UNIVERSAL CRITICISM OF BOWERS' REPORT

Perhaps no public decision ever issued received such unanimous condemnation as Bowers' report. Everybody was dissatisfied. Warwick M. Hough and Lawrence Maxwell objected to it because it denied to neutral spirit the name of whisky. Joseph H. Choate and Alfred Lueking objected on behalf of Canadian Club whiskies for the same reasons. John G. Carlisle and Edmund W. Taylor objected on behalf of the straight whisky producers because it permitted the addition of alcohol to whisky provided the congeners which gave the whisky its character were not too greatly diluted. Wm. W. Armstrong objected to it on behalf of Duffy's Malt Whisky. J. D. Rouse objected to it because it denied alcohol made from molasses to be called whisky. The Columbus Distilling Company objected to it for the same reason. The Michigan Chemical Company objected to it because alcohol to be mixed with other whisky must be made out of grain. All appealed to the President of the United States for help. The President appointed a hearing which was held in the Executive Mansion on June 28, 1909. There were present the President of the United States, presiding; Hon. George W. Wickersham, Attorney-General of the United States; Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture; Mr. Warwick M. Hough, Mr. Lawrence Maxwell, Mr. Joseph H. Choate, Hon. John G. Carlisle, Mr. Edmund W. Taylor, Mr. William W. Armstrong, Mr. J. D. Rouse, Mr. Bullitt, Mr. Youngberg, Mr. Brangier, Mr. Smith, Mr. Thompson, and others.

THE PRESIDENT: We are here this morning to hear the exceptions to a report, and I believe that the report has the first indication of correctness in that there are exceptions from every side.

MR. CARLISLE: Nobody satisfied.

THE PRESIDENT: Nobody satisfied.

President Taft, after considering the protests made by the rectifiers in the decision of the Solicitor-General on the whisky question, disapproved the most important of these findings of his own Solicitor-General and adopted in toto many of the principles presented to him by the rectifiers. However, he suggested a method of labelling which was in some respects distasteful to the rectifiers.