Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-29
THE WINE-GROWERS.
Their Meeting Held Yes
terday Afternoon.
SPEECH or MIR. WETMORE.
Bogus Wines Are Running the
Wine Trade in Calif0r-
nia-A Remedy.

A meeting of the Wine Growers Asso'
citation was held yesterday afternoon IN
the rooms uf the Board of Trade IN the
Baker Block. A number OF very promi'
nent wine growers were present, to-
gether with a few representatives OF the
wine trade from various points. AT 2;30
p. NJ. the meeting was called to order by
Hon. l.. !. Rose, President of the Asso-
citation. He stated that the object of
the meeting was for the purpose of or.
ganizing some plan of support for the
wine bills now before Congress. He in.
troduced Mr.. Wetmore, who had just
arrived, in very appropriate language,
referring to him as gentleman who was
early distinguished as a strong advocate
of the best interests of the California
wine business and whose efforts
had always accomplished some
good. Mr.. Wetmore was now on his
way to Was hington in the interests of
the measures now pending before Con-
gress and the speaker felt proud that the
wine growers OF Califor mia were sending
there such an able representative of their
interests. Mr. Wetmore was so well
versed in the subject at hand that his
remarks would certainly be received
with appreciation by the gentlemen pres
ent. The gentleman introduced then
stepped forward and spoke in substance
as follows:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen Of the
Meeting Having just stepped from
train am not prepared for making
speech. We are now trying to organize
for real battle-for hard work. l think
we have reason to pay attention to the
wine trade to-day. The sole cause of the
low prices in wines to-day is the presence
of bogus wines in the market. If we
clear the market of bogus wines we will
find that prices will ut once increase.
We must organize and ally ourselves
with other causes in sympathy with us
in order to accomplish our purpose.
The fact is that the wine industry repre-
senting SO many millions of capital in
this State, has not displayed enough
activity to raise a retaining fee for first
class lawyer to. advance it's in.
terests. We want relief on the
sweet wine question. We now
have it in shape to pass Congress; yet it
may be tampered with so that it will die
on the threshold OF success. | am
now on my road to Washington to ad-
vocate the interests of the WINE bill.
warn you not to be imposed on by the
apparent friendliness of Washington
people who offer to take off the tax ON
our brandy 1t meets cheaper bogus
wines. This fight is as serious to us as
the fight of the dairymeu for tax on
oleomargarine. We have a tariff of SO
cents gallon on wines, and yet it does
us no good except that it keeps out bo
gus wines similar to those that are doing
the great harm in this State. We must
have protection against bogus wines.
There is another evil that is fighting
us the movement to introduce prohibi-
ton and local option in various States.
1t keeps out wines, while whisky can be
bought in any prohibition State; SO that
the wine-growers are the ones who suf-
fer most, while the least harmful. Ii
the bill to reduce the tax on spirits were
to pass, it would cause spirits to be 50
cheap that the prohibition and temper
ance people would rise up and sweep
out the liquor traffic altogether.
Congressman Markham should be in.
formed as to the best interests OF the
wine.growers, for he is liable TO fall into
the same mistake as did the San Fran
cisco Chronicle-that reduction OF the
tax on spirits would result favoraby for
us. The tax on alcohol, if removed,
would be injurious. Mr.. Wetmore went
on to discuss the evil bogus wine was
doing in the California wine traffic.
Mr.. G. W. Knox, Assembly yman elect,
who was present, piled few questions
to Mr.. Wetmore in response to that gen.
tleman's invitation to be interviewed.
To the question if he knew of any wine
dealers who had actually retired from
the business because of the presence of
such large quantities of bogus wines in
the market, Mr.. Wetmore replied in the
affirmative, reiterating previous as.
sertion he had made to that effect, and
stated that he could cite several cases in
this State.
Upon general inquiry the meeting
came to the conclusive estimate that the
State of California produced more pure
wines by two-fold than all the region
east of the Rocky Mountains. mot.
withstanding the pure wines produced"
continued Mr.. Wetmore. "there were
1900 gallons Of cherry juice impo rted
into the State last year, and used to
adulterate our wines. They mix in the
Juice and put in little salicilic acid, and
they have bogus wine that few of the
masses can detect" Mr.. Stern who
was present, corroborated Mr.. Wet
more's statement that there were
MANY merchants dropping the handling
of pure wines because of the bogus wines
that were introduced in the market.
Many of tho petty dealers preferred the
bogus wines because they could get it
cheaper, and even physicians were
known to buy the bogus wines for the
same criminal reason that they could
get it cheaper and the patients would
never know the difference.
Mr.. Wetmore concluded his extern
pore but able remarks with a
second exhortation that the wine
growers must organize and fight
for their interests collectively. He
hoped that all would come to an under
standing as to what measure would do
them the greatest good if passed by Con.
gress and then work for the passage of
that bill. He condensed the wants OF
the wine.growers to legislation for
the purpose of exterminatng the
bogus wines in this country as the bogus
wines of other countries were already
kept out of the murkets by the tariff.
Mr.. L. J. Rose addressed the meeting
in support of Mr. Wetmore's remarks
and urged the support of all
wine-growers to the passage of the
Spurious Wine bill. He claimed
ii this protective bill were passed
that it would increase the wine
sales in the State to wonderful degree.
He thought all the members present
should meet and confer with Mr.. Wet.
more and give him their earnest we'll