Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-07-06
ducive to the development of myst1cs
and seers.

said Murdoch makes people med
itate. In a mountainous country
variegated scenery is sufficient to
occupy mems minds but on the wide
prairies or IN the desert people must
meditate-must do some hard think
ing. Nearly all great reforms move
ments have originated in fiat coun-
tries. In his own medltations Muir
dock arrived at the conclusion that
the high tax on alcohol was one OF
the chief iniquities of government.
Having been imposed at time when
the government badly needed reYe-
nue. it was not an instance Of origi-
nal sln-but it had become sinful
because of altered conditions. 1t
was check upon industrial and in
dividual development.
2S2
Murdoch introduced the first bill
for denatured alcohol. He may be
called therefore the father of free
alcohol. 1t was an inspiration from
the prairie a reform originating In
a fiat country. It spread rapidly
over the hills and hollows of the ma
ton. Everybody supported it
practically speaking. The wood al
cohol trust alone opposed It in the
open because it promises to cripple
their industry. Wood alcohol is a
poison for which there is no anti
dOte. It las a horrible Odor and
gives off fumes which produce blind
ness and other serious effects upon
WOrkmen who come in contact with
the fumes. 1t has been used very
largely IN many of the arts and in
dustries which require alcohol. On
wood alcohol no tax has been i'm
posed. It's poisonous character pre-
cluded its use in the making of liq-
uOrs or medicines. The labor
unions strongly supported the
measure-largely because it was
desirable to get rid of wood alcohol
in the hat and shoe factories of
New England and elsewhere and in
the various other industries and
occupations where alcohol is
necessary. Painters and wall pa
perers and decorators are among
those whose health has been impair
ed by reason of the use of wood al
cohoI IN the materials they must
employ. The farmers supported
the bill solidly-led by Hon. Nahum
Bachelor of New Hampshire who
is head of the national. grange with
800, 900 members.
Sa2
At first Speaker Cannon of the ma
tional house of Representatives op-
posed the bill, but its advocates sent
into Uncle Joe's Illinois district in
the great corn belt some agents who
visited. the farmers and demon
strated the superiority Of an alcohol
lamp over the kerosene lamp. They
showed that it gave much clearer
and brighter light, did not smoke
or smell, was not liable to explo-
sion and would be cheaper than
coal oilllamps if the alcohol tax
were removed. But as the clinch-
ing argument they told the farmers
that anyone of them-lf the free
alcohol bill passed-could erect a
still in his back yard or down by
the creek or duck pond and make
alcohol for his own use and for sale
out of the materials which were
going to waste on his farm. 1t is
understood that Uncle Joe heard
from farmers and the bill was no
longer INSTRUCTED. That little
alcohol lamp visited many other
congressional districts. 1t shed
much light on the subject. But
after the bill became law it was
discovered that it lacked the one
provision necessary to render its
benefits available to the small far
mer so that he might set up his
own little still and convert his sur
plus crops and his waste products
into alcohol. The apparent inten-
ton of the farmers of the measure
Murdoch and his co-laborers were
to introduce an atmosphere of
univeral still life so to speak
throughout the American rural
communities. In Germany for in
stance there are about 10000 stills
where alcohol for denaturing is
manufactured under government
supervision. Very many of these
stills are quite small-the back yard
sort. An amendment to the law
which enables the small farmer to
erect and operate his still and meet
the regulations without having to
send his alcoholic Material to a
larger still for manufacture was IN
PRODUCED early in the present ses-
sion of congress by another newspa-
ner man-also from a fiat country