The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-12
TRUSTS AND MoNoPoLIEs.

TRUSTS AND MoNoPoLIEs.
The Notorious Whisky Ring--A Cotton
Bagging Combination.
!. Great Conspiracy to Detraud tie Gov
eminent of Intermal Revenue Tar
Tile Cotton Bag Corner
and It's Effect.
4 [From the Baltimore SUM-
NUMBER v.
/ shall devote a single paper to
these two combinations, which were
deemed proper subjects of ~iAvestiga-
lion by the House committee, and
whose operations may present some
facts of interest.
THE WHISKY FRAUDS.
The great whisky Ring" which
engrossed so large a share of public
attention in the closing years OF Gen.
Grants administration, was an asso-
cation of revenue officers and distillers
to defraud the government of the In
ternal revenue tax on distilled spirits.
Its headquarters were in st. Louis,
and it had branches in four Northern
cities and in New Orleans. Secretary
Bristow deserves the credit of break,
ing it up, although its power was so
great that for awhile it deied the gov
eminent, and even in its dying throes
effected his withdrawal from the
Cabinet. 1t was a temporary con
spiracy, and had no lineal or other
connection with existing combina-
tions.
THE DIsTILLERY COMBINATION.
Distilled spirits are with Us, as with
most of the great nations of the world,
q fruitful source of revenue. We
impose on the home product an inter
nal revenue tax of ninety cents per
standard gallon, which means a mix
ture testing fifty per cent. pure alco-
kol. This is a tax of from 800 to 400
per cent on the actual value. The tax
on imported spirits is two dollars per
gallon testing ninety-four per cent.
pure alcohol, which offsets the inter
nal revenue tax and gives 3 real tariff
tax of about &c cents on a standard
gallon, or an average much more than
one hundred per cent. I'D VGtorem.
Omitting rye whisky, of which there
is a moderate production in several
States, the general whisky product of
the United States falls into two great
classes, that made in Kentucky and
that made north of the Ohio river; Or
that made for aging and that which
does not require aging. The Ken
lucky or Bourbon whisky made from
corn, with an admixture of about one
third rye and barley malt, is unfit
for immediate use as a beverage, and
the BLUEGRASS expert d1sdains to
touch it until it has passed its third
summer, and then quaffs it with a de-
light measured by its increasing years.
The other grade, which includes the
great bulk of the product, is not made
for aging, and is about as good when
first made as ever afterwards. 1t is
distilled from corn, with the least ad-
dition of small grain that will estab-
Fish fermentation. Peoria, Illinois,
Is the chief seat of it's production,
and most of the distilleries are scat
tered through the State of Ohio, In
diana and Illinois. In both grades of
whisky there has been immense over
production in recent years. The Ken
lucky distillers, after vainly trying to
find or to create a foreign market for
their surplus, entered into an agree
nent whereby they covenaAted with
each other to suspend production for
one year from the 1st of July, 1887.
This agreement was signed by most
Of the large distillers of Kentucky. 1t
expired without renewal, and was not
= trust, but a voluntary compact
which rested on the good faith of
those who made it, having no consoli-
dation of properties under a sigle con-
troll, and exhibiting its kinship to the
trust family only in its purpose to limit
or suspend production until consump-
ton could catch up with it.
THE WHISKY TRUST.
The distillers north of the Ohio
river formed, in May, 1887, a regular
trust called "The Distillers and Cattle
Feeders Trust" Their agreement
was, as tested by their president,
modelled closely after that of the
STANDARD Old Trust" and is so like
that agreement in it's general scheme
Of organization that I need not go into
details.
The corporation whose stockholders
lad become parties to this trust num-
Aered 81 on the first day of January,
1888, and it has been paying q month
y dividend of one per cent. on it's
capitalization Of $50, 1000, zee since
that date. The alleged reason for its
formation was the fact that a brisk
export demand for spirits arose in
1878 and stimulated the building of
new distilleries and an increased out.