The San Francisco call., 1898-07-24
4 HEAVY TAX ON NEW WINE Scott Rules on Bottled
 Goods. LOCAL DEALERS AROUSED DEATH BLOW TO CALIFORNIA; CHERISHED INDUSTRY. War Stamps Should not Be Put on Bottles Until the Wines Are
 Ready to Go on the
 Market.
LOCAL DEALERS AROUSED
DEATH BLOW TO CALIFORNIA;
 CHERISHED INDUSTRY.

Treasury Department, Office of Com missioner of Internal Revenue, Washing ton, D. C., July 5, 1S98.-Sir: Tysen 6, Tot ten, A Dey street, New York City, have written to this office under date of June 25, stating that they have large bins in their cellars and 1t Is their custom to have on hand thousands of bottles of wine, which are kept to age. They also state these are not ready for sale, as they are simply corked and have no caps or labels. which caps or labels are to be af- fixed when sold and ready to be delivered. They further state that they do not bot tie these wines themselves. The wines are sent to a regular bottler, and he is paid for bottling. They ask when they bottle wines in this way without caps and labels, to be placed in bins, if it is necessary for them to stamp them at that time, or If they can wait until capped and labeled for sale.
 They have been referred to you. You will please advise them that this office rules In such a case that when the wine has been bottled it be regarded as having been bottled for sale, and the stamps must be affixed to such bottles at the time of bottling, no matter how long aft erward they may be kept for aging pur- poses. Respectfully yours.
 N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner.
 This ruling of Commissioner Scott has set all of the wine men of California into a frame of mind anything but pleasant.
  ner to avoid paying their portion of the war tax, but the terms and conditions imposed by the ruling power at Washington are such that, they contend, will deal a death blow to the wine industry of this and every State if not modified. All of the wine men and bottlers are charitable enough to believe that the Commissioner is wholly ignorant of the wine business, or he would never have made such rule. Some idea of the terrible burden 1t fastens upon this industry may be had from the remarks of two of the leading dealers of this city-Arpad Haraszthy, of the sparkling wines, and Charles E. Bowen, of the sweet and dry wines.
 MT. Haraszthy does not believe that this ruling should be taken seriously. He said:
 There surely must have been some mistake in this matter Why, if that would follow every champagne house in the United States would have to go out of business within twenty-four hours The putting of the wines in bottles in the first place is not bottling in the sense of the act, 1t Is portion of the making of the champagne We are obliged to keep the stuff in bottles for two or three years before we know what we have. In that length of time every bottle has to be handled about 250 times year Down in the damp cellars where this work is done the stamps would not stay on the corks but a short time before rubbing off, and then they would have to be replaced. This of Itself the breakage. which none but those who have to pay for bottles have any idea of.
 It Is safe to say that the lowest average of breakage is never less than 20 per cent year, the working of the, liquid the corl1s have fre- uuently to be removed many times before the final corhing. As fact 1t is not wine until the final corking, as 1t Is not fit for the trade and cannot be used by the trade. If an attempt is made to compel me to comply with the law as interpreted by the Commissioner will tell