INTERNAL REVENUE 



3018 



INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE 



placed upon bank stocks, checks, legal papers, 

 matches, playing cards, licenses, gross receipts 

 of railroads and insurance companies, and the 

 like. With the passing of the emergencies, 

 the tax was each time decreased by repeal of 

 provisions applying to specified articles. 



Alcoholic liquors and tobacco products have 

 always produced the greater part of the reve- 

 nue in every internal revenue law passed in the 

 United States; at the present time oleomar- 

 garine, or butterine, adulterated butter, snuff, 

 opium, playing cards, national bank circulating 

 notes, net corporation profits above $5,000 per 

 year, and personal incomes are also taxed (see 

 INCOME TAX) . National prohibition will greatly 

 decrease the nation's revenue. 



Internal revenue taxes have always been 

 opposed to some extent by the people. They 

 necessitate government interference with pri- 

 vate affairs, in that manufacturers must make 

 reports of their products and submit to inspec- 

 tion; they increase cost of manufacture, and 

 in many cases demand employment of addi- 

 tional capital, and finally add to the price the 

 consumer is obliged to pay. Nevertheless, with 

 respect to the last contention, the proportion 

 of each purchase which the tax represents is 

 extremely small, and in times of peace usually 

 the items taxed are such as one need not pur- 

 chase unless he wishes to do so. It is certainly 

 less of a financial burden than a direct cash 

 annual contribution from each member of a 

 family. 



In the United States from 1801 until the 

 second war for independence internal revenue 

 taxes were abolished by the political party 

 then in power, which was the forerunner of the 

 present Democratic organization, on the ground 

 that they were unnecessary to American insti- 

 tutions. But war necessities restored them, and 

 since they have been recognized as a most im- 

 portant feature of the nation's financial policy. 



Inland Revenue. In Great Britain the chief 

 source of income for the support of the govern- 

 ment is inland revenue, generally known as the 

 excise, or excise duties. The excise in Eng- 

 land dates from the Commonwealth, when the 

 heavy expenses made necessary duties of every 

 description. When the Royalists returned to 

 power, however, the duties, instead of decreas- 

 ing, continued to increase in number and 

 amount. Excise duties from the first were 

 levied on the manufacture of beer, ale, whisky 

 and similar articles. 



Popular feeling against these taxes ran high 

 for many years, the definition of excise given 



in Samuel Johnson's dictionary being an ex- 

 pression of the prevailing sentiment: "A hate- 

 ful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged 

 not by the common judges of property but 

 wretches hired by those to whom excise is 

 paid." Since Johnson's day the excise duties 

 have been greatly lowered, their method of 

 collection has been systematized and the bur- 

 den has been equitably distributed. In cer- 

 tain sections the excise is still disliked, but it 

 is recognized as a just means of revenue. There 

 also remain in Great Britain certain excise 

 licenses for the sale and manufacture of liquors, 

 for other trades, such as auctioneers, pawn- 

 brokers, etc., hunting licenses and licenses for 

 carriages, automobiles and armorial bearings. 

 The administration of these numerous taxes 

 is in the hands of the Commissioners of Inland 

 Revenue. 



In most of the British colonies the excise 

 duties are similar to those of the mother 

 country. In Canada the Dominion govern- 

 ment levies a tax on the manufacture of beer, 

 whisky and tobacco, although prohibition is 

 rapidly decreasing the revenue from liquor. 

 The income from these three items is about 

 $17,000,000 a year, or one-seventh of the total 

 revenue of the Dominion. The collection of 

 the excise is in the hands of the Dominion 

 Department of Inland Revenue. In Australia 

 the excise duties are levied by the Common- 

 wealth and are administered by the Depart- 

 ment of Trade and Customs. E.D.F. 



INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE, an imagi- 

 nary line, from pole to pole, extending from 

 north to south, drawn, except for slight varia- 

 tions at the 180th meridian of longitude, or 

 halfway around the world from the "given 

 meridian" at Greenwich. It marks the place 

 on the globe from which the beginning of each 

 new day is reckoned. 



If a person could leave New York at noon 

 on Saturday and travel westward at a rate uni- 

 form with that of the sun, he would travel 

 fifteen degrees ,in one hour, and at the end of 

 twenty-four hours' he would have circled the 

 globe. According to local time wherever he 

 happened to be, it would still be noon on Sat- 

 urday, for everywhere he went the sun would 

 continue to stand directly overhead; but ac- 

 cording to the time in New York at the end of 

 his journey, it would be noon on Sunday. Thus 

 the traveler would have lost a day, because the 

 earth, relative to his position, would have made 

 no revolution. On the contrary, a traveler 

 going eastward at the same rate would gain 



