Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, |4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, |3. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1904. 
j VOL. LXII.— No. 16. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
■ THE UNJUST TAX ON AMMUNITION. 
If the average well informed shooter were asked where 
the fulminate of his shot gun and rifle shells was made, 
he would probably say that it was a product of the fac- 
tories of those shell manufacturers whose names are as 
household words. But he would be in error; it comes 
from Canada. The reason for our importing the ful- 
minate instead of making it ourselves, and of our paying 
such a high price for it, is found in a chain of circum- 
stances which are among the curiosities of the United 
States Internal revenue system. The explanation is given 
in the report of the census for 1900 as follows : 
Although charges of dynamite and other high explosives are 
invariably fired by detonators or blasting caps charged with 
mercuric fulminate, and although percussion caps, friction primers 
and' fixed ammunition are also charged with this explosive, yet 
the amount of this most important and essential explosive which 
is returned as manufactured in the United States was quite in- 
significant. On the other hand * * * the importation of ful- 
minate is assuming greater and greater importance as our home 
industry in other explosives grows, and this is shown even more 
markedly if to the values for the fulminate there be added those 
for the blasting caps, percussion caps and cartridges that are also 
imported. 
The fact that, notwithstanding the dangers attendant on the 
transportation of this violent explosive substance, its home manu- 
facture has been almost completely superseded by the foreign 
product, is explained on stating that it is manufactured from 
grain alcohol, mercury and nitric acid; that for every twelve parts 
by weight of mercury fulminate produced, 110 parts by weight of 
95 per cent, alcohol are consumed; and that the tax levied in the 
United States on alcohol makes the foreign commerce in this 
article a very profitable one, and home competition practically 
impossible. 
The revenue tax on the alcohol used in the manufacture 
of fulminate powders, or fulminate of mercury, the ex- 
plosive agent used in percussion caps and cartridges of all 
kinds, is $2.08 per gallon. This is prohibitive of home 
manufacture. "Practically all the fulminate of mercury used 
in the United States," says an authority on the subject, 
"is now made in Canada, the alcohol being shipped from 
this country in bond without payment of tax and used in 
bonded manufacturing warehouses in the preparation of 
the fulminate. This is exported to the United States, pay- 
ing a customs duty of 30 per cent, ad valorenhj which is 
considerably less than our internal revenue tax on alcohol 
necessary to manufacture it." The commercial alcohol tax 
means, then, in this case, that Canadian workmen get the 
employment which, with free alcohol, American workmen 
would have; we pay an increased price for our ammuni- 
tion, and American manufacturers are shut out from the 
markets of the world. 
But this is only a part, and a minor part, of the drain 
v.'-hich the tax on alcohol makes on the sportsman's purse 
when he opens it to pay for his ammunition. Of greater 
moment is the increased cost of smokeless powders caused 
by the increased cost of alcohol, which is a considerable 
constituent of their composition. Every pound of the best 
smokeless powder is taxed thirty-seven cents for the alco- 
hol employed in its making. That is to say, it costs to 
make thirty-seven cents more than it would cost were the 
alcohol of the kind used in its manufacture free of tax. The 
manufacturer, of course, gets his money back. The con- 
sumer pays it. The $2.08 per gallon for alcohol in this 
particular instance comes out of the pocket of the man who 
shoots the gun. The sportsman is taxed twice for his 
cartridge, once for the fulminate and again for the pow- 
der. 
It is worth noting, too, that the sportsmen of no other 
civilized country on earth have to pay an increased cost 
for their ammunition by reason of a tax on alcohol. 
Everywhere else than in the United States alcohol for in- 
dustrial purposes is free of tax. 
Why are we thus taxed for our ammunition? For the 
same reason that we are taxed for our hats, furniture, 
typewriters, perfumery and everything else into the manu- 
facture of which alcohol enters. And that reason, so far 
as any is discernible, is to give increased profits to the 
wood alcohol interests. Wood alcohol is untaxed. Tak- 
ing advantage of the tax of $2.08 on alcohol made from 
corn, potatoes and Other farm products, the distillers of 
wood alcohol sell their eight to ten millions of gallons 
per year at a vastly increased profit. It is this immense 
profitableness of the wood alcohol industry which is 
stimulating the denudation of vast areas of forests. 
A measure introduced in the House of Representatives 
by Mr. Boutell, and now in the hands of the Committee 
on Ways and Means, provides as follows: 
"That distilled spirits of an alcoholic strnegth of not 
less than one hundred and sixty per centum proof, as 
defined by sections thirty-two and forty-nine of the Re- 
vised Statutes of the United States, may, when rendered 
unfit for drinking purposes or for use as a beverage, be 
removed from distillery warehouses free of tax under 
such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Rev- 
enue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall prescribe : Provided, That sulphuric ether, wood 
alcohol, methylic alcohol, wood naphtha, or other sub- 
stances approved by the Commissioner of Internal Rev- 
enue and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be mixed 
with such distilled spirits so as to render the same unfit 
for drinking purposes or for use as a beverage." 
Other sections make provision for so controlling the 
treated product that it may not be rectified for use as a 
beverage. 
As has been said, the only opposition to the enactment 
of Mr. Boutell's measure comes from the wood alcohol 
interests, which under the existing system have ex- 
traordinary favoritism. If beyond this selfish favoritism 
of a class there is any reason why the sportsman should 
continue to pay 37 cents a pound more for his powder 
than he would without the alcohol tax, we have been un- 
able to surmise it. Or why we should pay more for the 
thousand and one other things which are taxed at the rate 
of $2.08 for every gallon of alcohol used in their manu- 
facture. Or why, by government intervention, we should 
stimulate the wood alcohol industry, which is laying 
waste the forests. The forestry question, it is true, is, 
for most of us, academic; we have convictions on it and 
some sentiment; but it does not appeal to us with the 
force and directness of something that touches the 
pocket. Every one of us, on the contrary, who uses a 
gun or rifle, may measure the personal interest he has in 
the passage of the Boutell bill by multiplying the number 
of the pounds of smokeless powder he uses in a season 
by the number 37, which represents the excessive price 
per pound he will have to pay for his powder until the 
bill shall have become a law. • 
RAILROADS AND FISHING. 
There is very little free fishing for trout on Long Island. 
On the other hand, that island affords some of the best 
preserved fishing anywhere in New York, but this is ac- 
cessible only to the persons for whom it is preserved. 
In the interior things are somewhat different. A vast 
number of streains, large and small, flow down into 
greater rivers, and afford a vast mileage of fishing waters. 
Ten or fifteen years ago many of these brooks and little 
rivers were so persistently fished that they were almost 
exhausted, and in many cases yielded the scantiest return 
to the ardent angler. In present years, however, the 
fishing is much better; and this has come about from a 
source which most people would hardly have expected — 
through the restocking of the waters by the railroads 
passing near them. 
It is well recognized . that all the railroads which 
penetrate big game countries make a great feature of 
their hunting advantages, and of late years the attraction 
which shooting and fishing offers to a large class of the 
public has come to be generally appreciated by railway 
and steamboat lines everywhere. 
Their advertising in periodicals, and the special booklets 
which so many transportation lines now prepare for the 
sole use of those devoted to the pastimes of the gun and 
rod, show how important this feature of travel has be- 
come. Efforts are constantly being made to render new 
regions accessible to hunter and angler, to find out 
what these regions contain in the way of game and 
fish, and to furnish the detailed information which the 
sportsman requires. It is not enough nowadays to talk 
in general terms about the hunting and fishing of any 
region, without knowing anything about it. Real effort is 
made to give accurate information,, so that the successful 
sportsman shall patronize the line year after year, instead 
of visiting the country once, finding it misrepresented, 
and then going away disgusted, to return no more. 
As competition grows more and more keen there is an 
eager rivalry among the railroads for the patronage of 
big-game hunter, gunner and angler,- and with this in 
mind roads like the Erie, the Delaware, Lackawanna and 
Western, and the New York, Ontario and Western each 
year put themselves to a considerable expense of time 
and money to keep up the supply of fish in the streams 
near which their lines pass. 
This is money well invested by the railroads and it cer- 
tainly is a great benefit to the angler. It is possible now- 
adays, by consulting the booklets issued by the different 
roads, to get a deal of information as to streams, hotels, 
teams, and matters generally of interest to the angler, so 
that, assuming all this information to be accurate, he need 
not go astray, and, if weather conditions are satisfactory, 
is reasonably sure of a successful trip. 
There are many old timers who declare that the rail- 
roads are the primary cause of the ppesent scarcity of 
game and fish, and it; is, of course, true, that by bringing 
a multitude of people into a region once given over to; 
solitude the roads are the indirect cause of the destruction 
of the wild creatures which occupied these solitary places. ; 
But it seems that the pendulum has now begun to swing 
back again, that the, railroads are stocking the waters with 
fish ; and it is conceivable that the time may come when 
these great corporations will find it to their interest to re- 
stock the covers with game. 
NEW YORK SPRING SHOOTING. 
. This year the New York spring shooting of wild fowl 
resembles the reptilian fauna of Ireland. There is none. ' 
The advocates of the repeal of the present law succeeded 
in passing the Hubbs bill in the Assembly, without al- 
lowing the supporters of the present law to be heard, but 
when. the bill reached the Senate the story was a different 
one. What was done at the hearing before the Senate 
committee, to which the bill was referred, was duly re- 
ported in the Forest and Stream. 
. In due course the time came for action on the bill, and 
Senator Bailey, of Suffolk County, moved to discharge 
the Forest, Fish and Game Committee of the Senate from 
further consideration of Assemblyman Hubbs' bill to per- 
mit spring shooting on Long Island. The vote on this 
motion is given below, those voting in the affirmative, 
favoring spring shooting. This is the final defeat of the 
measure in this Legislature. 
Ayes— Mr. Bailey, Mr. Burton, Mr. CuUen, Mr. Dooling, Mr. 
Dowling, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Foley, Mr. Frawley, Mr. Grady, Mr. 
Hawkins, Mr. Keenan, Mr. Martin, Mr. McCabe, Mr. McCarren, 
Mr. Plunkett, Mr. Ramsperger, Mr. Riordan, Mr. Russell, Mr. 
Townsend, Mr. Wagner, Mr. Whitlock. 
Nays— Mr. Allds, Mr. Ambler, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Barnes, Mr. 
Brackett, Mr. E. R. Brown, Mr. W. L. Brown, Mr. Carpenter, 
Mr. Elsberg, Mr. Fancher, Mr. Gates, Mr. Goodsell, Mr. Green, 
Mr. Hill, Mr. Lefevre, Mr. Lewis, Mr. L'Hommedieu, Mr. Malby, 
Mr. Marshall, Mr. McEwan, Mr. Raines, Mr. Sherwood, Mr. 
Stevens, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Warnick, Mr. White, Mr. Wilcox. 
It is worth while for the readers of Forest and Stream 
to keep this list for future reference, for it shows the 
position of the various New York Senators on the ques- 
tion of spring shooting. It shows also a respectable ma- 
.iority in the Senate in favor of game protection, and that 
Ihe New York City and Brooklyn Senators on the whole 
arc in favor of spring shooting. 
New York is the great market of the Atlantic seaboard 
for game of all sorts, including wild fowl. If market 
gunners find that wild fowl cannot be sold in New York 
the inducement to kill them almost ceases to exist. Re- 
cently, in some of the southern States, and especially 
along Currituck Sound, the price of canvasbacks fell to 
seventy-five cents a pair — a price lower than they have 
brought for many years, the usual price to gunners being 
$2.50 or $2 per pair. The price for other ducks fell cor- 
respondingly, so that ducks hardly paid for the ammuni- 
tion used to kill them. 
The local gunners could not understand what such a 
fall in prices meant, but since they could not get more 
than this for their birds, many of them have given up 
shooting, declaring that rather than kill canvasbacks at 
such a price they would let them go, to return to their 
northern homes and breed to bring back others next 
autumn. 
The great fall in the price of canvasbacks and other 
ducks is, no doubt, due to the fact that the New York 
market is no longer open to them in spring. The markets 
of other large cities became glutted, and the buyers of 
birds could not get rid of their stock; they therefore 
ceased to buy, the gunners ceased to shoot, and the fact 
that- shooting or possession of wild fowl in New York is 
■forbidden in spring has stopped the shooting of birds in 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and no doubt in 
many other States. So far reaching is the action of the 
New York Legislature in this matter. 
