63D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session. USELESS PAPERS IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. JUNE 13, 1913.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. TALBOTT, from the Joint Select Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers, submitted the following REPORT. [On H. Doc. 2, 63d Cong., 1st sess.] The joint select committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, appointed on the part of the Senate and on the part of the House of Representatives, to which were referred the reports of the heads of departments, bureaus, etc., in respect to the accumulation therein of old and useless files of papers which are not needed or useful in the transaction of the current business therein, respectively, and have no permanent value or historical interest, with accompanying statements of the condition and character of such papers, respectfully report to the Senate and House of epresentatives, pursuant to an act entitled "An act to authorize and provide for the disposition of useless papers in the executive departments," approved February 16, 1889, as follows: Your committee have met and, by a subcommittee appointed by your committee, carefully and fully examined the said reports so referred to your committee and the statements of the condition and the character of such files, and papers therein described, and we find and report that the files and papers described in the report of the Postmaster General in House Document No. 2, Sixty-third Congress, first session, dated March 7, 1913, are not needed in the transaction of the current business of such departments and bureaus, and have no permanent value or historical interest. Respectfully submitted to the Senate and House of Representatives. 63D CONGRESS, 1st Session. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { OPIUM TAX. REPORT JUNE 23, 1913.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HARRISON of New York, from the Committee on Ways and Means, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 1967.] The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 1967) to amend sections 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40 of the tariff act of October 1, 1890, having had the same under consideration, report it back to the House with amendments as follows: Amend title to said bill by striking from the title the words, "To amend the act of October first, eighteen hundred and ninety (Twentysixth Statutes, page fifteen hundred and sixty-seven)," and adding, after the words "United States," a comma and the words "and for other purposes." Amend section 5, page 3, line 2, by substituting the word "by" for the word "or" after the word "opium" as first appearing in said line. This bill is designed so to amend the internal-revenue act of October 1, 1890 (26 Stat., 567), as greatly to increase the tax on the manufacture of smoking opium in the United States. The act of October 1, 1890, was intended as a revenue act pure and simple, and it appears to have been enacted with the object of placing a countervailing tax of $10 a pound on opium prepared for smoking manufactured within the United States, the import tax on such opium in 1890 being at the rate of $10 a pound. It is proposed by H. R. 1967 so to amend the act of October 1, 1890, as to supplement the act approved February 9, 1909, and the proposed amendments thereto. The reason for this amendment is as follows: The act approved February 9, 1909 prohibits the importation of opium except for medicinal purposes, and so makes it illegal for anyone to import crude opium into the United States and so to manufacture smoking opium. But it is possible for those desiring to do so to cultivate the poppy in several of the States (notably those on the Pacific slope), produce opium therefrom, and under the act of October 1, 1890, secure a license and manufacture such domestically produced opium into smoking opium for local consumption and interstate traffic. Owing to the high price which smoking opium now commands as the result of its legal exclusion from the United States, certain persons have declared their intention of producing opium in the United States and manufacturing it into smoking opium. Should this intention be carried out, it would be a direct defeat of the chief object of the act approved February 9, 1909, and the proposed amendments thereto and may be checked by so amending the act of October 1, 1890, as to impose a prohibitive internal-revenue tax on all smoking opium manufactured in the United States from domestic crude opium and by providing further that a bond be required of the prospective manufacturers so heavy as to be deterrent in its effect. Section 1 of the proposed amendment is in wording almost identical with section 1 of the act which it is proposed to amend, the difference being that an internal-revenue tax of $200 per pound is to be levied and collected upon all opium manufactured in the United States for smoking purposes instead of $10 per pound. The principal requirement of section 2 of the amendment is the bond of $100,000 as against the bond of $5,000 provided for in the original act. Sections 3 and 4 are in the common form of internal-revenue statutes governing the stamping of receptacles and governing the engraving, issue, sale, and accountability of internal-revenue stamps. Section 5 imposes a minimum penalty of $10,000 or imprisonment of not less than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court, for each and every violation of the preceding sections of the act and provides for the summary forfeiture and destruction of all smoking opium manufactured in the United States contrary to the provisions of the proposed bill. It is of course perfectly obvious that H. R. 25240 is designed to prevent the manufacture of smoking opium within the United States. A great many persons have seen in this proposed amendment an attempt on the part of the Federal Government to legalize the manufacture of smoking opium for revenue purposes, such persons arguing that the Federal Government should directly prohibit the manufacture of such opium within the United States. This argument, though plausible, is of course outside the question, as the Federal Government may only secure the prohibition sought for by an exercise of its taxing power. О 63D CONGRESS, 1st Session. } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { REPORT REGISTRATION OF PRODUCERS AND IMPORTERS OF OPIUM, ETC. JUNE 24, 1913.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HARRISON of New York, from the Committee on Ways and Means, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 6282.] The Committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6282) to provide for the registration of, with collectors of internal revenue, and to impose a special tax upon all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes, having had the same under consideration, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. The part which the United States Government has played in the modern international movement for the control of the opium and allied traffics, the obligations by which it is bound as the result of the International Opium Commission, and the obligations by which it is bound by virtue of the international opium convention signed at The Hague January 23, 1912, should be sufficient evidence of the necessity for the passage of Federal legislation to control our foreign and interstate traffic in opium, coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, and preparations. Even though there were no real domestic need for such legislation, it would seem, to be logical and to justify its intervention for the settlement of the far eastern opium traffic, that this Government is bound to enact legislation to carry out its humanitarian, moral, and international obligations. But there is a real and, one might say, even desperate need of Fedcral legislation to control our foreign and interstate traffic in habitforming drugs, and to aid both directly and indirectly the States more effectually to enforce their police laws designed to restrict narcotics to legitimate medical channels. There is probably no one who does not know that during the last 25 years opium, morphine, coca leaves, and cocaine have been rashly |