The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-08-12

uhCSQ Lee. o. IGOu washing GO4I
which read:
Your services are discontinued
at the close of business as Of Dec.
81, 1925, without dereliction or
misconduct. dSigned Walton A.
| Green"
However, when the men stood pat
and dignifedly refused to enter into
any bargains for reinstatement, w.
G. Murdoch, as administrator act
ing for General Andrews, said, For
Gods sake don't tell anybody, not
even your families, about that tele-
gram" The men were reinstated.
Violation Was Plain
This Burlington concern had
been given a permit in 1920. The
permit had been withdrawn by the
government for several years, but
about 1924 there was a reorganiZa-
ton of the company and reissu-
ance of permit privileges. The EVIL
dence of the diversion of about
95, 900 gallons of alcohol through a
cover house was very plain.
When the revocation OF the per-
NIT was in litigation, the govern
ment was Represented" by Roscoe
Harper, another one of General
Andrews appointments mentioned
before. He failed to call as wit
nesses the two agents who had col
lected the evidence! Consequently
the government lost the case, and
the permit was reinstated.
This is one Of the permits which
gave, by the loose administrative
policy l just have described, the
power to manufacture an unlimited
quantity of alcohol and to put it
out denatured by any one of the
special formulate, many of which
enable the alcohol to be used in
beverages after a comparatively
simple cleaning process.
AS an excellent example Of the
value of a thorough investigation
before granting permits, the Quaker
Industrial Alcohol distillery is a
case in point. 1t had a broad basic
permit granted in 1924. In 1927
it asked for the additional right to
withdraw 100000 gallons a month
of its own specially denatured" al
cohol for the purpose of manufac-
turing, on it's premises, ethyl ace
tate. The administrator before
whom their request was pending re-
fused to say Eyes" loosely, without
a careful Investigation,
No Legitimate Market
The investigation disclosed that
there was no legitimate market for
the requested ethyl acetate, and the
plant did not have the capacity to
handle that much alcohol. The al
legged increase was based upon
faxed orders. AS a result Of a
court hearing the permit to with
draw 100000 gallons Of alcohol a
month not only was refused, but the
Quaker Industrial Alcohol Distillery
had its permit privileges revoked on
the ground Of fraud.
In October, 1928, in Baltimore,
Colonel A. w. w. Woodcock, one
of the ablest Of United States at
torneys, successful prosecuted an
alcohol case which is quite typical
of the kinds of fraud in diversion
which often are detected or stopped
This was an inside DEAL" An
election official of Maryland bribed
chemists in charge OF the denatur-
ing process and others who ran the
pumps which carried the pure al
cohol to tanks. He spent altogether,
in brides, $4,000. They loaded a car
with pure alcohol and billed it as
"pyro" (pyro is a denatured al
cohol used in automobile radia-
tors).
The election official being notified
of the cars initials and numbers
diverted it and sold the contents>in
the bootleg trade. He succeeded in
getting about ten cars out that way
in year. A simple calculation
shows how much money he made
in these transactions, which were
discovered
Made Barrel of Money
One carload of pure alcohol would
make $4,000 quarts Of synthetic
whisky. At 81 a quart the ten cars
reached a bootleg value Of $2,560, 000
Even if obliged to bride few city
police and deduct the price of bot
ting and delivery, the conspirators
made a small fortune on an initial
outlay in the form of a bride OF
only $4,000.
Before I lived so close to repulsivc
facts of this kind, found it possible
to be much more uhconcerned at the
sight of really splendid people OF
] high rorincinlas ir1hihinp bootleg