If entitled to indulge in such a suspicion as a basis of official action
in this case, and if entirely satisfied that the consequences indicated
would ensue, I should doubtless feel constrained to interpose Executive
dissent.
But I do not feel called upon to interpret the motives of Congress
otherwise than by the apparent character of the bill which has been
presented to me, and I am convinced that the taxes which it creates can
not possibly destroy the open and legitimate manufacture and sale of the
thing upon which it is levied. If this article has the merit which its
friends claim for it, and if the people of the land, with full knowledge
of its real character, desire to purchase and use it, the taxes exacted
by this bill will permit a fair profit to both manufacturer and dealer.
If the existence of the commodity taxed and the profits of its
manufacture and sale depend upon disposing of it to the people for
something else which it deceitfully imitates, the entire enterprise is
a fraud and not an industry; and if it can not endure the exhibition
of its real character which will be effected by the inspection,
supervision, and stamping which this bill directs, the sooner it is
destroyed the better in the interest of fair dealing.
Such a result would not furnish the first instance in the history of
legislation in which a revenue bill produced a benefit which was merely
incidental to its main purpose.
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