The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-27
Law Of Fermentation As Old As The Nation
The Laws of Man Regarding il Must Comply With
 Reason

4 most interesting and instructive paper, the subject of which is partdcu- lar1y pertinent just now, especially in the state of Ohio. where the people are endeaVOring to license, control and regulate the production and sale of distilled liquors and beverages, was read by Henry J. kaltenbach, presi- dent of the National Wholesale Liquor Dealers Association of America, before the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, in New York city. | A synopsis Of Mir. Ka1tenbach'S mo- table address follows:
 Fermentation is entirely natural in nature long before man appeared, and man observed and began to use the process in very remote times, first in the transforma ton of grape juice into wine. This process we now know to be the spontaneous action of the micro organisms in the yeast cells in sugar is transformed into alcohol.
 DiStiIlatjon is also an entirely natural process, being merely vaporization of sea water by the sums heat and con denSation rain- Man observed and used this process and began the dis til1ation of alcohol from wine in very ancient times.
 The first uses of alcohol Spirit of wine1 were as medicine. and the monks of the middle ages, generally skilled in this art, began to produce use as popular bevera geS. The fer nnenting of wine and distiIling of alco- holic liquors requires only the simplest sort Of utensils. All the modern i'm provements in distiIling apparatus have not changed the esentia1 features of the process, but have greatly purified the product.
 1.-The materials for making alcoholic liquors are found in variety and abun- dance in practically every country and climate. With the materials convent ently at hand and the necessary 4p- paratus easily available, men have been ma king and using such liquors is that from their first knowiedge of constantly craved and demanded them notwithstanding all obstacles and re- strtctions. This demand creates the supply according to the economic law, which is the statement of a natural and inevitable process
 Artificial restrictions against the use Of such liquors arose at early pe- riod. The power of government and law was used against the human appe- tite for liquor. The first efforts were human nature, to prohibit the use through the overwh e4Yning power Of government. Early prohibition edicts. were not effective or lasting. The sys- tenn of state taxation and regulation son came into use, government law does not like religious law, destroy the demand by affecting the judgment and conscious Of the individual. Go vernn1ental laws inevitably involve constant conflict between the govern m ent and the individual. with varying
 
 the sort of laws Is attempts to en- force.
 -"Practical1y ali forms of liquor laws deal with the retail sale and may be divided roughly into four classes:
 "1) The licensing. system. CD the Scandinavian or company system, (S) state monopoly, and (4) prohibition. The licensing system is the oldest in extensive use and most successful. and yields great revenue to governm ents. The other systems have decided dfSad- nTnhThtfiaF extreme of all, is not effective, and even its advocates admit that it is not enforced.
 Official evidence shows illicit dfstiI- United States, and Illicit disti1lation means impure liquors. The advocates of prohibition confess it's failure in such states by demanding additional legislation. Long experience in this and other countries shows that it is so easy to make liquor that the people who demand it will not be without it. no matter what the law declares. The United States government with the great revenue at stake, uses the great est possible efforts to keep down illicit production. Without the revenue, no federal or state government could pay the expense of such service.
 .erhe advanced countries of the world. which, for the most part, use the licensing system, show gradual Iessening of the misuse of alcoholic liquors. This is caused principally by the improved living conditions of the people and the advance of popular in te11igence, resulting in greater self control. The real way of further prog ress Is to extend these rational meth ods of human betternaent. Fanaticism and unreaSon must be overcome, and it is important for all industries that the capital invested under the sane tion of our laws in establishments pro ducing fermented and distilled liquors should have fair treatment-''