112 
Report  on  Alcohol  Legislation. 
f Am.  .Tour.  Pharm. 
1    February,  1895. 
ness  in  Permsj^lvauia,  New  Jersey  aud  Delaware,  a  much  larger  number  have 
been  reached  through  pharmaceutical  journals  that  have  generously  reprinted 
the  letter. 
The  replies  received  and  the  correspondence  resulting  therefrom,  prove 
beyond  any  doubt  that  the  retail  pharmacists  are,  almost  universally,  in  favor 
of  the  abolition  of  all  tax  on  alcohol  used  in  the  arts  or  medicine.  Corres- 
pondence with  a  number  of  officers  of  State  Pharmaceutical  Associations  indi- 
cated that  they  are  likewise,  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the  same. 
The  information  gleaned  from  these  replies  fully  confirmed  the  statements 
made  in  the  circular  letter  issued  by  the  Committee,  and  we  emphatically 
reaffirm: 
That  alcohol  is  indispensable  to  the  manufacture  of  medicinal  products  and 
in  many  processes  in  the  arts. 
That  in  the  medicinal  preparations  in  which  it  enters,  it  becomes  as  much  a 
medicine  as  the  contained  drugs  or  chemicals. 
That  the  present  tax  of  $r.io  per  proof  gallon  is  oppressive,  and  opposed  to 
the  best  interests  of  both  manufacturer  and  consumer. 
That  this  tax  requires  the  manufacturer  to  greatly  increase  the  amount  of 
capital  invested,  and  on  a  large  percentage  of  such  increase  no  profit  is  derived. 
That  this  tax  is  a  barrier  to  the  healthy  development  of  pharmacy  and  to  the 
advance  of  the  manufacturing  industries  in  which  alcohol  is  necessarily  used. 
That  it  prevents  the  retail  pharmacists  from  preparing  a  large  number  of  the 
preparations  which  he  dispenses,  and  the  purity  of  which  he  should  be  able  to 
vouch  for,  in  order  to  conscientiously  discharge  his  duties  to  the  community. 
That  the  enhancement  in  the  value  of  medicines,  caused  by  this  excessive 
tax  is  really  a  hardship  to  many  sick  and  poor.  Your  Committee  cannot  believe 
that  any  urgency  of  the  treasury  would  warrant  Congress  in  continuing  this 
barbarity,  nor  that  the  sentiment  of  the  country  would  uphold  a  tax  on  the 
medicines  needed  by  the  sick  and  infirm. 
A  concise  review  of  the  history  of  the  alcohol  tax  may  not  be  inappropriate. 
When  the  demands  on  the  Treasury,  in  1862,  compelled  the  introduction  of  an  In- 
ternal Revenue  system  of  taxation,  a  tax  of  20  cents  per  proof  gallon  was  placed 
on  distilled  spirits.  This  was  continued  until  1864,  when  the  need  of  greatly 
increased  revenue,  compelled  the  Government  to  change  the  tax  on  distilled 
spirits  three  times  within  that  year;  first  to  60  cents  per  proof  gallon  and  then 
to  51.50  and  finally  to  $2.00.  This  was  recognized,  at  the  time,  as  an  extreme 
measure  necessitated  by  the  war,  and  the  increase  in  fraud  following  each 
increase  in  the  tax  was  notorious.  The  price  of  alcohol  in  1861,  46  cents  per 
gallon,  was  by  this  means  increased,  until,  in  1865,  it  was  $4.96. 
The  manufacturers  and  pharmacists  at  that  time  fully  realized  that  this  was 
a  burden  borne  only  partly  by  the  consumers,  as  with  each  advance  in  the  cost 
of  their  products  they  were  enabled  to  charge  only  a  portion  of  that  advance. 
In  1868,  in  response  to  numerous  petitions  for  relief  from  this  burdensome 
tax,  and  in  accordance  with  the  recommendations  of  the  commissioner  of 
Revenue,  "  that  a  rate  of  50  cents  per  proof  gallon  was  ample,"  Congress  fixed 
the  rate  at  that  figure. 
In  1S72  this  was  advanced  to  70  cents,  and  in  1875  again  changed  to  90  cents, 
and  despite  the  appeals  of  the  manufacturers  for  relief  from  this  unjust  burden, 
the  tariff  act  of  1894  now  advances  the  tax  to  $1.10  per  proof  gallon.    On  every 
