Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-25
A PLEASANT SURPRISE.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and
the Mckinley tariff bill is not an exCep-
ton. The beet sugar industry in this
state will be benefited by the 2 cents
bounty provided in that bill if it pass
the senate without being struck out
But we learn, through dispatch re-
ceived here from Representative Nc
Kenna, that when he failed in his effort
to keep sugar off the free list, he and his
friends tackled the sweet wines fortifica-
ton bill to the tariff measure and it
passed with it. AS this subject was
once thoroughly discussed in the
senate and the bill passed that
body but failed in the house,
it is reasonable to suppose that
it will again be favorably received in the
senate. The exemption of grape brandy
used in the fortifying of sweet wines
from the internal revenue tax has been
urgently pressed in congress by all the
friends of the California wine interest.
Without this exemption our vignerons
cannot compete with the imported sweet
wines, which all carry large percentage
of alcoholic fortification, and only pay
the ordinary duty on wines. 1t will be
recollected that few years ago our
sweet-wine manufacturers were nearly all
subjected to serious annoyances by the
revenue department because they hadput
small quantity of grape brandy into
them so as to preserve them. A ruling
was then had by which the wine makers
were absolutely prohibited from fortify-
ing their wines at all, although the rev.
enue law did not in terms forbid this in
dispensable fortifcation. Our vignerons
have always felt that this ruling was az
bitrary, unjust and not warranted by a
fair construction of the law, and have
ever since besieged congress to pass
law for their relief The fruit brandy
men of the east and the whiskey ring,
however, have always managed to defeat
this measure of justice, so that the sweet
wine business has been almost destroyed.
Not only has the revenue department
paralyzed the business by its arbitrary
decision, but at the dictation OF the
whiskey ring-which seems to have been
and to be all-powerful in that depart
ment-the vignerons have been subjected
to constant annoyance by determined
system of espionage kept up by special
agents and spies of the department.
men who are really working in the in
terests of the ring. If the wine in
dustry of California has survived the
unfriendly policy of the government, it
has done so in spite Of the most vexa-
tious and harassing acts of unfriendli-
ness that could be devised
against it, Instead of being
encouraged, as it would have been un
der any sensible government, every
thing possible has been done to ruin it.
When we come to consider the vast i'm
portance and the enormous possibilities
of the wine interest of California, an in
terest which with the encouragement
and fostering care of the government is
capable of being made to equal that OF
France, we are at a loss to account for
the Grass ignorance and idiotic states
manship of the men who have got con-
troll OF our national affairs.
Now that the fortiication bill has
been got through the house at an ex-
traordinary conjuncture, which our rep
resentatives were shrewd enough to take
advantage of, let US lend our best efforts
and use our utmost influence to secure
its passage through the senate. Its
erection into a law will give an impetus
to our wine industry that will lead to
the most gratifying consequences.