AmMJa°ch,f905.rm'}        Internal  Revenue  Tax  on  Alcohol.  ill 
SOME  REASONS  WHY  THE  INTERNAL  REVENUE  TAX 
ON  ALCOHOL  SHOULD  BE  REDUCED,  AND  WHY  OUR 
GOVERNMENT  SHOULD  PROVIDE  FREE  DENATUR- 
IZED  ALCOHOL  FOR  USE  IN  THE  ARTS. 
By  Mahlon  N.  KXine. 
No  legislation  pending  in  Congress  is  more  important  or  promises 
to  be  more  far-reaching  in  its  results  than  the  proposed  legislation 
affecting  the  duty  on  alcohol.  The  commercial  world  (and  espe- 
cially that  part  of  it  in  which  manufacturing  chemists  or  pharmaceu- 
tical manulacturers,  large  and  small,  are  embraced)  has  scarcely 
grasped  the  magnitude  of  the  results  that  would  follow  the  enact, 
ment  into  laws  of  the  legislation  proposed  in  the  bills  introduced  by 
Hon.  H.  S.  Boutell,  of  Illinois — H.  R.  9302,  providing  for  the  use, 
free  of  tax,  of  alcohol  which  has  been  rendered  unfit  for  drinking 
purposes  by  the  admixture  of  some  noxious  substance,  and  H.  R. 
9303,  reducing  the  internal  revenue  tax  on  distilled  spirits,  and 
H.  R.  9051,  introduced  by  the  Hon.  Wm,  C.  Lovering,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, providing  for  the  refund  of  the  tax  paid  on  domestic 
alcohol  used  in  the  manufacture  of  exported  articles.  No  other  legis- 
lation now  suggested  in  the  public  interest  can  be  compared  with 
these  propositions  in  their  effect  in  creating  new  industries,  develop- 
ing those  already  in  existence  and  greatly  increasing  our  domestic 
and  foreign  trade. 
The  necessity  for  the  legislation  proposed  in  the  first  of  these 
bills  is  found  in  the  fact  that  our  internal  revenue  laws,  under  which 
a  tax  of  $1.10  per  proof  gallon  is  levied  on  all  distilled  spirit,  make 
no  distinction  between  the  distilled  spirits  used  as  a  beverage  and 
that  used  for  industrial  purposes.  In  the  latter  form  distilled  spirits, 
generally  called  alcohol,  are  a  necessary  material  in  thousands  of 
important  industries.  The  use  of  alcohol  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses is  much  more  extensive  than  is  commonly  supposed,  since,  in 
addition  to  the  industries  producing  articles  in  which  alcohol  re- 
mains in  the  finished  product,  there  are  many  articles  in  the  manu- 
facture of  which  alcohol  is  used,  though  they  contain  no  trace  of 
that  material. 
As  commercial  alcohol  is  usually  of  1880  or  1900  proof  (that  is 
94  or  95  per  cent,  pure  alcohol)  the  tax  of  $1.10  per  proof  gallon 
is  equivalent  to  a  tax  of  about  $2.07  per  gallon  of  industrial  alcohol, 
