The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-12
MUST MIX DRINKS
BEFORE PATRON
Saloonkeepers So Ordered by Ruling
Received In Salt Lake.
NO COCKTAILS IN STOCK
COMPoUNDERS MUST PAY REcTI-
FIER'S LICENSE.

The retail liquor dealers are no long
er allowed To mix brown sugar, water
and prune juice in whisky or cocktails
in advance Of orders under penalty Of
paying a rectifier's license This de-
cision has been received by +. II. CAL
lister, collector of internal revenue,
from the treasury department I'm Wash
jngton and WAS made by Commissioner
John w. YerkeS. Under the present
ruling the retail dealers will not be
allowed To reduce whisky in any guam
tity and every mixed drink must be
made as it is ordered. Retailers Will be
forced to buy the double stamped
goods, and in order to reduce the whis-
Ky from 10 to so or 80 proof, it will
have TO be sent TO the wholesale liquor
house where a rectifler's license is paid.
Before this last decision was made,
The retail dealers were allowed TO mix
five gallons and keep it in stock in a
demijohn, but if they labeled it or put
1t up in bottles they were liable 10
che law and would be forced to pay the
special tax as rectifiers. This ruling
was easily sidestepped and the dealers
would keep as high as forty gallons of
whisky reduced under the bar but in
separate demijohns OF five gallons
each.
History of Decision.
The recent decision was the result
OF an Investigation as to what con
stitutes a rectifier, the inquiry having
been based upon the treasury decision
of 1901. The special ruling was made
Feb 3. 1905. The rectifiers' assessment
is 500 a year.
a barkeeper who prepares a mixed
drink" says the inquirer. by way of
explaining, land hands it to a GUS
toner over the bar, cannot be called
Il rectifieT, for the reason, that a tav-
ern OF saloon is a place of we'll known
character, and a person who goes into
one becomes a guest of the proprietor.
The bartender is a servant of the pro-
prietor, and. therefore. a servant Of the
guests. When the guest requests
mixed drink, in contemplation OF the
law, ne, the guest, by and through his
agent. the bartender compounds the
liquor and, of course, dceS not put it
mp for sale. but for consumption, the
sale taking place by the acceptance of
the order by the bartender"
Interpretation of the Law.
The commissioner says: This office
is unable to concur with you. in this
reasoning. When Il customer calls for
Il mixed drink at Il bar and the bar
tender complies with the order il is
held that in mixing the spirits with
other materials he makes a compound
liquor for sale, in contemplation of the
tfttib dlt VI set blOn ola OF inc
revised statutes, defining d rectifier;
and if the law were strictly construed
according to its letter. the special tax
OF a rectifier must be required to be
paid by the retail liquor dealer whose
barkeeper thus compounded a mixed
drink for sale
But from the beginning 10 such in
depreciation has been given to this
statute, and it has been uniformly held
not to be the intent of the law to take
notice of the compromising Of LIQUOR
in this small way When, therefore a
retail liquor dealer at the time of an
order given him by his customer at the
bar mikes a drink or even a bottle of
cocktails or other compound LIQUOR the
case Is not to be regarded as coming
within the notice of the law, and he is
not To be required TO pay special tax as
- rectifier on this account But where
he compounds any quantity of liquor
and keeps it in stock in advance of
orders. therefore, he should be reported
Tor assessment as d TeCtifieT- Ruling
as Is modified to this extent i'm view of
the abuses to which it has been put by
retail liquor dealers in the cities