The San Francisco call., 1898-06-11
he Measure Declared
 Unjustly Drawn.
BULK DEALERS NOT HIT
THE BoTTLING HOUSES ARE GIVEN THE BURDENS.
French Reciprocity Strikes Severe Blow at the Brandy Industry. Sweet Wine Makers to
 Suffer.

The wine men of California, particular ly those dealing largely in case goods, the distillerS of brandy and the producers and handlers of sweet wines, are much de- pressed over the action of the Govern ment with reference to the recent signing of the reciprocity treaty with France and the passage Of the war revenue bill by the Senate yesterday, practically making 1t a law. In the latter measure wines, dry or sparkling, are taxed one cent for each pint and two cents for quart bottles when sold. This adds a tax of 24 cents case, or at the rate of ten cents per gallon. In discussing the situation they call atten- ton to the fact that wine from first hands Is selling as low as cents per gallon in California, and if such wines were bottled the tax would be greater than the value of the goods. One and all declare that they are not unpatriotic and are willing to bear their share of the expenses of the war, but they attempt to show that the tax collected will not be sufficient to pay the expenses of the Government and will result only in making positions for a lot or Internal revenue collectors It was, they think, the idea of those who drew the bill that it would add quite a sum to the national fund. However, they main- tain that this was a mistake as will be seen by the fact that not only in San francisco, but in the large eastern cen ters Of population, the bulk of the wine drunk is sold to consumers in demijohns or small Kegs: All this wine escapes the tax. For this reason the dealers who handle goods in bulk only can laugh at thelr compeutors in the case-wine branch Of trade. This feature of the law is what class.
 They assert that if the Government had understood the situation and felt the ne- cessity of imposing tax, 1t should have been placed upon the original product in bulk in cellars, thereby simplifying the la1 TnfTt r~r,s,1 On the other hand the industry is in no condition to bear a further burden, owing to low prices and decreased demand. Some of the members Of the trade fear that the tax will result not only in further reducing the prices of wine. but in GU @curAtailing A the consumption. So far added to the former selling figures and the consumer ls VII pay the fiddler. tie and keeping the records for the rev enue officers will add great deal of cost and expense to the bottler. One of the queries is made why the Government should make such a distinction between bottlers of beer and bottlerS of wine. In the case of the brewers, they pay flat tax of S2 per barrel, which covers their industry, but the bottlers of beer, who are not brewers, yet make their profits from selling beer in bottles, are not called upon to contribute to the war fund. The answer of the brewers is that this would De double taxation and unconstitutional. However, any way they may view the been discriminated against.
 In speaking of the tax the head of the leading firm dealing in case goods ex- clusiVely said:
 'I consider the action of Congress an injustice, but do not intend to intimate that 1t was intentional It is a plain dis crimination which strikes the minor deal CTS and bottlers, while the large houses who handle only bulk goods are not re- quired to contribute one cent to the Gov ernment. When you consider that there are firms in this city who sell from 3OOO.- 900 to 100000 gallons of wine per year 1t is not hard to see where the imposition comes in.
 "The Government will get the worst of the proposition in the long run, as the effect will be to drive the sale of cheaper wines into the demijohn and keg trade all of which will react against legitimate botters. Again, the restaurants will hail the tax as a good thing, as they need only to serve their wines in decanters or half bottles to defeat the law
 One branch of the business that will get very black eye is that which sells wine In bottles to local family and grocery customers, etc., in baskets. They will be compelled to stamp each bottle and as they work on a very small margin they will have plenty of trouble Still they can also beat the law by delivering the wine in bulk and bottling it at the place of the purchaser If the law-mak- CTS had provided for a flat tax of ? or ! cents per gallon on bulk wines they would have covered the whole field and realized few thousand dollars profit on the prop osition. As 1t is there may be a balance on the wrong side of the ledger One thing that can be looked for is a large increase in the internal revenue force of collectors. We will advance the price of our goods and do the best we can
 If the proper representations had been made to the committee in Congress that clause of the bill would never have car ried, but it was neglected by those whose duty it was to attend to the matter, and the result Is a severe blow to the bot ting branch of the trade. The industry is in miserable condition now, and while we will gladly pay our just proportion of taxation as loyal Americans we feel that the action of the Government is a blunder and will result in no benefit to any one; Of course the measure was rushed through and the result will show that it was ignorantly drawn
 The reciprocity treaty with France which reduces the customs duty on S1 20 has alarmed the distillers of brandy in California, as the law has evidently come to stay. American distillers pay $1 10 tax per gallon, but the cheap spirits tatoes, can be placed on the markets of the United States at prices to give the importers the best of the business. When taken in consideration with the we'll known fact that foreign goods are al- most invariably given the preference, it can be seen that native distillers have some cause to fear the result to their de- pressed business.
 With reference to the sweet wine mak- CTS, they regard this reduction of duty as deadly blow to their branch of the in- dustry. This comes from the fact that these cheap French spirits can be used in the sophistifcation of sweet wines and the pure product, to great extent will be run out of the market.
 Taken all around, the outlook for Cali fornias wine and brandy men Is con- sidered by them more gloomy than be- lore.
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 Departmental Expenses.