PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 323 



were due to fraudulent practices, rather than to an impairment 

 of ability to consume on the part of the masses. 



(4) The average annual increase in the receipt of internal 

 revenue from fermented liquors for the ten years from 1883 to 

 1892 was $1,306,05?, and for the four years ending with the fiscal 

 year 1893 about $1,617,000. That this latter ratio of annual in- 

 crease under the present rate of tax is likely to indefinitely con- 

 tinue is almost demonstrated by the fact that the popularity of 

 fermented or malt liquors as beverage among the American 

 people is unquestionably increasing ; and also that large, seem- 

 ingly, as is their present average per capita consumption namely, 

 sixteen gallons the present per capita consumption of the people 

 of several other nationalities is much greater ; that of the United 

 Kingdom being estimated at thirty gallons ; of England and 

 Wales, thirty-six ; of Belgium r forty ; and of Germany, forty-five. 

 An important fact pertinent to the prospective consumption of 

 beer and its permanent value as a source of national revenue 

 is, that the cost of the materials used in its manufacture has 

 decreased in comparatively recent years, in the United States, 

 Great Britain, and probably other countries characterized by its 

 large consumption, to the extent of at least forty per cent ; and the 

 advantage from this change which has accrued to British brew- 

 ers was stated by the British Chancellor of Exchequer, in May, 

 1895, to have been upward of 2,000,000 ($10,000,000) per annum. 

 Another point of interest in this connection which is especially 

 worthy of attention is, that if moral influences have ever materi- 

 ally affected the general consumption of distilled spirits or fer- 

 mented liquors in the United States, the tabulated tax experi- 

 ences of its Government, which constitute the only reliable basis 

 for forming an opinion, do not afford any indication of it. 



Having reformed and radically reduced the war taxes in the 

 Department of Internal Revenue, it was next in order for Con- 

 gress to consider the readjustment of the customs system of taxa- 

 tion, which had also been evolved, as it were, out of the war's fis- 

 cal exigencies ; and it accordingly in 1867 instructed the Secretary 

 of the Treasury to present at its next session the draft of a tariff 

 embodying reductions of war rates. The responsibility of prepar- 

 ing such a draft having been next intrusted by the Secretary to 

 the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, the latter, with a view 

 of qualifying himself for the trust, visited Europe under a Gov- 

 ernment commission, and investigated under almost unprece- 

 dented advantages nearly every form of industry then competi- 

 tive with the United States in Great Britain and on the Conti- 

 nent. The results of this visit and investigation effected an 

 enlightenment on his part in respect to two salient and funda- 

 mental points : 



