HOW TO RAISE RL VENUE. 741 



pie, the consumer of any class can better afford to pay taxes on 

 his tobacco in the form of chewing, snuff, smoking, cigars, and 

 cheroots than he can on foods, fabrics, and the raw materials of 

 his industry. Another point generally overlooked in this discus- 

 sion, is that when a tax which is direct, as is the tax on tobacco 

 and spirits, is shifted to a supplementary tax which is indirect, 

 the consumer may feel certain that his burden of tax will be aug- 

 mented very considerably, often io the extent of twenty-five and 

 even fifty per cent, by payment of profits to merchants and other 

 middle men. 



Stamps as Sources of Revenue. The instrumentality of 

 stamps as a means of obtaining revenue, although attended with 

 less friction and expense than almost any other methods, and 

 which was advantageously incorporated in the war system of 

 taxation, can hardly be said to have had a place in recent years in 

 the internal revenue system of the Federal Government ; the 

 stamps used in connection with the taxation of distilled spirits, 

 fermented liquors, and tobacco which are peculiar to the United 

 States and not in use for like purposes in any other country 

 being rather in the nature of instrumentalities for facilitating the 

 collection of taxes than independent sources of revenue. In fact, 

 the only strictly revenue-producing stamp tax now existing is 

 the tax of two cents per pack on playing-cards, the receipts from 

 which declined from $382,403 in 1895 (the first year of its imposi- 

 tion) to $259,853 in 1896 a result that certainly warrants the 

 modified application of an old proverb that, "under a free gov- 

 ernment, the rulers may propose taxes, but the people will dis- 

 pose of them." 



Under the fiscal system of the British Government (United 

 Kingdom) the revenue which P4,ccrued in 1893-'94: from stamps 

 was 12,799,000 ($62,244,000). The sources from which this ag- 

 gregate of stamp revenue was obtained are numerous and of a 

 character that are not in the main applicable to the fiscal sys- 

 tem and Government of the United States, and for the most part 

 are classified as follows : Probate duties ; legacy duties ; duties on 

 estates, real and personal ; succession duties ; capital duties on 

 companies ; receipts ; records ; patent medicines ; marine insur- 

 ances, etc.* In fact, it is said that you can do nothing of any con- 

 sequence in Great Britain without a stamp of some kind. 



A system of taxation through the instrumentality of stamps 

 can, however, be devised and made a permanent feature of the 



* Under the British system foreign bonds, whether issued by a state, a municipal body, 

 a corporation, or a company, are chargeable with stamp duty if made or issued in the United 

 Kingdom ; or if offered for subscription and given or delivered to a subscriber in the United 

 Kingdom, though originally issued abroad ; or if assigned, transferred, or in any manner 

 negotiated in the United Kingdom, provided the interest is payable in that country. 



