The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-29

They are sunny and happy and make al
about them feel the gladness of thefi
own good hearts. - -
AS an evidence that cheerfulness an6
right living produce avoirdupois as well
as happiness, 1t might be mentioned that
every member of this interesting family
tips the scales at more than 200 pounds.
1t is figured that the seven members
of the family, including the parents, will
weigh close to an even ton, and it is q
ton of good citizenship
s.......s......."s.....s.
wholesalers, retailers, distilleries or rec
filters. empty barrels, whether charred
on the inside or not, in which whisky had
been stored. These were sent to a GEN.
| trail point, where, through a steaming
| process, the whisky was extracted from
the barrel. In this way it was estimated
by revenue officers that at least one
gallon of whisky was extracted from a
charred barrel and about half a gallon
from a barrel not charred. The whisky
was then placed on the market in bottles
branded under a high-sounding name and
| sold at a good price.
| The question, when presented to the
commissioner ofof internal revenue by the
regular whisky men. quickly caught the
| commissioner of internal revenue by the
the standpoint of the vast industry which
was springing up to injure the regular
whisky interests (and on that he had lit
tie to say), but from the viewpoint that
millions of gallons of whisky was being
put on the market every year which did
not pay tax, and consequently resulted
| in a loss of just so much revenue to
| the government.
| Figuring the basis on which the
Legitimate whisky man operates, it
| is estipated by the internal revenue Of
fee that at least s250000 per annum will
be collected by deputy revenue agents
throughout the country and added to the
regular revenue receipts, if a tax Is
placed upon this product.
The "soakage companies, however,
have filed a brief with the commissioner
of internal revenue protesting against
| the imposition of such a tax, on the
ground that the tax of the product which
they extract from the barrels has in the
| first instance been paid by the original
dealer from whom the barrels were OBJ
tanned, and that the only tax that can
rightfully be imposed by the government
is one of either a rectifier or a distiller.
This, of course, would not amount to
more than few hundred dollars a year,
instead of thousands were the tax direct
ed against the product itself as is done
in distilleries or storage warehouses.
Further in the brief it is contended that
should the tax be placed on the amount
| of whisky extracted from the barrels, It
would compel these interests to close
down their profitable business, as it
would make the price of their product
so high to the ultimate consumer as not
to be a competitor in the markets with
other products.
| Whisky men generally are hopeful that
| the ''soakage' companies will be placed
in the same category as they are in re-
spect to the distribution of tax exacted
| by the government.
! AS many briefs have been filed with the
| commissioner by a number of lawyers
representing various clients it is presum-
ed that a number of weeks will be requir-
ed to study out the case before decision
will be announced.
| Slow-paying borrowers of the assets of
national banks, as well as borrowers who
forget to pay their loans obtained from
national banks, directors of banks, who
are constant borrowers from national
banks, and other persons who deal with
national banks and are regarded as
Suspicious borrowers, have come under
| the official ban of comptroller of the
Currency Murray.
To mitigate losses sustained by nation
al banks and to better preserve or insure
the individual deposits of patrons of such
|
tenn which will tend to lessen this evil.
Indirectly it will save to the depositors in
national banks many thousands of dollars
annually.
| With this end in view, Mr. Murray has
established what he terms system OF
line credits. In effect it is a system of re-
ports made by bank examiners, to be sent
to the treasury department, for compar-
ison of suspicious" and constant Dor
rowers of bank funds.
| The country has been laid out in dis
tricts, presided over by chief district
examiner When national bank is
examined it will be ascertained just who
are the good borrowers and whether or
not the directors of bank are In the
habit of obtaining numerous loans from
the bank.
For instance" says Mr.. Murray, 'if
John Smith, in Examiner Jones' district,
should be found to be termed bad bor-
rover, and the same name appears on
| the bank lists in other districts, it will
be found upon examination in this Of
fee that John Smith is no good, and ex-
aminers everywhere will be notified OF
that fact The banks assets will then
be more carefully scrutinized, and an
examiner will be more apt to note an,
discrepancy which might exist In this
way bank funds will not be so apt to be
wasted or stolen"
II A part of the scheme is to make the
examiner conduct his own investigation
without the help of any official of the
bank. In the past it has been knowr
that when officials aided bank examin
ers in making examinations a number o.
things which might have caused the clos
ing of a bank escaped the examiners no
tice. 1t was pointed out In the defalca
ton in the Utica City National bank tina
the assistant cashier aided the examiner
in listing the bank assets. He manipu
lated the adding machine when the ex
aminer was checking off deposits, loans
ETC., and inserted an amount correspond
ing to the defalcation he had made. Al
the assets of the bank Tailed exactly will
the totals obtained by the examiners in
vestigation, the bank was given clear
bill Of health SeveAal instances of lik
nature have occurred in the past, bu
under the new system, 1t is claimed, thi
will be impossible.
To further the idea, Mr.. Murray hal
created separate division of his offic
staff, which will keep an official eye OF
the Investigations conducted by the ex
aminers. and at the same time on tn
business methods as well as the patrons