public convenience which maintains any schedules permitting these men to get to work without considerable delay, and frequently they are unable to use such facilities where such transportation is available since the stations operate 24 hours a day and 365 days per year, and the public transportation does not operate at all hours.

At Detroit, the station at the airfield was moved to Willow Run when the airfield was transferred there and the employees who live in Detroit travel 40 miles to the job and 40 miles home. In Los Angeles, the station was formerly at Glendale and was subsequently transferred 20 miles away, while in Newark, N. J., the men once assigned there were transferred to LaGuardia Field when that station was established in lieu of Newark, and a third shift is in prospect, and at St. Louis the field is 20 miles from town.

The men competed in examinations with the expectation they would be assigned to the particular station for which the examination and assignment was called. They established homes. Suddenly the station is moved-and the stations are moved every time the air line changes fields-and the men have to resign or go to the new station, and there is no assurance that there will not be another transfer subsequently for some reason. They cannot today find housing accommodations as easily and rapidly as stations are changed and they, therefore, remain in their facilities and travel the distances to work wherever it might be.

It is estimated by officials in the Post Office Department who are familiar with this work that the average distance of the airmail station from the municipal post office is 12 miles. Employees pool their cars for rides where possible, but often there is an insufficient number at the station for pools because of different shifts or a small number of personnel, and the employee is forced to use his own car for the commuting.

The extra pay to be granted by S. 2677 would serve, in part, to offset some of the cost and inconvenience of this phase of the postal service.

The committee has not received a report from the Post Office Department on the bill.

A comparison of the present law with the provisions of S. 2677 follows:

MAKING

IMPORTED BEER AND OTHER SIMILAR IMPORTED FERMENTED LIQUORS SUBJECT TO THE INTERNAL REVENUE TAX ON FERMENTED LIQUOR

JUNE 16 (legislative day, JUNE 15), 1948.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. MILLIKIN, from the Committee on Finance, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 6162]

The Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 162) to make imported beer and other similar imported fermented quors subject to the internal-revenue tax on fermented liquor, having nsidered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment nd recommend that the bill, as amended, do pass.

The bill makes imported fermented liquors subject to the internalvenue tax of $8 per barrel which is levied upon domestic fermented quors. Imported fermented liquors are now subject only to an imrt duty of $7.75 per barrel and are exempt from internal-revenue tax. - consequence the tax on imported fermented liquors is 25 cents less an the tax on similar domestic products.

The Geneva agreement provides that if internal-revenue taxes are posed on imported fermented liquors the present import duty shall cut in half. Therefore this bill would result in total excises on imrted fermented liquors of $11.87%1⁄2 per barrel, of which $8 would be ternal-revenue tax and $3.87%1⁄2 would be import duty. The committee amendment is technical. It is as follows: On page 2, line 9, after the word "shall" insert a comma and ginning with the word "also" strike out all that follows through the ord "Code" in line 11. In lieu thereof insert the following:

ring the continuance of the war-tax rate on fermented malt liquors prescribed section 1650, be subject to tax at such rate in lieu of the rate herein before scribed.

Section 3150 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code imposes a tax of $7 r barrel on fermented liquors. Section 1650 of the code imposes a r-tax rate of $8 per barrel on fermented liquors in lieu of this $7 Your committee's amendment corrects an ambiguity in the

wording of the referred bill which made the bill subject to the interpretation that it would impose a $7 internal-revenue tax in addition to the $8 internal-revenue tax.

The report of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives is as follows:

EFFECT OF THE BILL

The bill would amend section 3150 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code (imposing a tax on fermented liquors) to subject all beer, lager beer, ale, porter, and other similar fermented liquor imported into the United States to the internal-revenue tax of $7 for every barrel of not more than 31 gallons, as well as to the war excise tax of $1 per barrel prescribed in section 1650 of the Internal Revenue Code. The taxes would apply with respect to all such fermented liquors by whatever name such liquors may be called.

The effective date of the amendment would be the first day of the first month which begins at least 10 days after the date of enactment.

GENERAL STATEMENT

There is at present no internal-revenue tax on imported fermented malt liquors, although most other imported alcoholic beverages are subject to internal-revenue taxes. For example, imported distilled spirits pay a domestic excise tax of $9 per gallon, including the war tax rate, and in addition pay an import duty of $1.50 per gallon. The reason for the variation in policy in the application of internalrevenue taxes to imported alcoholic beverages is historic. At the time of enactment of the Revenue Act of 1917, the import duty on fermented malt liquor was $13.95 per barrel when imported in bottles and jugs, and $7.13 when imported in barrels or kegs. The limitation in application of the internal-revenue tax of $3 per barrel solely to domestic beer still provided a substantial over-all tax advantage to American brewers. On the other hand, the imposition of the internal-revenue tax of $3.20 per gallon upon domestic distilled spirits, without similarly taxing imported distilled spirits, would have resulted in a net tax advantage to imported distilled spirits of 60 cents per gallon.

Since the Revenue Act of 1917, therefore, internal-revenue taxes have been imposed on imported distilled spirits and wine, but not on imported fermented malt liquor. Imported fermented malt liquor is now subject only to the import duty of $7.75 per barrel, and is exempt from the internal-revenue taxes of $8 per gallon imposed upon such liquor of domestic origin. The result is an obvious discrimination against American brewers.

Justifiable complaints have been received, especially from brewers along the Mexican and Canadian borders. The situation is made even more intolerable by comparison with the Canadian import tax on American beer of approximately $35 per barrel, and the Mexican import tax on American beer of approximately $40 per barrel.

Under paragraph 805 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by schedule XX of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade concluded at Geneva in 1947, the enactment of this bill will result in reducing the rate of duty on imported fermented malt liquor from the present $7.75 per barrel of not more than 31 gallons to $3.87% per barrel. The combined import duty and internal-revenue tax per barrel on imported fermented malt liquor would then be $11.87% per barrel, as compared with the $8 per barrel internal-revenue taxes paid on domestic fermented malt liquor.