The San Francisco call., 1895-12-22
THE BEER WAR BEGUN
:
Brewers With Knives
j. +. Drawn Ready to Cut
!" +. the Prices.
ABREAK IN THE COMBINE
Thirsty Souls in Oakland Will
t: {. BE Benefited by the
:. Contest.
Al.BREAK IN THE COMBINE
TRADES UNIONS CLEVER MOVE.
Raises Boycott in Order to Start
/ |-.;.j "a Strife in the Protective
&. -. association.

:::::I here Is merry beer war in progress
among the San Francisco and Oakland
brewers, and while the smoke of the battle
IS not visible to the, general public it will
no: Goubt be seen in a short time-when
'fWQ. Schooners OF the amber beverage can
be purchased for 5 cents. There is no
dodbt that soon after the new year
opens beer will be much cheaper than
:sA3nl nlIk and almost as cheap as Spring
Nalley water.
: Several brewers in the combine known
as. tbe Brewers Protective Association
;hfaye already broken their obligation to
keep beer al s. per barrel and, in sporting
.:I{arfam6e; the other brewers will "sea" tie
=cHat :apd 60 one better. The accused brew
eFs::&re charged with reducing the price
: From $50 10 So so per barrel and giving from
three: to six months contracts at these
figures. In order to meet this cut in the
y tEIces- the other brewers have now under
Ec0trsidefation a proposition to underselI
the's0Ifepders even If it entails a severe
LOSS and the first general break Will be a
drop from S. to s. per barrel. At the
..pTese ent: time the profit to the retailers is
bQIit ST on a barrel and with the pro-
I0s6d drop there will be so much profit
:that til e ;sal loon-keepers Will without doubt
<sel two glasses of steam beer for cents
=a1flE: throw in free lunch to induce an
:: :aCtiY e. pa trGnage.
: t: iS.not. expected that the battle will
! iastyery long after it begins, because it
viii be disastrous and very expensive to
" bQ Eli Sfdes and the salOon-keepers and the
: publ lc:wTll reap the benefit.
I: ::*:,lIz:he. causes that have led up 10 the
*pTeSent h0stilltles are numerous and inter
Testing. Several years ago foreign capi-
: talf$ts: purchased nearly all of the large
i: hre3efies' in this locality and formed q
: Syndicate affair known as the San Fran
! lGsco: Breweries Qimited). As might be ex-
; pected, the other brewers did not fancy
having so formidable rival in the field,
7 alad from 10 time cuts were made in
!. the prices of beer, but all to no purpose.
The big concern met all cuts and forced
. the. others to quit in this direction.
Finally, another menace to the safety OF
the breWeries sprung into existence by the
BreWeTY& Workmen s Union demanding
GertaiH. concessions at the hands of the
&T2TF6yers. These demands, which were
!; rot aeceded to, caused numerous strikes
and .beycotts, which caused the brewers
: Innofi annoyance and resulted in the
form afiQn of the Brewers Protective As
Sccja tf01i. Nearly all the brewers entered
l6e.p}9oi: including the syndicate.
:: :: Each brewery submitted an estimate of
Its. {. .Elgrua output. The pool was so formed
tbat* when any of the breweries fell under
q. 3llgvCott: by the unions and the public,
the loss. was made good by the combine
on the basis OF the output before the trouble
began:-
lii tirne this arrangement became OBJ
-noxfGus ito many who felt the burden of
the boycotted breweries and believed that
tlIeir,0wn increased trade did not warrant
The: strain: All of this time the syndicate
plodGed: along in a prosperous way that
aJin0Eed those on the outside. For long
time ::past there has been a disposition to
dc Battle with the syndicate, and the only
thing that prevented it was the fear that
file. Syndicate could cut lower and fight
longer than the others could stand.
!: FROM what could be learned it was with
IIllich difficulty that the Brewers Protec-
five. Association was able to reorganiZe at
tie annual meeting in October, for it is
The agreement that the combine shall last
on liz !Hwelve months at time. The brew
4gTies !yhose output of beer had been in
cfeaSeti :by the boycOtts on others wanted
TO: rTeOrganize upon the basis Of their in
cfeas:eid and their neighbors' decreased
bns1ness. This, OF course, provoked pro-
test:from the less fortunate brewers that
Threatened to disrupt the pool. However,
the: factions were pulled together for
another twelve months. While to exter-
nal appearances they were all united, still
the knowing ones realized that the under
current was flowing dangerously near the
surface,
LIT was not long before this undercurrent
began to be felt and the California Brewery
on. Douglas and Seventeenth streets and
the Broadway Brewery were accused of cut
ting prices from S. to So 80 per barrel, and
making six months contracts. Others said
that the cut was 80 cents. When there is
SO much competition for trade as in the
:brewery business, the first break in a
com pact is likely to cause general stam-
pede, ana this almost took place before a
Ineeting could be called. At that meeting
the National Brewery, it is said, made the
charge that the breweries named had been
guilty of cutting the prices. In substan-
tiation OF these charges, several facts were
presented. When the California Brewery
entered the pool, 1t was rated as small
and within two years it had, by
some means, increased its output to be-
tween 17C0 and 1000 barrels a month. The
means OF making such an increase in the
output could be easier surmised than
proved In further substantiation of the
charges, il was not infTequentiy spoken of
among the retailers and salesmen, that
they could do better by patronizing the ac-
cused California Brewery. The charge
against the Broadway Brewery was based
upon the same points.
: lOf course the managers of the accused
breweries emphaucally denied that they
had broken the compact, but nevertheless
the distrust excited produced an effect
That effect was made manifest by the sec
retary sending to all of the members OF
the Brewers Protective Association the
following notice:
OFFICE OF RUDOLPH MoHR,
80 FLOOD BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO, I
December 8, 1859
To the Members of the BreuVers' Protective
ssOctdtion-GENTLEMEE Please take notice
that at the last meeting of the association MrW
A. Fredericks gave notice that at the next meet
ing to be held December 13, 1895, he would
make motion to fix the regular price OF steam
10 fInnr rI-ifh