Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1906-06-14
Denatured Alcohol.

i use IN mechanics and the arts, Dut UNI
fitted for use as a beverage or drug by
means OF the addition Of other liquids
that make it unpalatabe and injurious to
the human system.
| All alcohol. the product OF distilled
grains. is at present subject to govern
ment internal revenue tax amounting to
$208 per gallon, at its manufacture. In
most cases. dealers have to pay heavy
state license fees for handling alcohol, as
It is an lntoxicant. The result is that
not only the alcohol used as drug or
beverage, but what is employed in count
less other ways. comes very high to the
buyer. 1t costs at retail about IS gal
Ion. One can see how cheap it would
be were it not for the heavy tax to which
it is subjected
| Now there has recently passed congress
bill to strike off this tax OF $2.08 gal
ion completely from all alcohol that has
been denatured, so that It is fit only for
use in mechanics and the arts. This bill
passed the house 222 to z, and the SEN
ate passed it unanimously. The house
concurred in certain amendments made by
the senate, and the bill has received the
presidents approval and become law.
A wide field will be opened up by the
| freeing OF alcohol from this heavy tax.
| The effect will be to so cheaper it in
| price as to bring it within the reach OF
almost everybody for the common uses
for which it is especially adapted. Prin-
cipal among these are lighting, heating
and power uses. For lighting, one gallon
OF alcohol is equal to two gallons OF kero-
sene. At present cost OF production.
when freed from the tax, alcohol could
not compete with kerosene, probably but
the expectation is that while kerosene will
constantly appreciate owing to its scare
ity, alcohol will fall in price, as an
immense stimulus will be given to its
manufacture. for the purposes intended.
Eventually it may be cheaper and better
to burn alcohol for lights than kerosene.
For heating, as is well known, alcohol
surpasses everything else. We shall soon
have alcohol cooking and heating stoves
that will be the neatest, cleanest and SAT-
est imaginable.
But it is especially for power purposes
that the compound will find an immediate
field. The introduction OF automobiles and
launches, and the building OF gas, naptha
and gasoline engines for so many common
power purposes Of late has so broadened
the demand for these fuels as to raise the
prices to high figures. Alcohol for power
will even now enter as an auxiliary fuel.
when tax free, and with improvements
certain to be made we may regard it as
the popular motion maker Of the near
future.
Alcohol is so easily made from such a
variety Of farm products that the industry
promises much profit to agriculturalists.
Raising the grains for denatured alcohol
should widen the farmers market. There
will be no opportunity to corner the pro-
duct and build up colossal fortunes at the
public's expense as the Standard OIL COM
pany has done. Indeed, the Standard
may sooner or later find its power curbed
by this new rival.
It will occur to readers that making al
cohol so cheap and plenty may provide an
easy means for persons so disposed to Sc
cure intoxicants, and that sobriety may
suffer. Denatured alcohol is OF the same
nature as wood alcohol, now used freely
in the mixing OF paints, oils, etc and is no
more appetizing to the drnker, and no less
fatal, we suppose. The process Of dena-
turing is carefully guarded by government
inspectors while the compound is being
manufactured.
This kind Of alcohol figures largely in
certain foreign countries that have been
quicker than we TO see the advantage OF
its cheap production. The comparatively
small loss in revenue will never be noticed.
Natural alcohol, the drug, will still be
taxed as heretofore, and the cost Of the
compound has been so heavy that for the
purposes covered by denatured alcohol
other things have been substituted, so
that the field opened is almost new one.