744 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sumption of tea in the United States is about 94,000,000 pounds, 

 and of coffee about 600,000,000 pounds ; the importation of these 

 two commodities in 1895 having been, however, considerably 

 greater namely, of tea, 97,168,866 pounds, and of coffee, 655,- 

 564,000 pounds. A levy of three cents a pound on tea and three 

 cents a pound on coffee would yield a present annual revenue in 

 excess of $20,000,000, and represent an ad-valorem rate of about 

 twenty per cent on both commodities rates that would probably 

 not interfere with their popular consumption in the least degree. 

 If sugar, a commodity of more indispensible popular use, is re- 

 garded as not overburdened by a tax of forty per cent ad valorem, 

 tea and coffee could easily stand a like duty. This would make 

 the tax on each article six cents a pound, with an accruing reve- 

 nue at the present rate of consumption of more than $40,000,000 

 per annum. Under the revenue system existing in 1870, coffee 

 was taxed five cents a pound and tea twenty five cents, and the 

 aggregate revenue from both commodities was $22,881,000. The 

 arguments in opposition to imposing a duty on imports of tea 

 and coffee are, mainly, two : First, that it is inexpedient to an- 

 tagonize a free breakfast table; second, that customs taxes 

 ought not to be imposed on the imports of comrnodities not pro- 

 duced in the United States. 



Now the popular phrase " a free breakfast table " is a mere 

 sentimental expression, and in relation to fiscal matters an ab- 

 surdity, even if its authorship be attributed to as high author- 

 ity as Mr. Gladstone. A free breakfast table, in the sense of the 

 complete exemption of all its constituents from taxation, is ut- 

 terly impossible in a civilized country where taxation is essen- 

 tial to the support of a government; and the only place where 

 an approximate result could be attained would be some tropical 

 isle where a native obtains his breakfast by pulling a banana 

 from a tree, extracting a yam from the ground, or catching some- 

 thing which the sea supplies gratuitouslj'-. Think of the nature 

 of a statute which, in order to meet the requirements of a free 

 breakfast table in the United States, would exempt from taxation 

 everything generally used in connection therewith china, crock- 

 ery, earthenware, glass, hardware, fish, flesh, cereals, fruits, and 

 vegetables and make the same subject to taxation to meet the 

 requirements for revenue when otherwise utilized. The second 

 antagonizing argument is equally unwarranted and absurd. Cus- 

 toms taxes on the importation of articles not produced in this 

 country are the only taxes on imports in respect to which the peo- 

 ple can have an assurance that, apart from the small cost of as- 

 sessing and collecting, the Government will certainly receive all 

 that they pay; and any man who argues to the contrary does 

 not know what he is talking about, or has the idea that taxes on 



