The Signs of the Times, vol. 13

“Tobacco and Wiskey” The Signs of the Times 13, 48, p. 761.

THE fiftieth Congress has assembled, and the President has delivered his annual message. As the Government annually receives more money than it knows what to do with, the question how to reduce the surplus in the National Treasury is the principal one before Congress. The President has recommended that the tariff on foreign fabrics be reduced, while the revenue on certain home products, whisky and tobacco for instance, shall be retained. This has made a great stir in our own country, and has caused much favorable comment in England. Upon the question itself, we have nothing particular to say, but Hon. James G. Blaine has made some remarks upon it, about which we have a few words to say. In an interview with Mr. Blaine, the following conversation occurred. Mr. Blaine, speaking of the President, said:— SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.1

“He recommends that the tax on tobacco be retained, and thus that many millions annually shall be levied on domestic products which would far better come from a tariff on foreign fabrics.” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.2

“Then do you mean to imply that you would favor the repeal of the tobacco tax?” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.3

“Certainly; I mean just that,” said Mr. Blaine. “I should urge that it be done at once, even before the Christmas holidays. It would, in the first place, bring great relief to the growers of tobacco all over the country, and would, moreover, materially lessen the price of the article to consumers. Tobacco to millions of men is a necessity. The President calls it a luxury. It is well to remember that the luxury of yesterday becomes the necessity of to-day. Watch the number of men at work on farms, in coal mines, along railroads, in iron foundries, or in any calling, and you will find ninety-five out of one hundred chewing while they work. After each meal, the same proportion seek the solace of a pipe or cigar. These men not only pay millions of tobacco tax, but pay an enhanced price, which the tax enables the manufacturers and retailers to impose.” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.4

“Well, then, Mr. Blaine, would you advise the repeal of the whisky tax?” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.5

“No, I would not. Other considerations than those of financial administration are to be taken into account with regard to whisky. There is a moral side to it. To cheapen the price of whisky is to increase the consumption enormously. There would be no sense in urging the reform wrought by high license in many States if the National Government neutralizes the good effect of making whisky within the reach of everyone. At twenty cents a gallon it would destroy high license at once in all the States. Whisky has done a vast deal of harm in the United States. I would try to make it do some good. I would use the tax to fortify our cities on the seaboard.” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.6

“But, after fortification construction, would you still maintain the tax on whisky?” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.7

“Yes, so long as there is whisky to tax, I would tax it, and then if the National Government should have no use for the money, I would divide the tax among the Federal Union with the specific object of lightening the tax on real estate. If ultimately relief could be given in that direction, in my judgment it would be a wise and beneficial policy. Some honest but misguided friends of temperance have urged that the Government should not use the money derived from the tax on whisky. My reply is that the tax imposed on whisky by the Federal Government and the consequent enhancement of the price has been a powerful agent in temperance reform has been a powerful agent in temperance reform by putting it beyond the reach of so many.” SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.8

Mr. Blaine’s argument for retaining the whisky tax while abolishing the tobacco tax is not good. The same argument by which he would justify free tobacco is equally valid for free whisky. To test it we have but to substitute the word “whisky” for “tobacco” in the above extract and read it again. SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.9

To repeal the tax on whisky would be just as much of a relief to the producers of whisky as the repeal of the tobacco tax would be to the growers of tobacco. This would lessen the price of whisky to consumers as well as that would lessen the price of tobacco. Whisky to millions of men is a necessity as well as tobacco is. It is just as true of whisky as it is of tobacco that the luxury of yesterday becomes the necessity of to-day. By watching the number of men at work on farms, in coal mines, along railroads, in iron foundries, or in any calling, you will find that a vast percentage of them, though perhaps not exactly drinking while they work, do drink as well as work; and it is a fact that thousands of them actually drink while they work. After each meal the same percentage seek the solace of a drink of whisky, of wine, or of beer, as the others, and many of the same ones do of the pipe or cigar. These men also not only pay millions of whisky tax, but pay an enhanced price for the whisky itself, which the tax enables the manufacturers and retailers to impose. Then why not abolish the tax on whisky as well as on tobacco? One is just as much of a luxury as is the other; and one is no more of a necessity than is the other. SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.10

There is another point that makes the argument of Mr. Blaine’s inconsistent, and that is that whisky is now made an essential ingredient in manufactured tobacco whether in the shape of cigars, cigarettes, fine-cut, or plug. See the tobacco advertisements everywhere of the “Piper-heidseik,” the “Champagne Cocktail—A chew as good as a drink.” Any manufacturer of tobacco can tell of large quantities of brandy, New England rum, etc., that are used in his business. A few years ago, when prohibition was proposed in Virginia, the strongest argument against it, made by a Richmond paper, was that the manufacture of tobacco would be most seriously interfered with, because the whisky, rum, brandy, etc., that was necessary to the business could not be obtained. Now why should the tax be removed from manufactured tobacco and not removed from whisky, which is the most essential ingredient in it? Suppose the tax be removed from the tobacco, the price will not be materially lessened to the consumers, as long as the manufacturers of tobacco have to pay a high tax on the whisky which they put into the tobacco. SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.11

Mr. Blaine says the enhancement of the price of whisky has been a powerful agent in temperance reform, by putting it beyond the reach of many. But to make tobacco free does not help the matter a particle, it will rather make it worse, because the more there is consumed the more whisky there is consumed, and that only increases the intemperance. For, as he says, “To cheapen the price of whisky is to increase the consumption enormously.” Then it is certainly true that to cheapen the price of tobacco is likewise to increase the consumption enormously, and that is only to enormously increase the consumption of whisky, because the whisky is in the tobacco. SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.12

Again says Mr. Blaine, “Whisky has done a vast deal of harm in the United States.” That is true. And it is equally true that through the mediumship of tobacco, whisky has done, and is doing, more harm in the United States than by any other means. And no effort in behalf of temperance in the United States can consistently stop short of tobacco. If whisky is to be taxed in the interests of temperance, how can tobacco be made free when it itself is saturated with whisky. If prohibition is the only remedy for the evil of the liquor traffic, then, to be effectual, prohibition must include tobacco also, or at the very least it must prohibit the use of liquor in the manufacture of tobacco. But whatever either tax or prohibition may do or try to do, there is one thing certain, no argument can be framed to justify free tobacco that will not equally justify free whisky. Tobacco and whisky are boon companions in deviltry, and the deviltry of tobacco only paves the way for that of whisky. SITI December 15, 1887, page 761.13

J.