Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ The argument for the Government stands on a strict adhesion to the letter of the statute giving the drawback and a narrow interpretation of even the letter of the Act. It contends that only the value of the stamps attached before removal from the factory can be recovered, and while admitting that the second payment made after the stamps had been bought and attached can be taken as adding to their value, it denies that the payment of what the statute calls a floor tax, paid after removal of the goods, can be added in a similar way. ”

“ We see no insuperable difficulty in adopting the same device for a payment of the same amount under the same Act by the same people for the same goods, after they had left the factory. And if the payment should be made by a third person who had purchased from the manufacturer it seems to us that if necessary he also might be taken to stand in the manufacturer's shoes, and still to make the payment on account of the stamps. ”