PRESIDENT TAFT DRAWN INTO THE WHISKY CONTROVERSY

Quoting further from the article by H. Parker Willis:

"When President Taft entered the White House, on the 4th of March, 1909, the rectifying interests were by no means inclined to let the whisky question rest. They knew that, while Secretary of War, he had been decidedly friendly to their views at the time when the subject had originally come up before the Cabinet for settlement. It was determined to make a fresh and vigorous effort to secure a reversal of the Roosevelt rulings that would permit the rectifiers to continue placing their neutral spirits on the market under the name of whisky. Consequently, shortly after the President took office, he was approached by all the original interests that had urged a change in the methods of marking whisky and, yielding to their pressure, he consented to reopen the question and to hear argument in person.

"Early in April a distinguished array of counsel appeared at the White House. Straight whisky interests had employed ex-Secretary John G. Carlisle to coцperate with Edmund W. Taylor, the original representative of the straight whisky distilleries, while for the rectifying interests appeared Joseph H. Choate, former ambassador to England, Senator Armstrong of New York, Lawrence Maxwell, Esq., and Warwick M. Hough, the high-priced lawyer who had been sent to Washington as a representative of rectified interests and of the wholesale liquor trade. Mr. Alfred Lucking also appeared in behalf of the Canadian Club whisky interests, which had found themselves hampered by the rulings of the Government, and in whose interest the powerful offices of Ambassador James Bryce had been enlisted with President Roosevelt to secure the admission of the Canadian product without the imitation label.

"President Taft listened to the arguments on both sides, and showed a strong disposition to refer the matter directly to Commissioner Capers, the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Mr. Capers, however, had long been associated with the work of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, under the old regulations which permitted the marking of rectified spirits as whisky; and he was known to be favorable to the retention of the old system of markings, having shown this feeling when, in conjunction with Secretary Wilson and Dr. Dunlap, he had recommended the changes demanded by the rectifying and blending interests. The President's disposition to throw the question back into adverse hands at once called forth a protest from the straight whisky men, based upon the ground that Mr. Capers was somewhat prejudiced, and President Taft. necessarily recognizing the justice of this claim, directed Solicitor-General Bowers to serve in place of Mr. Capers.

"The points that Mr. Bowers was to take up included an inquiry as to the true definition of the term 'whisky' at the time of the passage of the Pure Food Law, and an inquiry into the chemical constituents whose presence necessarily designated a liquor as being unmistakably whisky. He was further called upon to determine whether, as urged by the 'Duffy's Pure Malt Whisky' interests, whisky as a drug was a different product from whisky as a beverage. The old controversy burst forth afresh, and, beginning April 8, (1909), Mr. Bowers conducted almost continuous hearings, lasting nearly a month. More than twelve hundred pages of printed testimony were taken. At times the room in which the meetings were held resembled a chemical laboratory more than it did a courtroom, while at others, as the witnesses sat about a table, freely tasting the various samples that had been submitted for examination, it was strongly reminiscent of a German drinking club.

At the completion of the testimony and the arguments of the attorneys the Solicitor-General made his report to the President on May 24, 1909. This report is found in the Whisky hearing above referred to beginning on page 1243. Mr., Bowers' opinion, summarized is as follows:

"1. A neutral spirit derived by distillation from any thing else than grain has not been known to the consumer as whisky, whether or not it was colored or flavored or both colored and flavored; and a neutral spirit derived by distillation from grain, but lacking a substantial amount of by-products (other than alcohol) which are derived by distillation from grain and give distinctive flavor and properties, has not been known to the consumer as whisky, whether or not it was colored or flavored or both colored and flavored.

2. A neutral spirit derived by distillation from grain, but lacking a substantial amount of by-products derived by distillation from grain and giving distinctive flavor and properties, was not at or prior to the passage of the Pure Food law, and has not since been, whisky.

3. There was included in the term whisky a minimum of congeneric substances as necessary in order that the distilled spirit should be properly designated as whisky, viz., such substantial amount of those congeneric substances as is requisite to give to whisky distinctive flavor and properties, differing from the flavor and properties of alcohol and of other distilled spirits. There was no maximum of such congeneric substances, however, except as potability might demand.

4. There were many abuses in the trade. The evidence, however, has not been such as to make possible, or to justify an attempt at, enumeration of the particular abuses, beyond saying that they included the application of the term 'whisky' to spirits distilled from other substances than grain, or to mixtures of such spirits with whisky, or to neutral spirits derived from grain but not whisky within the description of it given in answer to question II, or to such mixtures of neutral spirits and whisky as do not fall within the description of whisky given in answer to question II.

5. The term whisky as a drug is not applicable to a different product than whisky as a beverage."

:

LLOYD BOWERS

Solicitor-General, who conducted the re-hearing of "What Is Whisky?"

On page 404 of my brief on whisky (unprinted) I draw the following conclusions:

"FIRST: The principle enunciated in Food Inspection Decision No. 45 is correct, and no modification of this decision should be made.

"SECOND: When Neutral spirits are diluted with water and artificially colored and flavored, the resulting product should not be called whisky. Under the ruling of the Internal Revenue such a product may be called imitation whisky if not sold as a genuine whisky, or spurious if it be sold as a genuine whisky.

"THIRD: If whisky be mixed with neutral spirits and colored and flavored, it forms that well-known class of bodies called compounds, and should be marked 'Compound of whisky and neutral spirits' or some similar appellation.

"FOURTH: If two or more whiskies be mixed together, the resulting mixture should be marked 'blend,' 'A mixture of two or more whiskies' or some similar appellation.