The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-21
CHARGES WOCO PEP
 IS IMITATION AND CANNOT BE SOLD
But Gregory Johnston Re- plies That Tests Prove Merit and They Are
 Fighting Unjust Tax
By FRED H. GORMLEY. , Montgomery Bureau The Age Herald
 22l. D Eirsf National Bank Building

| Montgomery. January 20.-tSPecial) Declaring that the motor fuel placed ! on the market by the Wofford oil Com pany of Birmingham is a substitute, imitation or compound for gasoline and that the gasoline inspection law will pre- vent the sale of the product in Ala bama, the state through Lawrence D. Brown. assistant attorney general, Tuesday filed in the federal court its answer to the bill of~complaint filed by the oil company seeking to in validate the gasoline inspection law en- acted in 1919
 Fourteen paragraphs are contained l in the answer, but paragraph seven is the important one in that it alleges that the company is not so much in- terested in the payment of the inspec- tion fees as it is in the fact that its product will not be salable. "Defendants aver on information and belief that the principal business of tue complainant in. this state is the sale of an imitation, compond or sub stitute for gasoline sold under the trade name of 'Woco Pep which IS sold in competition with gasoline and other liquid motor fuels, and which, by reason of it's ingredients, or the method of blending the various sub stances used to produce it. will not meet the standard scientific tests re- auired :, of gasoline and other motor fuels prescribed by the inspection law here in question:" said paragraph seven of the answer, and that while large dealers in gasoline and other motor fuels have complied with the inspection law herein assailed and are paying, without protest, the inspection fee re- quiped by the act in question, the com plainant has refused to comply with the provisions of the law and is seek ing by this suit to enjoin the collec- tion of the inspection fee and the op- eration of said law, not so. much by reason of it's opposition to the pay ment of the inspection fee. but by req son of the fact that the act in aues- tion will prevent the sale of it's prod- uct within the state of Alabama SO that it is entirely speculative wheth- CT complainant in compliance with the act in question would be called upon to pay any amount of money to the state of Alabama as an inspection fee under said act.'
 The answer also averred that the complainant was in error in alleging that the inspection fees to be collected would be greater than the amount to be expended and had misca1culated the total cost of enforcing the inspection law.
 The state filed a motion to dismiss the bill of complaint and this will be argued at New Orleans Saturday hy J. Q, Smith, attorney general, and MT. Brown.
 C. T. Wofford president of the Wolf ford Oil Company, was not in the city last night, having left yesterday for New York, but J. Gregory Johnston. vice president of the company, stated that the assistant attorney generals statements about the quality of "Woco Pep" was not to be taken seriously.
 "We had specimens of our gasoline day by unbiased chemists" said MT that our product is above the require ments of the state law. We expected this charge to be made and were. of course. prepared to meet it.
 "As matter of fact this protest we are making against the new gasoline inspection act is the fees that will have. to be paid It is an unjust tax and ultimately. of course, will have to be paid by those who use gasoline. The great bulk of gasoline nowadays is used for commercial purposes and not for pleasure cars, and we simply con tend that this is an unjust and unfair burden which will be placed on the business life of the state"