The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-11-23

Cascade ................ .95
How many of those whiskies
were straight Whistles is uncer-
tain, but certainly most were not
and Old Grow was. And it is
certain that for 10 or Is cents
more one could have a bottle of
Old Taylor, which is one of the
greatest Whistles ever produced
in America.
The imported Whistles were SELL
ing at that period as follows:
Canadian Club, S110; Old Bush
mills, $1.20: John Jameson's, S1.25;
Dewars, s1O0; Black e. White,
$l.10; Dewar's White Label, S115,
Haig 61 Haig, $125. Thus, so far
as the Scottish Whistles went,
blended stuff sold higher than
straight bonded whisky.
Now if Americans could buy
straight uncut whisky as cheaply
as blended whisky, why was some
90 per cent of all they drank cut
stuff? The blenders, both in
Scotland and here in America,
assert that drinkers preferred the
cut stuff to the more highly
favored straight whisky AS man
who has tried every kind available
from bathtub and raw corn to
the best Pennsylvania rye and
Kentucky bourbon, I've never
known a drinker who would not
take real straight aged whisky if
he could get it and afford it.
The answer goes deeper.
THE diStillerS, as differentiated
a from the blenders and dis
tributors, always have sold their
Whistles Gin America. in Scotland
and in Ireland on the basis of
the cost of production. Selling at
fair price, they never have been
able to accumulate huge surplus
profits. On the other hand, the
great blending firms have been
able to spend millions of dollars
IN advertising their proprietary
brands, and as the true distillers
sold less and less to the public,
the blenders have been able to
take over the actual production of
whisky, either buying out dis
tlllery or buying up its warehouse
receipts. Thus, as in Scotland,
the diStillers have tended to lose
complete control of their product.
And the public has got less and
less real whisky.
1t is significant fact that the
real diStillers of whisky usually
have been, in the last half a CEN
fury, the poorest group in the
whisky industry. Here in America
before prohibition almost all had
to sell warehouse receipts on their
last run to finance the next run.
Why the blenders, in America
and elsewhere, always have been
able to buy up the warehouse re-
ceipts and the distilleries them
selves is indicated by the study a
famous American engineering
firm recently made for the private
use Of "Distillers and Alcohol
Plants"
The engineering firm sets down
the comparative costs of
straight whisky and of a blend of
one part straight whisky to three
parts alcohol and water Figuring
the tax rate at s6.4O a gallon in
each case), as follows:
Blended. Straight.
l gal. 100 proof ma
tured whisky ... $500 $500
g gal. 100 proof al
cOhol with color
ing and f1aVoring
extracts ......:.. $50
q gal distilled wat
er, expenses. mix
ing, blending, etc. 800
3s4 gal. of 80 proof
whisky ......... 021.50
Tax g gal at s64O) 1920 $40
S4O.7O
A gallon ......... 1882 S21.4O
If the blender sells his product
at about the same price for which
the diStiller is able to sell his real
whisky 1t is apparent that the
blender has more margin with
which to educate the public as
to what kind of whisky to drink.
That the two products do sell nor
mally at about the same price is
indicated by the old price list al