielded by tobacco during 

 the fiscal year 1895 was about $44,000,000, or sixty-eight cents per 

 capita. 



In the United Kingdom the taxes on tobacco, mainly on im- 

 ports and through the customs, are about $1.30 per capita, and 

 yield an annual revenue of about $50,000,000. 



In France the taxes on tobacco are reported at $1.71 per 

 capita, yielding an annual revenue of about $65,000,000. In other 

 European countries the per capita taxes on tobacco are reported 

 as follows: Austria, $1.31 ; Germany, $1.30; Italy, 94 cents ; Hun- 

 gary, 79 cents. 



"Were the same ratio of taxation on tobacco as exists to-day in 

 the United Kingdom established in the United States, the annual 

 revenue accruing to the Federal Treasury at the present time 

 would be in excess of $90,000,000. If the rates existing in France 

 were adopted, the annual revenue from this source would be $126,- 

 000,000. 



Whatever may have been the considerations that prompted in 

 recent years the abatement of this important source of national 

 revenue in the United States, it is certain that they were not 

 based on any sound financial policy, or on any lesson of past 

 experience in respect to the best methods of raising revenue. 

 Taxes on tobacco are taxes on a typical luxury. Their payment 

 is not obligatory, as are the taxes on the essentials of living, on 

 any citizen, but are in the nature of a voluntary assessment on 

 the part of the consumer, on whom the entire burden of the tax 

 ultimately rests, and which payments may be properly regarded 

 as representing his surplus income. They are not obstructive to 

 the development of any other industrial product, and there is no 

 evidence that the highest rate ever assessed under the internal 

 revenue has ever been productive of general discontent on the 

 part of the masses of the American people. 



The popular argument that a low rate of tax should be im- 

 posed on tobacco, because the burden of it falls mainly and dis- 

 proportionately upon the poorer classes, has no foundation in fact. 

 If the exact facts could be known, it would probably be found 

 that by far the greater portion of the tax is paid by the well- 

 to-do part of the community, who consume the high grades of 

 tobacco. Again, the revenues of the Federal Government are 

 almost exclusively derived from taxes on commodities which are 

 paid by their consumers ; and when any deficiency of needed rev- 

 enue is occasioned by the reduction or entire abatement of the 

 taxes on any one commodity or class of commodities, the defi- 

 ciency must be made good by new or increased taxes on other 

 commodities, the consumption of which is often more essential to 

 the poorer classes than the article exempted. Thus, for exam- 



