Mr. BIDWELL. I renew it. I feel persuaded that if the true condition of the wine producing interest of California could be under stood by this House no tax would be imposed upon it, unless it was done with the purpose of crushing that interest. After wine is made in California you then have to transport it 17,000 miles around Cape Horn in order to find a market. You have to pass twice through the tropics, during which time the wine is liable to spoil on your hands. You have to pay interest and insurance upon the risks of the ocean, all of which accumulates immensely the expense. Ihave already said that even the smallest tax would be a burden. It takes 14 ounds of grapes to make a gallon of wine. Ihose grapes at the vineyard where raised are worth perhapsacentsponnd. theyiareWhen you have expressed the juice it is Worth from 20 to 30 cents a gallon, including all the cost of labor. But that is not the cost of the wine. The labor upon it. the cask in which you have to put it, the cost of transporting it to SanFrancise o, a distance of 4 or 5 or 600 miles oftentimes in California, in many cases where there are no railroads; all these things enhance the cost and taking everything into consideration, labor, transportation, &c., on cannot produce wine in California for less than from 90 cents to $1, 25 a gallon. Now. if Congress wishes to crush this interest then impose this tax. 5 cents a gallon, as low as it appears, is 1/3rd of the value, after de ducting the cost of labor, &c. I think that we ought rather to encourage this interest in order to do away with strong drinks and substitute for them a beverage pure, healthful, and invig orating. I am not a wine drinker myself, nor am Ian advocate for wine drinking. But if you will foster this interest upon the Pacific coast in a.short time we will be able to produce all the raisins and all the wine and all the brandy that will be required in the U.S or upon the American continent. But put your tax upon it at this time and you will crush it in its infancy just as it is struggling into existence. I hope that the amendment of the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. Srsvsxs] will prevail, and that this paragraph will be stricken out. The entire amount of tax upon wine collected in the U.S. during the past year, I understand, was but a little over 30 4000 dollars. Now, is it worth whi e to crush out an interest that may become one of the 1st interests of this country for such a small sum as that? I really think not; and I hope, therefore, this paragraph will be stricken out.