Show WHAT THE PRESIDENT DECIDED IN THE CASE hereafter the government labels on bottles will state the contents different kinds of whisky Spec special lal correspondence washington D C april 18 there Is a it sons song more or less popular at present entitled happy this brief statement describes the te fe licit ious state of 0 mind of all parties interested in the lato late controversy over whisky if it anything could have movel a cynical and calloused mind to mirth it would have been a scene in the willard lobby the night after the decision was announced on the one side was dr harvey wiley sometimes irreverently termed dr I 1 millious Mil libus alley surrounded by a group of admirers and explaining to them in what respect the decision of the president and attorney general bonaparte in regard to whisky mer cited his approval and sustained his views at the other end of the lobby mr IV HI al hough the attorney for the national association of 0 wholesale liquor dealers was holding court surrounded by his admirers and informing them that tha th decision met hie his warmest Nr approval thus tho the two lep leaders in the great whisky controversy appeared to be equally well satisfied with the attitude the government win will assume toward that delectable and potent fluid popularly known as bisky for por some years your correspondent has watched with a desultory sort of interest the war which has raged over the definition of this term AS far as I 1 can see isee the decision of the learned attorney general approved by the pre president aident has accomplished one great feat it has eternally knocked the 0 out of whiskey itself is some thing to be commended As a matter twy of fact neither dr wiley nor mr hour hough h won a complete victory dr wiley wanted to preserve the term whisky sacred to the use of distillers following a certain formula whose product Is IF distilled and bottled in bond under government supervision mr hough wished the term extended to cover all those engaged in rectifying rectify ing blending and perhaps compounding liquors popularly known and sold soli for one hundred years under the name of whisky the president in settling the dispute says straight whisky will be labeled as such but wisely does not undertake to define just what straight whisky is in the course of time we may expect the department of agriculture to formulate rules and processes for the manufacture of straight whisky when it loes does the internal revenue bureau will have something to eay say to get a correct idea of the practical workings of the efforts of the agricultural chemist to regulate the consumption of liquor I 1 dropped into shoemakers Shoo makers the best known resort in washington city and examined some of their stock I 1 was struck forcibly by the wording of some of the bottles president roosevelt has decided that a mixture of two or more whiskeys shall be labeled blended whisky a mixture of straight whisky and aud ethyl alcohol shall be labeled compounded and imitation whisky shall be labeled as such euch but dut what 0 whit are we to know about something that that is merely baltimore rye or pennsylvania rye or tennessee or kentucky bourbon Is there any power v vested ested in the president or any other officer of the united states to compel a concern putting liquid into bottles to 6 label it whisky I 1 venture to say that not half of the people consuming what ia Is known to the trade as case goods look for the word whisky and it if it is labeled rye or bourbon or given some other distinctive title and its itz consumption gives tho desired effect they will be as well pleased as though it were labeled straight whisky blended or imitation I 1 discovered there is a certain popular brand known to the trade as a compounded or even perhaps imitation whisky which does no not use u e the the term whisky ion on its labels I 1 it t r sells e I 1 Is its product under the trade mark and as such it is doubtful if tho ruling of the president will compel it to alter t e r its I 1 labels ab els there are other whiskies it the old term can be applied to thorn them which are a a mixture of whiskies in III anticipation of the presidents decision these firms have already marked case goods with labels bearing the word blend one of these submitted for my my inspection Is a marvel of 0 inge ingenuity nult the label was black and gold and in large gold letters on orl a black background ground 1 it had hail the words ryo rye whisky with tho name of the manufacturer in one corner it bore the statement that it did not contain any do let leferious leter erious loua drugs or added poisons apparently parent ly a satirical reflection the center was taken up by a fancy design and in minute letters at the top of tho the design in slightly heavier gilt Is the word blend the only way this word could bo be seen by the naked eye was by holding the bottle horizontally almost on a level with the eye from this examination it Is deduced that the champi champions orl of straight whisky have failed first in confining the term whisky to their own product and second in their endeavor to compel other manufacturers to use the words compounded blended or imitation it Is safe to aay say that no manufacturer of intoxicating liau liquors irs is going to put tho the word imitation on his ills product instead they will call it john jones rye or old kentucky bourbon Do urbon manufactured by the dung bad DI distilling astl III ng company or something to that effect on a the lother other hand the rectifiers fiera did not succeed in pe prevent event ing a senzi endorsement af t so called straight whisky this term has been used for a number of years to designate whisky which palies passes from the distillery to the charred barrel and from there to the consumer without the intervention of any other process or additional rectification there Is no doubt that attorney general bonaparte and ani president roosevelt bad had tills this process in mind when they made their recent ruling hereafter when the word straight appears on a bottle in conjunction with the word whisky be he who runs may read that such whisky comes straight from the still as pure and undefiled as moonshine whisky except for the coloring and flavor it may absorb from storage in a charred barrel and the oxidization of the fusel edtl and the addition of water to bring it to proof no whisky sli and thyl alcohol shall bo be lab charred barrel for a few years tho government limits it to from tour four to eight years in tho the case of whisky bottled in bond completely oxidizes out the fusel oil I 1 am alib told there is a subtle dis unction between ethyl alcohol and neutral spirits which I 1 had previously thought were the same and which opinion Is apparently shared by the president and mr Dona bonaparte parte I 1 aro ani told that compounded whisky is not manufactured by the addition of ethyl a alcohol coho and not nothing ng else neutral spirits seems to have a certain amount of flavoring matter and water being raw whisky after it has passed through a second process of refining I 1 arn fess tho the distine distinction tion Is too fine fille fr or tub to follow |