Evening star., 1933-08-06
Baltimore May
Be Nations Big
Distillery Center
"a Companies Char
tered in State, With
&,0W,W0 Capital.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
BALTIMORE. August 5-H and
when the national prohibition law is
repealed Maryland bids fair to become
the leading center of the whisky dis
tilling industry of the United States,
companies chartered by the State Tax
Commission since the legalization of
80 beer on April g..
Since that time "a distilling COM
panies have been incorporated under
the State laws Of Maryland to do busi-
with total capitalization of approx
mately 100000
While the capitalization OF the "a
distillers, according to the incorpora-
ton papers, totals 50 ,985 900, this figure
represents only about one-quarter of
the total investment for the "a plants,
owing to the fact that corporations
are taxed according to capitalization,
and 1t Is estimated that the establish
ment and equipment Of each distillery
would represent an investment of
s50O,0oo. making the total investment
for distilleries in Maryland approx
mately s12,00o,000 This figure. how
ever, Is misleading, in view of the fact
that out Of the "a distillers incor-
porated probably less than half will
plant turning out whisky which will be
put on the market under several diff
ferent names, and the total investment
in the distilleries of whisky will prob
ably be around S6,000,000
Formerly in Third Place.
Before the prohibition law went into
effect Maryland ranked third in the
production of whisky, being exceeded
by Kentucky and Illinois: but the
Maryland product had a Nationwide
reputation, being sold from coast to
coast. Some of the best known whiskies
of Maryland were the Sherwood Dis
tilling Co., Mount Vernon, Pikesville
and Maryland Rye, all of which distiller-
les will be reopened and operated if and
when the prohibition law is repealed.
In addition to the distilleries which
operated in Maryland, Of which there
were about dozen, most of them being
located in Baltimore, there were a num-
Der Of rectifying plants located here,
which took over the surplus of the
straight whisky-that is, 100 per cent
proof-and made what was known as
blended whisky, and marketed it under
various names such as Hunter, Wilson,
Carvel and several other names.
The establishment of whisky dis
tilling will mean not only the employ
ment of several thousand persons in
the State. as we'll as many travelling
statesmen throughout the country, but at
the same time will necessitate a largely
increased force of internal revenue in
spectors, gaugers. warehouse keepers
and watchmen, who take charge of the
liquor as soon as it is distilled and hold
it in Government warehouses until it
is withdrawn for the market.
Revenue Law Still Holds.
Under the internal revenue law,
which, by the way, is still in effect de-
spite prohibition law. the Government
tax on each gallon of whisky was s210
in addition to storage and outage" or
evaporation tax, amounting to around
$3.50 gallon, which the Government
obtained before the whisky was re-
leased from bonded warehouses.
So far the largest distillery incorpo-
rated Is the Belmont Distilling Co.,
which has a capital stock of $2,500, 900,
and was incorporated by Leo Gerngross
of Chicago and Herman H. Nettelroth
and Wilson W. Wyatt of Louisville,
KY while the Maryland Distilling Co.,
incorporated by Sidney L. Nyburg,
Raphael Walter and Margaret M
Madigan of this city, ranks second
with capitalization of $1,050,O00.