The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-04-16
THE WHISKY TRUST.

The telegraphic report of the figures
which were laid before the whisky trust by
President Greenhut on Wednesday was
probably mutilated in transmission and is
not easily understood. President Greenhut
is made to say that the sales of whisky for
the year ending March 81, 1892, were A., 66l.-
III gallons and that the earnings. were
81, 72S. S27. 1t is impossible to reconcile the
quantity with the sum of money realized;
the trust certainly got more than 10 cents a
gallon for its whisky. The explanation,
probably, is that the President in stating
the volume of his sales only took into ac-
count the quantity of Bourbon and rye
whisky marketed. while in giving the sum
of money realized he Included all the other
manufactures of the trust, such as alcohol,
rum, high wines, neutral spirits aud fruit
brandy, and figure or two was dropped on
the wires.
Assuming that there WAS consumed in the
United States last year 45. 661, az gallons of
Bourbon and rye whisky, or about three
quarters OF a gallon for every man, woman
and child in the country, il is to be observed
that only once before in our history has this
amount been exceeded. In 1890 the con-
sumption exceeded 100000 gallons. We
may therefore say that the consumption of
not quite in proportion to the increase in
population. In 1881 the consumption was
$4,000, coo gallons, butsince then the sales of
whisky from first hands have fiuctuated
widely. In 1884 they only amounted to
100000 gallons, in 1888 to something over
100000. These fluctuations were caused
by oscillations in the markets from an over
supply followed by an under supply. The
effect of the trust has been to regulate sup
ply and demand, to diminish production
when dizziness overlook the market and to
increase it again when activity returned.
Moralists will deplore the steady increase
in the consumption of an article which is
justly chargeable with much mischief, es-
pecially when American thirst and Ameri-
can appetite can be as satisfactorily
quenched with much less pernicious
beverages. We are raising in this State
some fifteen or twenty million gallons Of
wine which will not average over Is per
cent in alcohol, while the WHISTLES that are
drunk carry 81 per cent. There is produced
every year in the United States some
100000 gallons of fermented liquors
which only carry about per centOf alcohol.
The wine-makers and the brewers have
always cOntended that an increased con-
sumption of their products would lead to
diminished consumption OF distilled liquors.
But 1t is not certain that that has been tie
case. No one can say for certainty
what the consumption of whisky might be
in this country if we had no wine and no
beer; but so far as beer is concerned the
consumption has increased from 100, 600 900
gallons to $1,000. 600 gallous In three decades
without checking the demands for whisky
The telegraphc report of the income
account Of the trust is not Ineligible. 1t
pnrpOrts TO state that the receipts of the
trust last year were S4.72S. S27 and the
expenditures only SAP. 3o3, thus leaving a
proht OF Sl.366,524 Oh the years business.
Distilling is profitable, as every one knows.
but ii is hardly as profitable as that If ii
were the officials of the trust are far too dis
Greet to admit the fact Until the text of
the report comes to hand the public will
have to content itself with the broad fact
that the trust is doing well, is paying regular
dividends and carrying a considerable sum
every year to the credit Of surplus account.
How long il will continue 10 flourish Is
question which the stock FOLDERS will con-
slider.
The tide is setting against all manner OF
trusts. People are making ready for an
onslaught upon all combinations of capital
which are designed to deprive them of the
advantages of industrial competition and to
Increase the cost of living among the popu
lation at large in order to enrich few rich
men. Americans are not tainted with COM
munism, but still they realize that there is
substratum of truth in the communist doc
trine that there should be some approach TO
equality in the distribution of the good
things Of this world, and they are not dis
posed to acquiesce in illegal contrivances
which are calculated to render that distribu-
ton more unequal than it is.