Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-05-27
" TANGLE-P00Tp TRICKS,
How Milwaukee Distillers Defraud the
Revenue.

The Chicago Sunday Times has
the following details in regard to
how the United States Revenue was
| defrauded by the Milwaukee whiskey
distil e and reotifiers:
The agent of the secret service
who has been working up the whis-
key revenue frauds in milwaukee
hiss an array of facts that are simply
astounding. His statements seem to
| be capable of demonstration, and it
seems hardly possible. IN the light
of the evidence be will be able TO
present on trial, that many of the
implicated parties can escape the
heaviest penalties. He stated that
he had secured positive evidence that
seven of the distillers he had been
watching, in Chicago and Milwaukee,
had been defrauding the government
at the rate 900 per day each.
There were others which were per-
petrating frauds of smaller proper
tions, but these seven were making
| Wholesale business of it, and had
matters so perfectly arrt nged that
they would feel secure in their opera
tions. The evidence against them
makes the fraud perfectly demonstra-
BILE. The manner in which these
frauds were perpetrated is somewhat
curious. In fact there were many
curious ways, and all of them have
been remarkably successful.
The favorite way of disposiug of
highwines without paying the tax
demanded by Uncle Sam, seems to
have been to make use of the same
stamps as many times as possl-
BILE without destroying them.
For example, a stamp would be affiS'
ed to the head of barrel and carted
off to a rectifing establishment and
dumped, when the barrel and stamp
would be returned and go through
the same process again until one or
both were worn out, or some official
called to examine them. By this
method, of course,it was necessary to
make the books correspond to the
transaction, or else the fraud would
appear of record. But this was
easily arranged by leaving the books
alone, or, in other words, making no
entry of the transaction whatever.
One instance of this kind the opera
tive observed during his investiga-
ton. Seventeen stamps were pur-
chased on or about the 1st of April,
and for the next Is days they regu-
larly ornamented the heads of IL
barrels that went forth from the dis
tilerv to the rectifying house, some
miles distant, and after being emptied
we're returned. Now each of these
barrels contain 40 wine gail 'ns Ct
spirits which, as all spirits are, were
greatly above proof. The govern
ment, however, required go cents
tax for each proof spirit gallon.
The stamps paid tax on 43 spirit
gallons, when in fact they contained
SO spirit gallons, leaving 26 gallons in
each barrel on which no tax had been
paid even for the first shipment. OF
course the next II shipments were
clear gain, making in all 1883 gal
ions on which the Government re
ceived no tax at all. THIS so cents
per gallon made q dead loss for the
Government, and q gain for the dis
tiller of $12,9l9 20 for Is days work.
In another case he found that a
gauger had measured and stamped
26 kegs of highwines containing
from to 10 gallons each. BY this
process a tax was IN reality paid on
$50 gallons of highwines. But the
stamps were found, on the day of the
raid, affixed to 26 barrels of high
wines. containing, at low estimate,
1894 spirit gallons, thus leaving ,544
gallons free Of tax, and defrauding
Uncle Sam out of 1889 60. The
stamps also bore marks of hard usage
and it is not at all unlikely that they
had covered the transfer of several
other like quantities from the distil-
lory to some rectifying house. The
officer further states that 48 barrels,
which he believes came from the
Menoninee distilIery, and which
contained nearly 80 spirit gallons
each, were captured, and every
barrel bore a cancelled stamp.
This was a dead loss to Uncle
Sam of SO, 456 in one day from
one distillery. and if the other distil-
leries in Milwaukee were equally
thrifty, it is not at all surprising that
Mr.. Brstow began to suspect fraud
there, and if the distillers in every
other city were equally shrewd,-l
and it is but justice TO suspect they
were--it is not at all strange that the
national strong box began to feel
empty.
Another way which these distil
lers had of covering up their frauds
was to ship their highwines to two
or three different rectifying estab-
Iishments. This gave the rectifiers
chance to unload, for when they
found that they had an unpleasantly
large stock on hand-a thousand bar
rels or so more than was accounted
for on their books all they had to
do was to ship thousand barrels or
so TO the other rec,ifier. The ship
per then entered up 1000 barrels
sold, aud squared his accounts, while
the buyer made no entry of the trans
action whatever in his books, as be
was not required to do so by law,
and all he asked for the favor was
for the other fellow to reciprocate
whenever necessity should require.
Still another way was for the dis
tiller to start rectifying establish
ment of his own, which was uomi-
nally presided over by some man of
straw, called John Smith, or some
other name which it would be impos-
sible to find in the directory. He
then shipped as much unstamped
whisky SIS he chose to this mythical
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