Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-04-03
No Money in Alcohol

4NO 4AoAVy III &1ASohV4s
Tho free alcohol bill has been great
appointment In some respects. When
the measure was first passed by Congress
it was hailed as one of the greatest things
that ever happened
Free alcohol at an infinitesimal cost was
going to make the farmer independently
would furnish light, heat and power for
the nation at an infinitesimal price, and
incidentally. would put the Standard Oil
Company out of business great deal
quicker than any number of fines from
Judge Landis-
Somehow or other the millennium has not
Yet taken the stage. The Standard Oil
Company has not been put out Of bust
the farmer is still trying to meet the in
terest on his mortgage, raising staple
crops with a sprinkling of garden sass
Somebody seems to have been a little
premature about scheduling the era of
prosperity on the farm and failed to take
into consideration that denatured alcohol
was not going to drive gasoline out of
business so long as it cost more than the
kerosene essence.
Restrictions of Manufacture.
There was another point where the
commissioner of internal revenue mad
vertently helped out the oil producers. and
that was by framing the restrictions un-
der which alcohol for denaturing pur-
poses might be produced. The regulations
said that denaturing distillery must pro-
duce at least 800 gallons of alcohol day
before 1t could come under the protection
of the free alcohol act
Now 200 gallons a day is the product of
fair-sized distillery. The farmer who
had visions of scraping up his grass cut
tings off the front lawn and distilling al
cohel out. of them In tomato can took
another think and is still thinking.
This large daily production was later
reduced from 500 to 100 gallons. But the
farmer still did not know much about dis
tilling alcohol and was apparently not
anxious to learn. So 1t was left to a few
people who made business of distilling
alcohol, much as alcohol is distilled for
whisky, but saving the internal revenue
tax by denaturing it.
There have been few advertisements
of alcohol burning lamps and stoves in
a staple household supply is not much in
eyidencetyet.
The Department of Agriculture was
convinced that denatured alcohol was
than to refine gasoline. its time in the
economy of things was not yet.
So the Department set up a. distillery
and went to making alcohol on its own
sation from the Treasury Department
for fear of being pulled for running an
Illicit still.
But the commissioner of internal reve-
nue. was accommodating. He gave the
department permission to make as much
or as little alcohol as it wanted. the un-
Outstanding being that DR.. Wiley should
confine its use to automobiles and not
work any of it of on his poison squad.
Made Out Of Anything.
Thereupon Dr. Wiley. following the
scriptural injunction. went forth into the
market places. He did not bid guests to
come in, but gathered aging vegetables
and turned them into alcohol in his de-
partmental distillery.
He has found on experiment that he
can make the best variety of alcohol from
anything from behring's to harricot beans
AS matter of fact he did not go quite to
these extremes but he made alcohol
from cabbages, overripe watermelons po-
tatoes, molasses and various other l. gs
that had been left at the post as 1t we're
in the race for the tax-laden dinner
table.
The exact proportion of alcohol produc
ed by various vegetables is thing that
will be discussed at length in a report
that is being prepared for the Secretary.
In general way 1t may be said that the
alcohol cost from % cents to 30 cents
gallon, considerably more than gasoline
at the current market price.
1t costs even more made In such small
quantities as the department was forced
to handle. But the results showed that
the cost on a commercial scale would be
comparatively high.
The officials in charge of the test say
that while it did not show denatured al
cohol 10 be at present a competitor OF
gasoline In the open market results are
Interesting, as the cost of making dena-
tured alcohol is continually decreasing
and fhe cost OF gasoline is steadily ad-
yancing.
IL in the last few years. The supply
where it has not actually diminished has,
at least, not increased.