Chapter 25

Chapter 25
pages 135 - 140

MANUFACTURES. DISTILLERIES.

     No business that has been undertaken in Peoria has proved to be more profitable than making whisky. In early times, corn was so low in proportion to the price of whisky that any one, without much skill, could have made a fortune at the business; but there were three reasons that prevented that business from being undertaken. 1st, A great deal of pains had been taken, by public lectures and the establishment of temperance societies, to render it unpopular, and to some extent these efforts had succeeded. 2d, There is a general disinclination on the part of men to branch out into a new and untried business. 3d, We were generally scarce of money, and destitute of banking facilities.
     However, in 1844, Almiran S. Cole, a man of small means but considerable enterprise, started a small steam distillery, capable of using up only 200 bushels of corn in a day. This step was not looked upon with favor, even by those who had no objection to the business in a moral point of view. His downfall was looked upon as certain. The day of his bankruptcy was considered but a matter of time. He was considerably in debt when he commenced, and that step of folly, as his creditors deemed it to be, at once ruined his credit, and his creditors hurried to get judgments against him before he would break. And when he got the establishment completed, for want of money or credit, he found great difficulty in running it; and he must have failed, had it not been a remarkably dull time. Many people were out of work, the farmers had no other market for their corn, and were glad to sell at almost any price, even at the risk of not getting their pay. However, he did run his establishment, difficult as it was; he made money rapidly, paid off his debts, filled his cellar full of whisky, and the people all suddenly waked up to a knowledge of the fact that he was getting rich; and had he so continued, he would have become very wealthy. But Sylvanus Thompson, a man of some experience on the subject, and, withal, possessing good credit and some money, saw that there was a fortune in the business. and bought him out. Mr. Cole was not deceived in the business; but, having obtained some experience, he designed to build a distillery three times as large as the one he had sold. For this purpose he purchased ground (whereas in the other case he had only leased the ground) and made some progress toward building a distillery; but, his funds failing, he was delayed a year or two, but finally raised sufficient means to complete it, and it proved a perfect success. Then, pell-mell, every man that could raise the means went into the whisky business — mostly upon borrowed money at high interest.
     Finally, by the year 1864, there were no less than twelve of these establishments in the city of Peoria alone, besides several others in the neighborhood and operated by Peorians. Those that were in operation in 1864 were run by the following persons, and of the following capacities:

Charles R. Carroll............ 600 bushels
Higbie & Nusbaum.......... 800 bushels
Clarke & Ely................... 1,000 bushels
Moss, Bradley & Co......... 1,200 bushels
Gregg & Cockle.............. 1,200 bushels
Edward F. Nowland........ 1,000 bushels
Sweeny, Littleton & Co.... 600 bushels
D. C. Farrell................... 1,200 bushels
James G. Spier............... 600 bushels
Martin & Eastman........... 300 bushels
Lightner & Schimpferman 1,200 bushels
Thomas S. Dobbins......... 800 bushels

     The quantity of whisky these establishments threw on the market daily can be calculated with tolerable certainty. They were capable of making, upon an average, fifteen quarts of whisky from a bushel of grain; but it some times happened that some one, for want of a good distiller, or for want of good yeast, fell a little short of this. At the above rate they consumed 10,500 bushels of grain per day. This multiplied by 14 1/2, in stead of 15, will produce 152,250 quarts, or 38,062 1/2 gallons of whisky. To contain this whisky, when reduced to highwines, required 636 barrels daily, and 5,250 bushels of coal. Besides, thousands of beeves [cattle] and hogs were fattened on the grain after the whisky had been extracted. Take also into the account the great number of men it took to operate all these establishments, and some idea may be formed of their importance to the city. In fact, the lower part of the city, in which these establishments were located, received a powerful impulse from them, until they were all suddenly brought to a stand, by what is generally called the two-dollar tax. Congress passed a law which, if I remember right, went into effect on the first of June, 1864, laying a tax of two dollars a gallon upon all the whisky thereafter made. The effect of this was to raise the price of whisky on hand suddenly and enormously, so that those who had a quantity on hand, whether by having made it or bought it, would grow suddenly rich. Some congressmen were charged with having voted for the bill with this view, they having gone deeply into the whisky business as soon as they saw the bill would be passed.
     The avowed object of this tax was to increase the revenue; but, as every man well informed on the science of government knew would be the case, the revenue was thereby greatly diminished. It is a well-established principle in political economy that no duty should be laid on an article greater than the expense of producing it; otherwise, the great temptation to evade the law will operate as a bribe to men to do so. This being foreseen when such laws are passed, it is usual to provide ruinous penalties to deter men from violating them; but this is beginning at the wrong end. In stead of inducing men to violate the law, and then punishing them for it, they should be induced to respect the law. When a man is brought to ruin for violating a law that is only malum prohibitum, many will say 'served him right'; but this man has friends and relatives, and, peradventure, dependents: these become opposed to the law, and influence all they can against it. Finally another is ruined, and the same result follows; and another, and another, until the opposition to the law becomes extensive, if not universal, and no informers can be found, and, if detectives should unearth a case, witnesses could not be found. Then of what avail would be the law? Congress finally waked up to the fact that they were getting but little revenue, and blamed the wickedness of the age, in stead of their own folly. They passed a law reducing the tax, but surrounded the right to make whisky with so many tyrannical and expensive concomitants that it is doubtful whether, even now, any one can make whisky profitably but those who evade the law.
     In many parts of the United States whisky was profitably made during the two-dollar tax, but not in Peoria. While the two-dollar tax was the law, whisky could be bought in Peoria, all regularly stamped, as if the taxes had been paid, for a less sum than the tax. Of course, the taxes had not been paid. In some districts distilleries were run as usual, but not so in Peoria. The whole business was broken up, doing an immense damage to the city. It is said, however, that there was an attempt; on this side of the river—perhaps more than one attempt —to evade the law, but such results followed that those concerned were convinced of the truth of the old adage, 'Honesty is the best policy.'
     Multiply 38,062, the quantity made in a day, in Peoria, before the two-dollar law went into force, by two, and you have $76,125 as the amount that this one interest was expected to pay every day to the general government; and multiply this sum by 300 as the working days in a year, and you have the enormous sum of $22,837,500 for a year. But Peoria evaded this tax by not making the whisky, while many other places evaded it by making and selling the whisky without paying the tax, and 'Uncle Sam' got poor, while some of his collectors got rich. What a compliment in favor of the collectors on this side of the river.
     Could any legislation on this subject prevent men from drinking whisky (certainly a very foolish, if not a wicked habit), we might patiently submit to it, however great the pecuniary loss; but I have not been able to perceive that any legislation affected this habit. After all, the amount of whisky drank is only a drop in the bucket, compared to the quantity manufactured. Just think of the amount made in Peoria alone, before the two-dollar tax went into operation: 38,062 gallons made every day, Sundays excepted, in one little town of 25,000 or 30,000 people!

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