Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/765

Rh as prosperous times the yearly aggregate of sales not infrequently exceeds 100,000,000 shares.

—Another source of revenue readily and largely available to the Federal Government, which since 1868 has almost entirely escaped attention, is petroleum and its derivatives. The present annual production of these commodities is probably about 54,000,000 barrels, and of this product the present annual domestic consumption is estimated at 28,000,000 barrels of forty-two gallons each, or 1,176,000,000 gallons. Of the balance of product, in either a crude or refined state, 931,785,000 gallons were exported in 1896, and therefore exempt from taxation. A tax of two cents per gallon, or eighty-four cents per barrel, on domestic consumption, which could be as readily collected through the agency of stamps as the taxes on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco, might yield an approximate annual revenue of $24,000,000. An interesting circumstance in this connection, and one strikingly illustrative of the remarkable change in the industrial and fiscal relations of this product in the last thirty years, is to be found in the fact that when refined petroleum was previously taxed by the Government the rate was fifteen cents per gallon in 1866 and ten cents in 1867; the amount brought to charge during the latter year being 24,999,000 gallons, as compared with over 1,000,000,000 gallons accessible at the present time.

Inasmuch as the Federal revenue, customs and internal, is derived on principle almost entirely from the taxation of commodities of common and popular consumption, especially from distilled spirits, fermented liquors, tobacco, and sugar, there is no good reason why, if a present additional and prospective increase of revenue is needed, a commodity properly belonging to the natural resources of the country, and which has proved a source of immense wealth to those concerned in its distribution, should not also contribute to the expenses of its Government, more especially when fully one half of the domestic product, by reason of its being exported, would not be subject to any form of taxation. That a tax of two cents per gallon would probably be entirely transferred by an additional price to the consumer is almost certain; and yet that there would be no necessity for such action would seem to be proved by the circumstance, that in recent years the market price of refined petroleum for considerable periods has varied more than the proposed rate of tax without any recognized restriction of supply on the part of the trust that controls its product.

—The policy of making the consumption of tea and coffee sources of national revenue through customs taxation on the imports of these commodities has much to recommend it. The present annual