The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-17
ny DAVID A. GATES.

| rffN
 Washington. March 16.--The Dill amending the denatured alcohol law passed in the last days of the Con- gress just adjourned. is equal in i'm portance to the original law The CT feet of 1t wiu be to emancipate com pletely industrial alcohol and to ac- complish in the industries and on the farm what should be accomplished.
 When the amended law goes Into ef- feet the first of next September, the United States will be ahead of coun- tries that adopted denatured alcohol Legislation fifty years ago. Our sys- tenn will be more liberal and elastic than that of Germany where. with population of 50,0oe,0 s7,o0o,0oo gal Ions of denatured alcohol were con- sumed last year. within three years the annual consumption of industrial alcohol in the United States ought to be 75.0o0,ooo gallons. The industry will be given full swing and 1t will simply be up to the people to develop it.
 The original law simply provided that alcohol produced at registered dis- Il tiueries could be withdrawn from dis tillery warehouses free of tax for cer- tain purposes provided 1t was rend- cred non-potable. The general inter- nal revenue laws were left unchanged. Industrial alcohol. therefore. up to the point at which it was withdrawn from bond had to be handled In the same | manner as were spirits intended Tor tax payment. cistern rooms. cisterns and distillery warehouses were requir- | ed at all distilleries and alcohol could be denatured only at denaturing warehouse at the dlstillery where pro- lduced. The spirits had to be barreled, entered into bond, withdrawn, trans ferred to denaturing warehouse dena- tured and rebarreled.
 | The new law provides: First--For the establishment of ware houses at central points to which ai- cohol can be transferred from the dis. tillery where manufactured and there denatured. Under the law as changed, denaturing warehouses can be estab- ilshed at distflleries where alcohol is manufactured and at such other points as the interest of the consumers may demand. The law contains no restric- tons as to number of warehouses or as to the points where they can be es- tablished.
 second-The amended law authorizes the transfer of alcohol intended for denaturing purposes by means of pipes direct. from the cistern to the denatur- ing warehouses on the premises; or If , the distiller wishes he may transfer ! it through pipes first to tanks in the distillery warehouse, store it there and afterwards in the same manner take , 1t to the denaturing warehouse. It au- thorfzes the transportation in tanks
 and tank cars of spirits intended for denaturation: also the transportation
 in like manner of denatured alcohol.
 Third-At distilleries of a daily ca- pacity of less than 100 gallons, pro- ] tfucing alcohol for denaturing only,
 the amended law provides for regula- tfons dispensing with cistern rooms and warehouses and the removal of such restrictions as the Commissioner I --waA AkA
 of the Secretary of the Treasury may deem expendient
 Fourth-It provides that free alcohol can be used in the manufacture of ether. chloroform and similar chem ica1 compounds Under the original law the use of free alcohol is forbidden in the manufacture of liquid medicine. As
 general proposition this IS right,
 The Government collects annually
 S14O,0O0,00 tax on distilled spirits; 1t
 is the purpose of the law that the tax
 of $1.10 proof gallon shall be paid on all beverage alcohol. The line between
 liquid medicines and spirit bev-
 erages is difficult to draw
 where alcohol remains in the
 medicine as alcohol. A law permit ting the employment of free spirits in the manufacture of a liquid medicine where alcohol remained in the product as alcohol and imposing tax on bev-
 
 istered. Although fin the manufacture of ether and chloroform there is a | complete chemical change and a sub- stance entirely different from alcohol Is produced. they are liquid medicines, and under the origina law could not be produced from tax free alcohol. Ether and chloroform cannot be used as beverages. nor can they be re-con- verted into alcohol except by the most Il difficult processes, hence no adminis- trative reasons exist why these sub stances should not be produced from free alcohol. Ether is an important in-
 dustrial agent It is( in fact, more val
 uable as an industrial agent than it Is
 as an anaesthetic. The benefit that
 will accrue from the employment of
 free alcohol in the manufacture of
 ether cannot be estimated. With ethyl alcohol (the principal material used in
 the manufacture of etheT) reduced from $2.50, the price of tax-paid alco- hol, to 30 cents 6 gallon, industries us-
 ing ether will develop wonderfully. Under the new law farmers can manufacture alcohol from their farm l products at distilleries at which no
 warehouse is established. The spirits . can be run from the condenser direct F into tanks, drawn therefrom into tank
 cars and shipped in such cars to cen-
 tral warehouses for denaturation and
 distribution. If it is desired, @ part of
 the product for domestic uses and local consumption can be denatured and
 released at the distillery. Except with alcohol that goes into consumption in l the production of light, heat and power, barrels will be eliminated in the man ufacture. transportation and storage
 of industrial alcohol Tanks at the distillery, tank cars for transportation 3 and tanks at denaturing warehouses [ and manufacturing establishments will l displace the barrel. Present high prices for lumber have sent barrels. . like every thing else. upward The elimination of the barrel as an item of
 cost therefore in the production Sf in- , dustrfal alcohol is important. Small dealers can have their five gallon
 packages reflled at central denatur. ] ing warehouses and where the prod
 uct is sold in the smallest way, the cost of the container is reduced to a minimum.
 As a result of the amended law, the
 Hawaiian Islands producing millions . of tons of suger offer a most attractive 7 field for the manufacture of alcohol
 7very ton of sugar yield a by-product ? of 100 gallons of "black strap" mo- } lasses-raw material for forty gallons of alcohol. On the plantations frnuoapsa