196 
Editorial. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  19 1 9. 
a  straight  four  per  cent,  tax  on  the  wholesale  price  of  these  com- 
modities instead  of  the  two  per  cent,  tax  provided  by  the  previous 
revenue  bill,  and  that  this  was  to  be  payable  by  the  producer  as 
heretofore  in  monthly  reports.  Section  907  of  the  Act,  however, 
presents  the  possibility  of  an  entirely  different  construction  and  a 
radical  change  not  only  in  the  rate  of  the  tax  to  be  paid  on  such 
articles  when  sold  on  or  after  May  I,  ipip,  for  consumption  or  use. 
but  also  in  method  of  payment.  The  tax  to  be  imposed  is  "  1  cent 
for  each  25  cents  or  fraction  thereof  of  the  amount  paid." 
The  method  of  collecting  the  tax  imposed  by  this  section  is  left 
to  the  judgment  of  the  Commissioner  and  he  is  empowered  to  select 
either  the  collection  "  (1)  by  stamp  affixed  to  such  article  by  the 
vendor,  the  cost  of  which  shall.be  reimbursed  to  the  vendor  by  the 
purchaser;  or  (2)  by  payment  to  the  vendor  by  the  purchaser  at  the 
time  of  the  sale,  the  taxes  so  collected  being  returned  and  paid  to 
the  United  States  by  such  vendor  in  the  same  manner  as  provided 
in  section  502"  (monthly  returns  under  oath  and  in  duplicate). 
The  information  available  at  present,  is  that  the  construction  placed 
upon  this  section  by  the  Department  is  that  it  is  intended  to  be  "  a 
consumption  "  tax  and  shall  be  paid  by  the  purchaser.  The  Cana- 
dian system  of  taxing  proprietaries  appears  to  have  been  in  mind, 
and  it  is  most  likely  that  this  tax  will  be  collected  by  the  affixing  of 
a  special  stamp.  The  rate  will  be  four  per  cent,  on  articles  selling 
for  25  cents  or  more  and  ten  per  cent,  on  those  selling  for  10  cents 
and  twenty  per  cent,  on  those  selling  for  5  cents.  Under  these  con- 
ditions the  salvation  of  the  druggist  or  other  vendor  of  such  com- 
modities will  be  in  strict  adherence  to  the  intent  of  the  law  to  make 
this  a  "  consumer's  tax,"  and  to  affix  the  stamp  and  collect  the  price 
from  the  purchaser  with  each  sale. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  paragraph  2,  relating  to  proprietary  medi- 
cines, which  are  named  by  class  designations,  distinctly  states  that 
serums  and  anti-toxins  are  not  to  be  included  with  the  articles  taxed 
as  proprietaries.  This  is  in  conformity  with  a  recent  decision  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  Daniel  C.  Roper,  that  vac- 
cines, serums  and  similar  biological  products  were  not  intended  to 
be  taxed  under  the  revenue  law  of  191 7,  and  the  same  decision  will 
undoubtedly  follow  regarding  the  present  law. 
It  is  also  noteworthy,  that  toilet  soaps  and  toilet  soap  powders 
have  been  excluded  from  the  toilet  articles,  perfumes,  etc.,  taxed 
under  this  section,  and  have  been  named  in  Section  900  under  the 
