684 
Editorial. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1918. 
mous  quantities,  by  reason  of  the  alcohol  tax  can  be  supplied  only 
at  prices  three  or  four  times  the  normal  cost.  To  now  propose  to 
double  the  tax  on  alcohol  means  practically  the  doubling  of  the 
already  excessive  prices  on  many  of  the  remedies  used  in  profes- 
sional medical  practice  as  well  as  in  domestic  treatment. 
A  short  review  of  the  various  excise  taxes  upon  proof  spirits 
may  not  be  amiss.  By  the  Act  of  July  1,  1862,  the  excise  tax  on 
proof  spirits  was  fixed  at  20  cents  per  wine  gallon.  Under  the 
stress  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  this  was  successively  increased 
by  the  Acts  of  March  7,  1864,  and  June  30,  1864,  to  60  cents  and 
$1.50  per  proof  gallon,  respectively,  and  by  the  Act  of  December 
22,  1864,  it  was  increased  to  $2.00  per  proof  gallon.  After  the  war 
was  over,  it  was  recognized  that  this  excessive  war  tax  was  no 
longer  necessary  and  by  the  Act  of  July  20,  1868,  the  tax  on  proof 
spirits  was  fixed  at  50  cents  per  gallon.  The  Act  of  March  3, 
1875,  increased  this  tax  to  90  cents,  and  early  in  the  90's  it  was 
advanced  to  $1.10  per  proof  gallon,  and  the  latter  figure  was  re- 
tained until  191 7,  when,  under  the  necessity  for  war  revenue,  it  was 
doubled. 
Congress,  nevertheless,  by  various  enactments,  has  demonstrated 
in  the  past  its  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  the  industries  of  the 
country  that  must  necessarily  use  alcohol  as  a  raw  material,  should 
not  be  burdened  with  a  heavy  tax  on  this  material,  and  likewise 
that  for  humanitarian  reasons  the  price  of  medicines  should  not  be 
unnecessarily  increased.  In  1893,  the  Hoar  Bill  was  passed,  mak- 
ing provision  for  tax  free  alcohol  for  use  in  the  arts  and  for  medi- 
cinal preparations.  This  measure  provided  that  the  tax  collected 
by  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  was  to  be  rebated  to  the  manu- 
facturers after  regulations  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury had  been  satisfactorily  complied  with.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  failed  to  formulate  regulations  for  making  this  act  ef- 
fective, and  in  1896  it  was  repealed. 
Congress  has  since  reaffirmed  this  principle  and  further  demon- 
strated its  interest  in  certain  manufacturers  using  alcohol  as  a  raw 
material  by  passing  the  Denatured  Alcohol  Act  of  June  7,  1906, 
and  the  several  later  amendments  thereto,  by  which  many  indus- 
tries which  can  use  the  various  formulas  for  denatured  alcohol,  are 
permitted  to  use  alcohol  in  this  form  free  of  excise  tax.  The 
stumbling  block  in  the  Hoar  Bill,  namely,  the  regulations  for  the 
rebate  of  the  tax  collected  was  eliminated  in  these  laws,  as  provision 
