Mahlon Pitney

“ But it is not so easy to believe, in the absence of clear language requiring such a construction, that in prescribing a revenue tax upon the manufacture of opium for smoking purposes, it intended to subject the same substance more than once to the tax, or to require surveillance over opium-smoking resorts,-in which, it would seem, such treatment of the residuum might most readily be conducted,-the same as over a factory or other establishment where the primary conversion of crude opium into smoking opium is conducted. ”

“ But, aside from the general principle that criminal statutes ought not to be extended by construction, we have here the additional consideration that this statute was primarily designed as a taxing act. ”

“ This act is the so-called McKinley tariff law, and provided for the tariff duties to be paid upon articles imported from foreign countries, and also for the collection of certain internal revenue taxes. ”