n. It is simply a
device by which the holder of manufactured liquors subject to sale can
avoid the payment of a tax until the time of actual delivery. His
warehouse, being under bonds to the government, is open only in the
presence of the revenue officer, who carries one of the keys necessary to
its opening. Without this the tax would have to be paid at time of
manufacture, and interest on that amount, to greater or less extent would
finally be paid by the consumer. While this system protects essentially
against fraud on the part of the owner alone, it does not protect against
the weakness or wickedness of officials, and the temptation is sometimes
enormous.

_Peculiar taxes._--Aside from these general forms of taxation, peculiar
devices are common. The stamps required on official papers or commercial
transactions, involving checks, notes, mortgages and deeds, have been
familiar at various times in our country, and are associated with the
history of the world. These differ little from the practice of affixing
stamps to patent medicines, cigars and other articles of trade; but
instead of being attached to the article transferred they are affixed to
the check or note or deed or bond employed in the transaction. These bear
unequally, being proportionally heavy upon the people of small means, and
are generally annoying in active business. They are frequently favored,
however, as being felt most by those who deal most in commerce.

The heavy taxes laid upon the consumption of alcoholic liquors and tobacco
illustrate another device for making so-called luxury bear the heavier
portion of taxes. It looks both ways, attempting to check luxurious living
or vicious practices by a penalty for indulgence, and at the same time to
secure a revenue as the result of such indulgence. Evidently in so far as
it prohibits indulgence it is not a revenue measure; and in so far as it
secures the revenue it does not prohibit indulgence. It is borne somewhat
patiently, because each person feels that he can avoid the payment by
ceasing to indulge himself. The universal tendency is to make it purely a
revenue measure by fixing the tax just where it will not retard
consumption in any material degree, and in some instances will give a
quasi dignity to the dealer through his official license.

_Taxation of credits._--A very common device adopted in most of the states
is that of assessing credits as well as property. The majority of farmers
favor th