Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/250

246 rub-downs is much stronger, averaging 85 per cent, or 90 per cent. Investigations carried out in Germany have demonstrated that the best strength for general, miscellaneous uses is 95 per cent, and that is the strength which we, as consumers, should insist upon.

It is readily figured out that such alcohol at the present time must pay a tax of $2.08 the measured gallon. The wholesale price is in the neighborhood of $2.50 per gallon, of which we may estimate the government gets $2.08, the distilleries 42 cents.

The tax on alcohol yields a not inconsiderable fraction of the whole revenue of the federal government. According to the 'Statistical Abstract' for 1904, published by the government, the Internal Revenue collections were as follows:

The federal government has no disciplinary motive in this heavy tax; that function is performed by the individual states and cities under the familiar name of local option. The government merely takes advantage of the strong feelings of so many individuals against the use of alcoholic beverages at all to levy a tremendous tax. It is an interesting fact in this connection that no increase in the tax has ever produced an appreciable diminution in the amount consumed in this or in any other country.

The demands of manufacturers and others desiring to utilize alcohol for economic purposes were recognized long ago by other governments, and the efforts to satisfy these legitimate demands, while at