private person or outside party individually, then the dispatch must be stamped. 169. The payment of tax on messages transmitted by a telegraph company, and subsequently received and transmitted by a telephone company, does not exempt the last-named company from the payment of tax on the message so trasmitted. 170. A telegraphic dispatch or message is required to be stamped by the person who makes, signs, or issues Telephone companies. 171. Where telephone companies have lines extending into more than one collection district, the return may be made to the collector of that district in which the principal business office of the company is located. 172. Contracts and agreements between subscribers and telephone companies for the placing of a telephone, and payment therefor, are not subject to stamp tax. Warehouse receipts. 173. Stamps should be affixed to warehouse receipts for goods, merchandise, or property held on storage in public or private warehouses, by the warehousemen. 174. If the actual grower of tobacco, which is an agricultural product, deposits the same in a warehouse in the regular course of trade for sale and takes a warehouse receipt, this receipt is exempt from the stamp tax when it is issued, and it is not required to be stamped at any time after its issuance (if the tobacco which it represents remains in warehouse as it was originally deposited by the grower), although the same may be transferred as a negotiable instrument and presented to the warehouseman by other than the original holder. 175. Where tobacco, or the warehouse receipt therefor, is sold "at any exchange or board of trade, or other similar place," a memorandum of such sale must be made by the seller, and the stamp affixed thereto and canceled. 176. Where a warehouse receipt is sold by a broker at his own office or elsewhere than at a place of exchange, or other place of public sale, the 10-cent stamp must be affixed to the memorandum of this transaction under the paragraph relating to broker's contract. 177. Any receipt or memorandum given by a warehouseman, or any signing by a warehouseman of any express company's book or other receipt evidencing the fact that goods have been placed on storage, is such a receipt, requiring a stamp tax of 25 cents, whether the same is negotiable or nonnegotiable. 178. A warehouse receipt which includes also an insurance against fire should be stamped also as an insurance policy, according to the premium charged. 179. Compress receipts for cotton are not taxable as warehouse receipts if they do not embrace any contract, express or implied, for storage, and for which a storage charge is made as such. The receipt for cotton received for compression, handling, and shipment is exempt from taxation. 180. The exemption from tax on warehouse receipts for agricultural products is restricted to receipts for products of this kind, which are deposited by the actual grower thereof in the regular course of trade for sale. This does not exempt warehouse receipts for such products in case the property deposited has already passed from the ownership of the actual grower. N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. (20324.) Retail price of goods. Bad faith in fixing the retail price of articles by the manufacturer. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., November 15, 1898. SIR : Your letter under date of November 7, 1898, was received. You state that Messrs. Shonenberg & Noble, New York City, are manufacturing a celery tonic and stamping it at the rate of one-quarter of a cent, but that the retail price of the preparation varies from 50 to 75 cents. You submit that it is improperly stamped. This office holds that the manufacturer is the proper person to fix the retail price or value of his goods, and if the article is stamped at the rate of one-quarter of a cent, it is prima facie evidence that the retail price or value exceeds 5 and not more than 10 cents; and if the article is occasionally sold at an advance of the price indicated by the tax stamps, that can not be considered sufficient evidence upon which to base a charge of bad faith on the part of the manufacturer. However, if you find from the retail price commonly and usually charged by retail dealers for the article that the tax stamp affixed does not indicate the true retail price or value, that will be evidence of bad faith on the part of the manufacturer, and the goods will be liable to seizure. The collector of internal revenue for the Second district of New York, New York City, has been requested to cause an investigation to be made. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. J. H. BINGHAM, Collector of Internal Revenue, Birmingham, Ala. DECISIONS BY THE BOARD OF GENERAL APPRAISERS. (20325—G. A. 4307.) Manufactures of wood. Hinoki mats and baskets dutiable as manufactures of wood. Before the U. S. General Appraisers at New York, November 11, 1898. In the matter of the protests 37094, 37095, 36861, 36862, 37537 b, of Marshall Field & Co., against the decision of the collector of customs at Chicago, Ill., as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable on certain merchandise, imported per Braemar, Columbia, Tacoma, Victoria, and Olympia, and entered February 16, February 28, March 16, March 30, and April 19, 1898. Opinion by WILKINSON, General Appraiser. The goods are Hinoki mats and baskets. They were returned by the appraiser as manufactures of which willow or osier was the component material of chief value, and were assessed for duty at 40 per cent under paragraph 206 of the act of July, 1897. It is claimed that they are dutiable at 30 per cent, under paragraph 449, as manufactures of chip or straw, or at 35 per cent, under paragraph 208, as manufactures of wood. Samples were submitted to the United States laboratory at this port for analytical examination. The chemist reports that the mats are made of wood shavings, and that the baskets are composed of willow binding, cotton, wood shavings, and grass stuffing, and that the folded and braided wood shavings are the elements of chief value. We find, therefore, that the goods are manufactures of which wood is the component material of chief value, and we sustain the claim that they are dutiable at 35 per cent under paragraph 208. 893 (20326_G. A. 4308.) Copper matte. Copper matte exempt from duty as copper regulus under paragraph 534 of the act of 1897. Before the U. S. General Appraisers at New York, November 14, 1898. In the matter of the protest, 385996, of The Philadelphia Smelting and Refining Company, against the decision of the surveyor of customs at Denver, Colo., as to the rate and amount of duties chargeable on certain merchandise, imported per cars, and entered June 4, 1898. Opinion by WILKINSON, General Appraiser. The merchandise is copper matte similar to that covered by G. A. 3394, in which it was held to be entitled to free admission as copper regulus, under paragraph 453 of the act of 1894. It was assessed for duty as a lead-bearing ore under paragraph 181 of the act of July 24, 1897, in accordance with Department instructions (Synopsis 19777), and is claimed to be exempt from duty under paragraph 534. The Department said in Synopsis 19777: As it was clearly the intention of Congress to place a duty on all lead contained in lead-bearing ores, it is the opinion of this Department that the instructions addressed to you under date of the 19th instant, directing that the various percentages of lead contained in the importation be assessed with duty at the rate of 14 cents per pound, under paragraph 181, fully carry out the intent of Congress. Such decision in no way affects the copper contained in the importation, which is admitted to free entry, as directed by Congress. Paragraph 181 provides only for “lead-bearing ores of all kinds." We find that the merchandise is not an ore of any kind, and we hold that it is not covered by paragraph 181. The provision of paragraph 534 for copper regulus is an exact reproduction of the corresponding provision of paragraph 453 of the act of 1894. It does not seem to be disputed that the copper matte in question is copper regulus, and, following G. A. 3394, the protest is sustained. |