The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-16
RUSSIA'S VODKA MONOPOLY.
De White Hopes to Restrict Drunk


Anna y. Benjamin in Ainslee's Magazine
M. Serge de White, minister of finance,
stands a political giant out of the uncertain
turmoil of Russian bureaucracy. His pol
icy, in so far as one may define it, is to
carry out his own ideas for RussiaS well
fare, regardless of the means employed
Like every man who becomes great in the
sphere OF national and international pol
ltlcs, his schemes are Vaster and more dar-
ing than those conceived by ordinary
minds, backed by wills of mediocre power
Americans know him best as the man who
has been playing game of tariff chess
with Secretary Gage; Europe thinks of him
as he who set the unstable Russian cur
rency on rock, but in Russia, his eX-
cellency, the minister of finance is more
often associated with the sort of social
financial scheme which is changing condi-
lions in the lives of the lower classes and
which IS known as the government vodka
monopoly.
The two objects avowed i'm De Whites
mind the increase of national reve-
nue., which was an urgent necessity, and
the regulation OF the liquor consumption Of
the empire. Excessive drinking is one of
Russia $ greatest national evils; throughout
the world drunkenness Is associated with
the Russian. By making vodka (brandy)
a product of government factories only, to
be sold in government stores and a COM
paratively small number of licensed places
the tremendous profits of the liquor trade
would pour into the Cars eXcheQuer and
at the same time it was thought that the
evil of excessive drinking could be regu-
lated in various ways. 1t was quite patent
that with an economically developed sys-
TEN the first object would be gained. The
realization OF the second remained to be
accomplished
1t would he impossible to check drunken
ness in any other country by a government
control of only one kind of liquor, but in
Russia vodka and tea are the national
drinks. The consumption OF other intoXf-
eating liquors is as nothing compared with
the consumption of vodka. The raw spirit
is generally made from potatoes, though
sometimes from wheat and maize, and as III
comes from the distilleres it contains so
to 80 per cent. of what is called raw abso-
lutte spirit
The second process is that of the recti-
hcation of this material, which brings the
percentage of the absolute spirit up TO
nlnety-hVe or ninety-siX. According to the
scheme or De Witte, the government would
not take over the spirits till after their
dlsullation and rectification by private
parties, the amount which each would be
allowed to produce to be limited TO the
amount the government wished to take
Inc recti1ed spirits would be shipped to
the factories established by the govern
ment, and there thoroughly purified and
mixed with water; not till then can the
name of vodka be applied. OF course such
a tremendous undertaking could not be nut
IN operation simultaneously over Russia's
vast territory, and experiment on a small
scale at first was the best policy. So in 1895
the old excise laws We're abrOgated in GER
tain eastern governments Ga government
in Russia is equivalent TO a county or
province). while factories and shops were
put in operation, and all legal manufac-
ture and sale of both spirits and vodka
were taken out OF the hands of individuals
In 1896 the process continued i'm the
southern, western and southwestern gov
ernments; in 1897 in the northwest; in 1895
in the northern. including the government
or st. Petersburg, and also KharkOff and
Poland. 1t will be in force in western ST.
IBERIA on July l, 1902 and in central ST.
IBERIA in 1904. further extension to the
Pacinc coast and into central Asia is con-