Alcohol industry

“ The permission to market the product free of tax, if denatured, will then, in the first instance, merely furnish another outlet for the products of these distilleries. A new factory will find itself immediately in competition with the old established plants.
The question next arises, are there any methods of making alcohol other than those by which spirituous liquors are made? In the sense that spirituous liquors are essentially nothing but more or less dilute alcohol such other methods are obviously impossible. ”

“ The distiller’s big hand was thumping on the table.
“You hear what I say, Stetman! I’m goin’ to land this bunch of cranks! On the day you discover the active principle in alcohol they’re done! There’s nothin’ to it, they’re done! The whole country will get drunk and stay drunk! God Almighty couldn’t stop it when you get the kick-drop out of the bottle of water that’s in a quart of alcohol.
“It’ll take an army of agents to stop the smuggling of liquor as it is; how will they stop it if a man can carry the punch of a barrel of whisky in an ounce bottle?” ”

“ It has been ascertained that in 1860 more than half the annual production was consumed in the arts. As alcohol it was used for ether, spirit-lamps, camphene, and burning-fluid; by apothecaries for tinctures and medicinal preparations; by hair-dressers for lotions; and it was also consumed in many manufactures. The duty has carried alcohol to five dollars per gallon, and nearly stopped its use in the arts, while it has not stopped the use of spirits as a beverage. It has drawn a revenue from the pockets of the people, and transferred it from the government to the illicit trader. ”

“ Every laboratory in America refutes it. Every sociologist knows better. Every scientist of reputation condemns it. The management of every great industrial interest, compelled by economic necessity, seeks its complete overthrow."
"The average beer drinker consumes more alcohol than the average whiskey drinker"
CHAPTER IV.
NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER
IS A MYSTERIOUS COMPOUND
OF DRUGS
Numerous Processes are now in use for making non-alcoholic beer and the ingredients used are usually cloaked in deep mystery. ”

“ The 446 also include the large manufacturing and wholesale druggists, dealing in alcohol and spirits in large amounts in their trade, yet who are so far from being keepers of "dramshops," that not only do they not sell spirits to be drunk ou the spot, but no one not in the trade, high or low, can obtain alcohol or liquor from them in any quantity, large or small, for individual use, or even for cooking or other family purposes. ”

“ Scholars, quoting Greek and Latin poets, lawyers dissecting Blackstone, writers with greasy rolls of manuscript fraternized with broken bums from the road, sailors too old for the sea, and scrapped mechanics from the factories—all under the lash of alcohol. They sat in groups at the tables drinking the wine, alcohol in its cheapest and deadliest form, from every conceivable kind of vessel: tin cans, pewter mugs, beer glasses, steins, and cracked soup bowls—anything unbreakable that the boss could buy from a junkman. ”

“ And yet, strange to say, men of good sense, clear judgment and quick perception in all moral questions and in the general affairs of life, are often so blind, or infatuated here, as to affirm that this substance, alcohol, which they use under the various forms of wine, brandy, whisky, gin, ale or beer, is not only harmless, when taken in moderation—each being his own judge as to what "moderation" means—but actually useful and nutritious! ”

“ But even the publicans there have a conscience that preserves them innocent of the crime of hastening their customers' deaths beyond the speed at which simple alcohol is capable of carrying them. The gin of Kent-street is of fair average quality, registering thirty and a half - water, sugar, and "aromatic seasoning" being called in as substitutes for the amount of alcohol of which the original liquor has been plundered. ”

“ Nay, it might be seriously questioned if the total loss (by fire or water) of a billion bushels of grain would not be financially and morally preferable to their conversion into a life-blighting poison. According to the statistics of the Treasury Department, the alcohol drinkers of the United States (representing hardly one-fifth of the alcoholized nations of Christendom) spent during the last ten years a yearly average of $370,000,000 for whisky, $58,000,000 for other distilled liquors, $56,000,000 for wine, and $140,000,000 for ale and beer; together, $624,000,000 a year. ”

“ Over one-sixth of the people have entirely abandoned the use of strong drink; everywhere active temperance societies are working hard to promote sobriety; the conditions of life have become infinitely brighter and easier for the great mass of wage earners; education has become universal, and the sale of alcohol has been placed under greater restrictions. Yet, [Pg 135] notwithstanding all this, the drink trade was never so strong as it is to-day. Within fifty years the amount spent on liquor has almost doubled ”

“ Our prohibition orators bewail the vast area of arable soil wasted on distillery crops, but in the eyes of science the alcohol-habit is only a special form of the stimulant-vice, which, in the course of the last fifty years, has assumed more gigantic proportions than in the most bibulous era of pagan antiquity. The official statistics of the liquor traffic generally allow one bushel of grain for two gallons of spirits, and three bushels for one barrel of beer. ”

“ Alcoholic beverages are to be avoided, and more especially those which are rich in extractives as well as in alcohol. For this latter reason, beer and champagne are harmful, whilst spirits and liqueurs are to be condemned on account of the high percentage of alcohol they contain. ”

“ The process is continued until the alcoholic content of the distilled liquor has considerably diminished, when the remaining weak spirit that distils over, called ‘faints,’ is caught separately, and mixed with the low wines preparatory to another distillation. The strongest spirit passes over first, and the condensed liquor gradually becomes weaker, until it ceases to contain alcohol. By receiving in separate vessels any given portion of the product, spirit of any required strength, within certain limits, may be obtained. ”

“ Total abstinence for a while invariably cures the habit. I have been told by a number of former strong adherents to the cause of the brewers, residing in territory now "dry", that even they are wondering why they ever saturated their systems with beer. Physicians condemn its use and claim that the widespread idea that alcohol is a stimulant is wrong. Beer is fast becoming an outcast. ”

“ In France an ingenious method of influencing the sale of alcohol has lately been adopted, in the interests of public health, which has proved completely successful. The French national drink is light wine, which may be procured in abundance, of excellent and wholesome quality and very cheaply, provided it is not heavily taxed. But of recent years there has been a tendency in France to consume in large quantity the heavy alcoholic spirits, often of a specially deleterious kind. ”

“ He did not select so much men who were noted for their fervid oratory, nor yet reformed drunkards who often divert their audiences with amusing accounts of their past performances while under the influence of strong drink, but plain, common-sense business men, who put before their hearers in simple terms the evils that the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol work to the purses, bodies, and souls of any community.
He also added to the library at the factory reading-room a number of valuable works on the nature and effects of alcohol ”

“ As is the case with most articles, the production of alcohol is capitalistic, that is to say, for the sake of profit. Consumption is only a condition for attaining this end. If the profits could be greater without production it would cease.210 Aside from the producers, the state also has a great interest in the consumption of alcohol, since it derives considerable revenue from it. ”

“ The southern nations of Europe using wine daily and knowing well the process of distillation to help them to make stronger drink for many hundreds of years, now exhibit much less tendency to over-indulgence in strong drink than the northern nations whose ancestors have only in comparatively recent times been subjected to the temptation of craving for strong alcoholic liquors. The attitude of any nation toward alcohol is a function of the length of time that nation has had a chance to procure strong drink easily. ”

“ We need to inform ourselves, not only as to the evil effects of alcohol on the human system, but how it produces this effect, the waste to the country in drink, difference between communities where prohibition is in force, and where licence reigns, &c. In giving and attending entertainments, parties, &c., be outspoken in your disapproval of wine drinking. This is no longer running the risk of being singular in society, for some of the highest dignitaries of this land and other lands have banished strong drink in every form from their tables and entertainments. ”

“ If there was never another ounce of alcohol manufactured, the world would be none the loser either medicinally or commercially. My reason for making this statement is that prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages has been largely defeated because there have not been the proper safeguards thrown about the manufacture and sale of drug-store concoctions that can be had in any quantity as substitutes for alcoholic stimulants ”

“ If it is true that we must attack the problem of alcohol from the standpoint of its social and industrial effects, we are forced at once to consider the machinery by which cities and governments control the manufacture and sale of alcohol. It is not an exaggeration to say that courses in regulating the traffic in alcohol are more necessary than courses in the effects of alcohol upon digestion and respiration. ”

“ Alcohol is, on the one hand, a poison; on the other hand, it is the basis of the national drinks of every civilized country. Every state has felt called upon to regulate its sale to more or less extent, in such a way that (1) in the interests of public health alcohol may not be too easily or too cheaply obtainable, that (2) the restraints on its sale may be a source of revenue to the State, and that (3) at the same time this regulation of the sale may not be a vexatious and useless attempt to interfere unduly with national customs. ”

“ We drinkers have been in the habit, for many years, of playing off the wine countries against the teetotalers; but even this argument fails us when we question the men who really know the wine countries. Alcohol appears to be as pernicious to man in Italy, France, and Southern Germany, where little is taken except in the form of wine, as it is in Sweden, Scotland, Russia, England, and the United States, where more fiery and powerful dilutions are usual. ”

“ Any liquor entered as wine, which contains more than twenty-two per centum of alcohol, whether it is entered as wine generally, or champagne or sparkling wine, is condemned to the use of the United States. The second proviso is, that packages of wines, brandies, or other spirituous liquors, shall contain not less than one dozen bottles in each package, and all such bottles shall pay an additional duty of three cents for each bottle. ”

“ Governments from time to time have endeavoured to remove or to restrict the privileges which these manufacturers of alcohol enjoy, but they have never succeeded because the bouilleurs du cru as they are called, are much too strong for them and much too strongly backed. ”

“ The anti-alcohol movement in France does exist. As the maintenance of war legislation against absinthe and kindred spirits proves, it has public opinion behind it. But the connotation of alcoholic is limited in France. The Gallic sense of proportion prevents the French from extremes in anything. Since they do not drink to excess, they have no reason for regarding beer and wines as alcohol. Often your French friends tell you that they never touch alcohol. ”

“ My bailiff always said that sixpennyworth of cider would do more work than a shilling in cash. He was undoubtedly correct, and, moreover, the quantity worth sixpence in the farm cider store would cost a shilling or more at the public-house, to supply an equivalent in alcohol, and valuable time would be lost in fetching it. It is the alcohol that commends it to the agricultural labourer more than any consideration of thirst, and no one can see its effect without the conviction that the men find it not only stimulating, but supporting. ”

“ What can be thought of men, who knowing the deadly nature of this drug, will hide it away in a drink sold as harmless to children and women who would never touch beer or wines? It is placed in the drink to form a craving for that drink and thus create a demand that will enrich the conscienceless manufacturers. ”

“ Manufacturers who use as much as 50 gallons of completely de-natured alcohol a month must procure such alcohol in stamped packages, and before beginning business the manufacturer must make application to the collector of the proper district for permit, in which application he will state the exact location of his place of business, [254] describing the lot or tract of land upon which the plant is located, and must keep the alcohol in a locked room until used. ”