LIQUOR MANUFACTURE ON THE INCREASE.
WHILE the territory covered by prohibition in the United States is on the increase, the manufacture of alcoholic beverages is also on the increase. An analysis of the reports of the commissioner of internal revenue, for the Associated Prohibition Press, shows some remarkable figures. Distilled spirits deposited in the United States bonded warehouses during the year 1905 amounted to an increase of one-ninth over the previous year. In spite of the enormous increase in the production of beer, the demands of the nation require the production of nearly three times as much distilled spirits as it did twenty years ago. About the only class of these spirits that has any extensive legitimate use is "pure" alcohol, and the statistics show that we are using about the same amount of alcohol that we did twenty years ago. As the cost of alcohol is less than 20 cents a gallon, and the tax thereon is $2.20, it is practically barred from legitimate uses. Whisky, which is almost wholly used for improper purposes, is produced in about five times the amount as twenty years ago. The market requires about six times as much gin as it did twenty years ago. This increased production of gin represents, in a large measure, the increased imminence of the negro problem. Gin is the drink of the negroes, and this two millions of gallons of the stuff annually poured down the throats of the ignorant negro represents a frightful burden of trouble. Fruit brandies, in these revenue reports, show an enormous increase. Rum is about stationary. High wines are rapidly decreasing, but their places are being taken by new-fangled decoctions of various sorts which are substantially the same thing.