190 



IHE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



business that he has complied with such 

 regulations and has used such alcohol 

 therein, and exhibiting and delivering 

 up the stamps which show that a tax 

 has been paid thereon, shall be entitled 

 to receive from the Treasury of the 

 United States a rebate or repayment of 

 the tax so paid." 



Resolutions were unanimously adopt- 

 ed asserting the desirability of having 

 enforced the law relating to rebate of 

 tax on alcohol used in making medicinal 

 preparations. The members of the 

 Philadelphia College of Pharmacy placed 

 themselves on record as favoring tax-free 

 alcohol for manufacturing purposes, and 

 urged pharmacists to work in the interest 

 of having the law retained and enforced, 

 instead of being repealed. 



At that meeting the undersigned were 

 appointed a committee to place the ques- 

 tion of tax-free alcohol before the retail 

 pharmacists of the country, and to en- 

 deavor to have their views upon this 

 matter of vital interest to their business 

 properly presented to Congress and the 

 executive officers of the Government. 



It was stated that the wholesaler, the 

 manufacturing pharmacist and the patent, 

 medicine manufacturer had each pre- 

 sented their views, but that retail phar- 

 macists had not expressed their opinions, 

 although, in point of numbers and legiti- 

 mate use of alcohol in preparing medi- 

 cinal preparations, they were more con- 

 cerned than any other class of manu- 

 facturers. 



The present tax on alcohol, $1.10 a 

 proof gallon, amounts to $2.09 on every 

 gallon of 95 per cent, alcohol, and this 

 represents in many medicinal prepara- 

 tions the largest item of cost. According 

 to our best information, there are about 

 40,000 drug stores in the United States. 

 A very conservative estimate, it is 

 believed, of the amount of alcohol used 

 by each one annually in preparing medi- 



cines, would be two barrels of forty gal~ 

 Ions each. 



Such an allowance would indicate that 

 the Government will collect as a tax 

 from this source during the present year 

 $6,688,000 The cost of our preparations 

 are thus artificially increased to this ex- 

 tent, necessitating the employment of a 

 large amount of capital from which no- 

 profit is derived. 



During the year 1893, alcohol was 

 supplied to the retail drug trade in 

 Philadelphia at an average price of" 

 $2.18, ot which amount but thirty-nine 

 cents represented the cost of the alcohol, 

 and $1.79 the tax on each gallon. This 

 will give some idea of the degree to 

 which medicinal preparations have been 

 unjustly enhanced in value by the reten- 

 tion of the high tax on alcohol, and from, 

 this we ask relief. 



We have no solvent that will take the 

 place of alcohol in the extraction of most 

 drugs; and in the preparations into 

 which it enters, it becomes as much a 

 part of the medicine as the contained 

 drugs or chemicals. To no other cause- 

 so much as to the high tax on alcohol, 

 extending over a period of more than, 

 thirty years, can be attributed the fact 

 that the retail pharmacist has been large- 

 ly diverted from the true character of his- 

 business. 



The difficulty of recovering alcohol 

 used in the manufacture of preparations- 

 on the small scale, has rendered this 

 part of his calling no longer profitable, 

 as he could not compete with the large- 

 manufacturer with facilities for working 

 on an extensive scale. As a consequence,, 

 the manufacturer has flourished, and de- 

 prived the retailer of a large portion of 

 his legitimate occupation. 



With tax-free alcohol at thirty-five to- 

 fifty cents a gallon, every pharmacist 

 could economically and correctly prepare- 

 his own medicinal preparations and. 



