Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-17
DISTINGUISHED WITNESSES
Messrs. Carnegie and Wanamaker Will Go
on the Stand.
Will Testify Before the Industrial
CommissiOn-Preside Rice Tells
About the whisky Trust.


appear before the commission in December
and give his testimony upon the subject of
| trusts. Mr. Carnegies testimony will be
| the last taken upon this subject preparatory
| to the preliminary report upon trusts,
| which will be made to Congress early In
| January. Mr.. John Wanamaker Is expect
| ed to testify before the commission next
| week upon the question of combination
| stores.
| Samuel NJ Rice, president of the Distill-
| ing Company of America, the great COM
| bination in the whisky industry. appeared
| before the industrial commission today. He
| related facts concerning the Distiling and
| Cattle Feeding Company. which went into
| tho hands of a receiver
| The Distilltng Company of America con-
| trolls 30 per cent of the output of spirits,
| and is composed of the American Spirits
| Manufacturing Company, the Spirits Dis
| tributing Company, the Standard Distilling
| and Distributing Company and the Ken
| lucky Distillers and Warehouse Company,
| the latter being organized to buy up yalu-
| able brands, and 1t secured 80 per cent
| OF such brands. This combination included
all the distilleries Of the company except
| one large and a few small ones.
The larger concern is the Merchants
| Company and a few rye whisky plants CEN
| pany Of America, Mr. Rice said, simply
| owns the stock of the four constituent
| companies and is the clearing house for the
! spirits business Speaking of value of
| brands, the witness said:
| All whisky is good; there is no bad
| whisky"
Prof. Jenks-"There are no differences"
Mr. Rice-'The trade says there are, but
| we do not"
| The American Distilling Company owns
| o. per cent of the stock of all the COM
| panies brought into it's organization. He
| said he did not know what was paid for the
| VI mis-
| but said he thought they could get 81, 0O0,-
| 900 for them. When the stock of the
| American Spirits Manufacturing Company
| was bought the sentiment favoring It's sale
| to the Distilling Company of America was
almost unanimous He had read many col
| umns of the opposition to ii, but, so far
as he could learn, it was represented by
S1,I0O of shares out of total of $50 900 600
| When the time for turning in stock expired
1t was found that over 80 per cent was
| turned in.
Mr. Rice said the prices asked for whisky
| protected by brands had little to do with
| its sale. If a man wanted a special kind Of
| liquor he would pay about anything for It,
The witness suggested that there should
| be some change in the law that would re-
| suit in having the six or seven thousand
| small registered stills in the south pay
| tax on their entire output, which, he
| claimed, Is not now done.
He showed that in hard times with the
tax 80 cents a gallon the government col
| lected more money than when the tax was
| S1.10 and there was general prosperity.
| He said there was no doubt the people
| drank more whisky in times Of prosperity
| than in hard times.
| The Hardest Drinkers.
| Speaking of relative consumption of
whisky in different parts of the country
| he said the New England states consume
| more per capita than any other section.
| The workingmen Of the country consume
most of the whisky.
Mr.. Rice advocated change Of the law
| in regard to the bonded warehouse regula-
lions in order to encourage export trade.
| Instead of shipping in barrels. he said, they
should be allowed to ship In metal tanks,
| which would be both cheaper ana more eco
| nomiCal.
| Twenty years ago this country exported
| as much as 100000 barrels of alcohol a
| year, but Germany paid an export bounty
| on spirits and caught the trade If the al
| cohol could be handled economically the
| witness was sure the United States would
| soon have control of the export business Of
the world This would be an immense ad-
| vantage to the farmer, who could then
| sell his corn at all times, and the extra de-
| nland for it would be felt In the market
and tend to advance the price of corn.
Driving Ont Competitions.
| He said his company no longer undertook
to meet competition by cutting prices.
| They sold at a small margin, and one
| which they did not think could be met by
| smaller operators with profit, and IL any
one else wanted to sell at such prices they
| were welcome to do so.
| They had abandoned the old method on
the theory that if they chased competitor
| from one place he could show up at some
| other place. and they were satisfied to
| leave him where they found him. By re-
! ducing the price at which they sold to so
small a margin that small distillers could
| not make money at the business they ex-
| pected to keep down competition.
Again referring to the export trade, he
| said Hungary and Germany export eighty
| or ninety millions Of gallons of alcohol
| yearly, which trade this country could
| SuDDly.