text:
The Congressional Globe, Część 3
Autorzy United States. Congress
Mr. COBB. I will include that.
pue; and shall take charge of the bonded warehouse Mr. STEVENS. I thought this was passed
established for the distillery in conformity to law;
and such warehouse shall be in the joint custody over till to-morrow,
of such inspector and the owner thereof, his agent Mr. COBB. Only the word "alcohol.'' or superintendent; and when any spirits shall be Mr. INGERSOLL. I beg pardon, the whole
placed in such warehouse, an entry therefor, in such
form as shall be prescribed by regulations, shall subject.
immediately be made and signed by the owner of No objection being made, the section was said spirits, and shall have indorsed thereon a ceraccordingly passed over.
tificate of the inspector that the spirits mentioned
have been duly inspected and received in said wareThe Clerk read as follows:
house, and such entry and certificate shall be filed Sec. 30. And be it further enacted. That every roc- with the collector of the district; and whenever such tifier or wholesale dealer in distilled spirits shall warehouse is within the limits of any port of entry enter daily, in a book or books kept for the purpose, where there shall be a superintendent of exports, a under such rules and regulations as the Commis- duplicate of such entry and certificate shall forth with sioner of Internal Revenue may prescribe, the num- be filed in the office of such superintendent; and said ber of proof gallons of spirits purchased or received, inspector shall also certify to the returns to be made of whom purchased or received, and the number of by the distiller to the assessor; and shall not engage proof gallons sold or delivered; and every rectifier in any other business while holding the office of or wholesale dealer who shall neglect or refuse to inspector; and he shall be paid such compensation keep such record shall forfeit all spirits in his pos- as the Secretary of the Treasury may deem just and session, together with the apparatus, tools, and im- reasonable, at a rate not exceeding $1,500 per annum, plements used, and be subject to a fine of $500, or an for the time during which he is engaged; and the imprisonment for not less than six months nor more amount of compensation thus paid for inspectionshall than a year, in the discretion of the court. And every be assessed by the assessor upon the distiller, and rerectifier shall mark with a stencil-plate on cach pack- turned to the collector monthly; and in addition to the age of five gallons or more of distilled or rectified above compensation, such inspector shall receive one spirits sold by him his name and place of business. eighth of one cent for each and every proof gallon of No amendment being offered,
distilled spirits inspected by him and removed to
the bonded warehouse, which shall be paid by the The Clerk read as follows:
distiller or owner of the spirits; but no compensaSec.31. And be it further enacted, That the owner or
tion shall be allowed to such inspector for more than owners of any distillery shall provide, at his or their
one inspection of such spirits. And in case the duties own expense, a warehouse suitable for the storage of
of such inspector shall be greater at any time than bonded spirits, of their own manufacture only; or he
he can perform, upon the joint application of the or they inay provide a secure room, in a suitable
inspector and owner of such distillery, the collector building, to be used as such warehouse; and no door,
may appoint an assistant inspector; and upon the window, or other opening shall be made or permitted
refusal of the distiller to join in such application, the in the walls thereof, leading to any other room or
collector shall decide as to such necessity; and such building used for any other purpose, or into the dis
assistant inspector shall qualify in the same manner tillery; and after a bond has been given, as herein
and be subject to the same penalties as the inspector, after provided, such warehouse or room, when ap
and he shall be paid in the same manner as the inproved by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, on
spector, at a rate not exceeding the sum of three report of the district collector, is hereby declared to dollars per day while so employed; and in case of bea bonded warehouse of the United States, and shall
disagreement as to the necessity of retaining the serbe used only for the storing of spirits manufactured
vices of such assistant, between the owner of the by the owner, agent, or superintendent thereof, and
distillery and the inspector, the collector shall decide shall be under the custody of the inspector as herein
us to such necessity, and his decision in the matter after provided; and shall be kept locked up by the
shall be final. And in case of absence by sickness, proper officer in charge, at all times, except when he
or from any other cause, of such inspector or assistshall be present; and the tax on the spirits stored in
ant, the collector may appoint an officer to take temsuch warehouse shall be paid before removal from
porary charge of such distillery and warehouse, who such warehouse, unless removed in pursuance of law. shall receive
the sainge rate
of Barras mando yo pescator
And the owner or owners of such warehouse shall
execute a general bond to the United States with two amount to be deducted from the pay of the absent
or more sureties, to be approved by the collector; and
officer: Provided, That the owner, agent, or super-
such bond shall be for not less than the amount of
intendent of any distillery who shall use, cause, or duties on the spirits to be covered thereby, and in
permit to be used, any materials for the purpose of such form, and containing such conditions, as shall producing spirits, or shall distill and remove any be approved by the Commissioner of Internal Reve- spirits in the absence of the acting inspector or assistnue, and may be changed from time to time by the ant, without permission granted by the collector of collector in regard to the amount and sureties thereof.
the district, shall forfeit and pay double the amount Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I move
of taxes on the spirits so produced, distilled, or
removed, and in addition thereto a fine of $1,000, to strike out the word "thereof' in the fifteenth to be recovered in the manner provided for other line and insert the words " of such distillery."
penalties imposed by this act: Prorided further, That
any person who shall ship, transport, or remove any The amendment was agreed to.
spirituous or fermented liquors or wines, under any Mr. INGERSOLL. I move to insert in line
other than the proper name or brand known to the
trade as designating the kind and quality of the consix, after the word " warehouse,'' the words tents of the casks or packages containing the same. " but no dwelling-house shall be used for any or who shall cause the same to be done, shall forfeit
the same, and shall, on conviction thereof, be subject
such purpose;" so that it will read:
to and pay a fine of $500.
Or he or they may provide a secure room, in a suit-
able building, to be used as such warehouse; but no Mr. HARDING, of Kentucky. I move to
dwelling-house shall be used for any such purpose. strike out this whole section down to the last
Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I see no proviso. If the object is to break up the small
objection.
distilleries throughout the country the adoption The amendment was agreed to.
of this section will effectually accomplish it. Mr. BIDWELL. I suggest to the chairman | It is utterly impossible that one out of a thouof the committee whether, after the words sand of them can survive the operation of this sistencil-plate," on page 153, line fourteen, provision. In addition to a provision for the the words or otherwise'' should not be added. appointment of a general inspector in each
The CHAIRMAN. That section has been collection district, which has been regarded passed.
as sufficient heretofore, in addition to requir-
The Clerk read as follows:
ing every little distiller to build at his own
Sec. 32. And be it further enacted, That general expense a bonded warehouse and a receiv-
bonded warehouses, for the storage of spirits or other ing cistern, this section requires him to pay a
merchandise allowed by law to be placed in bond to
secure the payınent of the internal revenue tax
salary for an inspector for his own distillery.
thereon, or tho exportation thereof, may be estab- After going to all the expense of building a
lished under such rules and regulations and upon warehouse and cistern he is to pay a salary
the execution of such bonds as the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue may prescribe, and shall be in the
"not exceeding $1,500", and one cighth of a
immediate custody of store-keepers who shall be ap cent a gallon for the glorious privilege of dis-
pointed for that purpose, whose compensation shall tilling spirits, and paying two dollars a gallon
be paid monthly to the collector of the district by
the owners or proprietors of such warehouse, and
on every gallon that he distills and sells. Now
shall not exceed the rates which may be allowed to every man will see at once that this will crush
store-keepers of bonded warehouses established under all the small distillers, and the consequence
the laws and regulations relating to customs. will be the creation of a few large distillers,
No amendment being offered,
thus giving them the monopoly. You will com-
pel all the small distillers to sacrifice their still.
Sec. 33. And be it further enacted, That there shall houses and all the machinery they have on
be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury an
inspector for each and every distillery established
hand,
according to law, who shall take an oath faithfully Sir, the national bank system was no more
to perform his duties; and who shall take an account
of all the meal and vegetable productions or other
suceessful in crushing out all the State banks
substances to be used for the purpose of producing
than the large distilleries will be in crushing
spirits, when put into the mash-tuborotherwise used; out all the smaller ones under this law. There
and shall inspect, gauge, and prove all the spirits dis-
tilled, under such rules and regulations as may be
are thousands of these small distilleries that
prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Reve- cannot afford to pay a salary to an inspector
39TH Cong. 1st SESS.-No. 178.
besides building a bonded warehouse and a receiving cistern at their own expense. This inspector is allowed to engage in no other business while he holds that office, but is to receive a salary at the expense of the distiller. Many of these distilleries run only six months, some of them only three months in the year, and during all this time there is to be a Government overseer or agent to see that each one of them measures his grain, to watch him when he is stirring his mash-tub, and inspect all his movements; and the balance of the year he is to do nothing but receive his salary. Where is the necessity of this when the bill provides that there shall be a general inspector for every collection district ?
Mr. ALLISON. I desire to say a word in reference to this section. The object of the section, as of nearly every other section relating to this subject, is to prevent fraud, if possible, in the manufacture of distilled spirits. While in some degree the objections made by the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. HARDING] may be true, that the tendency of this section will be to concentrate the business of distilling in the larger distilleries, yet that is not the absolute effect of this section. As to the pay of these inspectors, it is only at the rate of $1,500 per year for the time during which they may be engaged.
Nr. IIARDING, of Kentucky. But you do not allow them to be engaged in any other business while they hold the office of inspector.
Mr. ALLISON. Undoubtedly while the inspector is performing this duty, while the distillery is in operation, he is expected to be just where the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. HARDING] says he will be, examining the mealbags, the mash-tubs, and the corn-room, to ascertain the amount of material used. Of course, if the distillery is running only two months a year, the inspector will be paid for only the two months. The object of this section is to have every distillery supplied with an inspector, so that the Government may know at all times what amount of spirits are distilled in that distillery, and what amount of materials goes into it and is used in the distillery.
Mr. GRIDER. Will the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Allison] allow me to ask him a question?
Mr. ALLISON. Certainly.
Mr. GRIDER. The distilleries in the West, especially in Kentucky, operate during the three winter months. It is proposed to have an inspector at each of these distilleries, and during the rest of the year he will have nothing to do.
Mr. ALLISON. That is very true. These inspectors are only employed, as I said before, during the time when the distilleries are in operation, and they are only paid for that time.
Mr. GRIDER. Then the result will be that if, in any particular county, there should be fifty distilleries you will have fifty inspectors on duty for three months of the year, and for the rest of the year you will have no use for them.
Mr. ALLISON. Very well; they are not paid except while employed.
Mr. STEVENS. I am not exactly satisfied with this section, and therefore I move to amend by striking out the words "such compensation as the Secretary of the Treasury may deem just and reasonable, at a rate not exceeding $1,500 per annum," and inserting in lieu thereof the words two cents per gallon for all spirits inspected." It is to be observed that by this section the cost of inspecting spirits is to be assessed upon the distiller. The inspector is to be paid $1,500 a year; and the small distiller who distills only one hundred or two hundred gallons is bound to pay it, while the distiller who distills his one thousand or five thousand a day pays no more, except so far as the one eighth of one per cent. may go. Each one must pay a salary of $1,500 a year to an inspector. Each distillery is to have an inspector placed in it, whether the amount distilled is five hundred or five thousand gallons a day. Now, I am
annum.
willing to have the inspector paid according | gentleman from Pennsylvania will prevail; but Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Chairman, I am free to the amount of whisky he may inspect, but it seems to me open to a very obvious objec- to say, as I understand the nature of the businot that he shall be paid the same for inspect- tion. He proposes that the pay shall be at ness upon which this law rests and the purpose ing for a small distillery as for one that dis- the rate of two cents per gallon for all that is of the House in getting revenue from spirits, tills three or four times as much. Therefore I distilled, not to exceed, however, in the aggre
the section now under consideration is most think that this section of the bill should be gate, $1,500 a year. The operation of this vital to the efficiency of the law. Unless we carefully examined, as I cannot see that there would be that the inspector would continue on can have a thorongh system of inspection by is any justice in it.
duty about a week, during, which he would which the Government may reach all distilled Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I rise to have made his $1,500, and as after that he spirits we may abandon all hope of having oppose the amendment of my friend from Penn- must work for nothing, he would then resign. | complete returns of revenue from this source. sylvania, (Mr. Stevens.] I think there is very Thus tve should have in each of the different We may, by making these provisions efficient, great objection to it. If it should be adopted distilleries some fifty or sixty inspectors per | greatly relieve many other industries of the I am afraid that we might lose the services of
country. We may, as they have done in Eng. our friend from Illinois, [Mr. INGERSOLL.] He If the gentleman would make the aggregate | land, make this one of the six articles to pay might wish to be appointed the inspector for a per diem aggregate, he would obviate this the entire revenues of the country. We may some large distillery in his district, where they objection. If he would provide that the in- relieve the agricultural interest, the mechanmake, as I understand, from two thousand to spectors shall receive a compensation in the ical, and other small industries of the country six thousand gallons a day, for his compensa- shape of a percentage upon each gallon dis- | by laying the burden upon this article. tion would then be from forty to one hundred tilled, but that it shall be limited for each day This article has this peculiarity in comparidollars a day. I am afraid that might lead him that the inspector is on duty, the proposition son with every other on which we lay tax: on or some other gentleman to withdraw from his would not be open to the objection I have this, as the tax now stands, the Government place in this House for the purpose of getting stated. But unquestionably, under the propo- owns nine tenths intcrest in every gallon which such a position.
sition in its present form, after the inspector || is distilled, or near that. If one gallon escapes Mr. STEVENS. I will modify my amend- has made his $1,500, which in a large distill- the tax the distiller saves nine tenths. It therement so that it shall be to strike out the words ery he will do in about a week, he will resign | fore becomes necessary to double and quad" such compensation as the Secretary of the and make way for some other inspector, for ruple provisions to prevent illicit distillation. Treasury may deem just and reasonable, at a he must work the rest of the year for nothing. It has been said it would be a troublesome rate,' and inserting 6-two cents a gallon for Mr. STEVENS. May I correct the gentle- || arrangement to put aninspectorinto every small all distilled spirits inspected, but." That man? After they get above the $1,500 they | distillery. Take a small distillery in Kentucky portion will then read, and he shall be paid | get in addition thereto one eighth of one per of five barrels a day, and that is a small distwo cents per gallon for all distilled spirits in- cent. for every gallon they inspect. This is tillery. Two hundred and fifty gallons a day spected, but not exceeding $1,500 per annum.; intended only for the small ones.
would pay to the Government $500. Allow Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. Then I Mr. SCHENCK. I would like the Clerk to three hundred working days in a year, and we withdraw my objection. I think that is very read the amendment again.
have $150,000 revenue derived from one disfair.
The Clerk read the amendment.
tillery of five barrels a day. Now, there are Mr. MORRILL. I move pro formâ to amend Mr. SCHENCK. I do not know how that distilleries which, if honestly administered, will so as to reduce the compensation to one cent computation is to be made. An aggregate | pay the Government $20,000 a day. per gallon.
which is to be made at the rate of! What is Now, the owner of a five-barrel still that pays I think, Mr. Chairman, that there ought to it? I withdraw my amendment.
to the Government $150,000 a year, most cer. be no objection to this section as it stands. I Mr. INGERSOLL. I renew the amend- tainly can afford to put an inspector over it and think it is even an improvement upon the present ment. I believe, Mr. Chairman, this section, pay $1,500 per annum for the performance of law; nor does it vary greatly from that law. as reported by the committee, is in the best his duties. It has been found out in the proThe present law requires these inspectors to possible shape in which it can be passed, so gress of the operation of this law that these be paid by the party employing them, and the far as the interests of the revenue are con- little copper distilleries have manufactured a rate of their compensation is fixed by the Sec- cerned. It is objected to this section by the gen- great quantity of spirits. They are scattered retary of the Treasury. . He fixes it, I have no tleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. STEVENS) and all over the country, and especially in the South. question, at as high a rate as is fixed in this the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. HARDING] In a single collection district of Georgia there bill. It is important that these inspectors that it will have a tendency, if passed, to crush are fifteen hundred such small stills. should not be interested one way or the other out the small stills. If that be so it is the best [Here the hammer fell.] as to the amount to be distilled, and that their || legislation which Congress can enact for the Mr. INGERSOLL. I withdraw my amend. pay should be sufficieut to place them above benefit of the revenue; for instead of these ment. temptation. The compensation should be ample | small stills being for the benefit of the revenue, Mr. BROMWELL. I renew it. What I and such as will enable the Government to under any circumstances, they are steals rather wish to say will not take me five minutes. This engage the proper kind of men-competent, than stills. [Laughter.] I will say, so far as is the first time I ever heard a measure advofaithful, vigilant. The rate proposed is $1,500
Peoria is concerned, it is willing that every cated calculated to crush out a common busia year, and they will he paid at that rate, still should go into Pennsylvania or anywhere ness, a certain pursuit, and to pile it up in the whether employed for thirty days, or sixty | else, provided you buy our corn, Buy our hands of a few. That is the argument of the days, or six months, or twelve months. The corn, and you may manufacture whisky where gentleman from the Peoria district, (Mr: Ixproposition made by the gentleman from Penn- ever you please.
GERSOLL.) Now, if the business of distilling sylvania is an extraordinary one. Even in the Now, sir, this ought to pay $80,000,000 a is a lawful pursuit, the man who has not the very smallest distilleries the pay would amount year of revenue to the Government; and yet I good fortune to be possessed of a princely cap. to a larger sum than the aggregate for the largest the chairman of the Committee of Ways and ital has a right at least to ordinary protection. distilleries.
Means tells us for the last year it was only But this bill comes in and literally devours I trust, Mr. Chairman, that we shall leave seventeen millions. In the southern States, him; it leaves a man with a small establishthe provision contained in the bill untouched. where we have slight supervision of these stills, ment nothing. What would be his fate under Certainly, judging from our past experience, they are increasing like mushrooms in a night. this bill? He might as well burn his property it is of very great importance that we should Fifteen hundred are reported in one district in to-morrow if he cannot use it, or sell it or give frame such a law as will effectually collect the || Georgia, where there was not one a little while it away. Now, while that is all true, I admit
In years past, while nearly one hun- ago. If you allow a law to go on the statute- that it is also true that there is great difficulty dred million gallons per annum have been dis- book weak and loose, you will not have the in hunting down the little distilleries. But tilled and only ten to fifteen million gallons | rightful revenue returned. If you strike out have we a right to destroy a man's property were ever exported, we have obtained a tax the $1,500 a year, and pay two cents a gallon, in and business in order to make other men who past year upon only ten or fifteen millions. The some distilleries the inspectors will receive are dishonest do right? balance has been consumed either for drink- | $1,500 in a few weeks. Peoria is not the only The gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. GARFIELD,] ing purposes or in the arts and manufactures. place where thousands of gallons are made in who is a member of the Committee of Ways Everybody knows that we ought to obtain twice one day; but in Lawrenceburg, Brooklyn, and and Means, says that even a small distillery or three times the amount which we have here- New York they have distilleries which manu- would distill $500 worth a day, and that the tofore received; and one of the first requisites facture from six to ten thousand gallons a day. Government owns nine tenths of it. Why should in order to obtain any revenue whatever is to Ten thousand gallons at two cents per gallon not the Government then foot the bill for the have a proper inspector in every distillery. would be $200; and of course when the in- | inspection of its own interest? [Here the hammer*fell.]
spector received his full pay he would resign. Now, sir, the idea of this bill is that an Mr. SCHENCK. I propose to amend by The Government demands good inspectors || inspector shall be appointed for every distillstriking out "$1,500 a year" and inserting || in order to make the proper calculations. It ery. Think of the swarm of officers that will five dollars a day.'
requires scientific accomplishments to make be required! If the distillery be small, it would The CHAIRMAN. The amendment, in the calculations. It is made at different proofs ; || swamp the man's business. If the distillery be that form, is not in order.
some at forty, some at sixty, and some at eighty, large, he must be a very incompetent man to Mr. SCHENCK. Well, then, for the pur- || which is alcohol proof. If you pass the section run a large distillery who cannot have an inpose of saying what I wish to say I move to as it is you will get your revenue.
I admit you
spector appointed who will be convenient for amend the amendment by striking out two will to some extent drive out the small distill- his purposes. You will fill the country with cents" and inserting in lieu thereof "one eries. I say so much the better for the country. | inspectors who will be just such men as the It may be that the amendment of the [Here the hammer fell.]
owners and the distillers are. Why cannot
revenue.
cent."
there be an inspector for a region of country pended, and that the House resolve itself into distiller. If that be so then they can have no for these small distilleries? Why not have the Committee of the Whole on the state of the objection to the amendment now offered by such an arrangement that the large distilleries | Union on the special order.
the gentleman from New York. If you will doing a great business shall be compelled to The motion was agreed to.
have an inspector over every distillery, then furnish an inspector, but that the small estab- So the rules were suspended; and the Hôuse give him a compensation of live dollars a day, lishments shall be exempted? This paragraph accordingly resolved itself into the Committee and pay him out of the public Treasury. Then provides that he shall hold no other office, of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. this provision will not break down the small engage in no other business while he holds i Dawes in the chair,) and resumed the consid. distillers, but they will still be able to go on this office, and shall have a compensation of eration of the special order, being a bill of the with their business. $1,500.
House (No. 513) to amend an act entitled But the idea that in order to guard against [Here the hammer fell.]
"An act to provide internal revenue to sup- illicit distillation it is necessary to adopt a proMr. HALE. I rise to oppose the amend- port the Government, to pay interest on the vision which will break down these small dis. ment proposed by the gentleman from Illinois, public debt, and for other purposes,'' approved tillers is wholly fallacious. I venture to assert [Mr. BROMWELL.) I beg leave to call the atten- June 30, 1864, and acts amendatory thereof. that the larger the establishment the more tion of the committee to the proposition which The pending question was upon the amend- fraud and villainy you will find in it. What is is before us in the consideration of this whisky | ment of Mr. Morrill, to strike out the words the necessity at all for this inspection? You tax, and to the revenue we have a right to ex- "such compensation as the Secretary of the provide for the appointment of an inspector in pect from that one item, and to the receipts Treasury may deem just and reasonable, at a every collection district. And in addition to that the returns of last year show should have rate not exceeding $1,500 per annum, that you propose to provide for an inspector come from it. We are seeking here, not to inserting "five dollars per day;' so that it for cvery little distillery at an annual salary affect any moral question, not to regulate the will read," and he shall be paid five dollars per of $1,500, to be paid by the distiller. It has habits of the people, but simply to raise the day for the time during which he is engaged." been said by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. greatest possible amount of revenue from the Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I move GARFIELD] that some of these distillers do article that we believe of all others best able to amend the amendment by striking out the not produce more than four or five hundred to sustain it.
words "holding the office of inspector; and | gallons a day. He must know very little Now, the returns for the last year show that he shall be paid such compensation as the about the subject or he would know that there forty-five million gallons of whisky, or about Secretary of the Treasury may deem just and are thousands of distilleries that do not make that, were consumed in this country, which reasonable, at a rate not exceeding $1,500 more than one hundred gallons a day each. should have produced, under the law, $90,000,- per annum,' and insert "employed as an in- Now, it is not necessary to disguise this matter 000. The returns show that we received a rev. spector; and he shall be paid five dollars per at all. The object of this proposition is to enue of about seventeen million dollars, a tax day;'' so that the clause will read, and shall crush out all these small distilleries and put on eight and a half million gallons, or less than not engage in any other business while employed the whole business in the hands of the large one sixth of the whole amount.
as an inspector; and he shall be paid five dol- distilleries. Now, that revenue must either be made up lars a day."
Mr. MORRILL. I would remind the genby the enforcement of the law upon this arti. Mr. MORRILL. I will accept that amend- tleman that we have already adopted an amendcle, or, as was well put by the gentleman from ment.
ment providing that these inspectors shall be Ohio, (Mr. Garrield,] we must make it up Mr. STEVENS. I will not insist upon my paid five dollars a day while employed. upon other branches of industry. How is it amendment but will withdraw it.
Mr. HARDING, of Kentucky. And why to be done? Simply and only by an enforce- The question was upon the amendment of not also provide that they shall be paid out of ment of the law most rigidly. The British Gov- Mr. MORRILL as modified.
the public Treasury? And if it is necessary ernment from its excise realizes $60,000,000 The amendment was agreed to.
to guard all these little establishments, why a year. Shall we be satisfied with a law so Mr. DARLING. I move to amend by strik- not have an inspector in every manufacturing loosely drawn, so poorly enforced, as only to | ing out the words assessed by the assessor establishment in the North and East, to be realize a revenue on one gallon out of every upon the distiller, and returned to the collector || paid at their own cost? Gentlemen say it will six we manufacture?
monthly," and insert" paid out of the public cost but little more. Now, does the gentleNow, let us take the small distilleries which Treasury;" so that it shall read, and the man undertake to say that, under the old law, it is urged are to be crushed out by this provis- amount of compensation thus paid for inspec: every distiller has to pay the salary of an inion ; this rate of tax simply makes an expense, tion shall be paid out of the public Treasury.' spector? No, sir; under the old law there are for this inspector, of five dollars on every $500 I hold it to be clearly the duty of the Gov- inspectors for each collection district; and this of revenue to the Gorernment, taking $500 as ernment to pass such laws as may be necessary bill retains them just as they are. The object, a basis. Is that an oppressive tax?
to protect itself against frauds on the revenue sir, is to break up all those little distilleries [Here the hammer fell.]
by the illicit distillation of spirits. But I con- throughout the West. There is not one in a Mr. MORRILL. I move an amendinent, to tend that it is also the duty of the Government thousand that can stand out under such legisinsertin lieu of the compensation now provided to pay the expenses of enforcing these prosis. || lation. This is known to every man who is by the paragraph the words "five dollars per ions of its own laws, and not impose upon acquainted with the subject. Another object day." But, sir, as I am desirous to make as the class of sinall distillers this onerous and is to place the grain market within the grasp much progress in the bill as possible thiseven- oppressive burden. I contend that there is as of those large monopolies, so that they can ing, and as there are many provisions here that much honesty in the small distiller as there is | take the farmers' produce at their own price may excite some discussion, I move that the || in the large distiller. There is less incentive and distill it in their large establishments. The committee rise for the purpose of terminating or motive to defraud the Government on the amendment will obviate to some extent the debate.
part of the man who distills but a few barrels objection to the provisions of the section. If The motion was agreed to.
à day than there is on the part of the man who it is deemed necessary on the part of the Gov. So the committee rose; and the Speaker | distills fifty or a hundred barrels a day. In ernment to watch these little establishments, 'having resumed the chair, Mr. Dawes reported my own district there are large numbers of these let it be done; but do it at Government exthat the Comınittee of the Whole on the state small distillers; and I have yet to learn that pense, and not by a process that will crush out of the Union had had under consideration the there has been among them anything like the and destroy these small establishments, root Union generally, and particularly the special proportion of frauds discovered that liave been and branch. I withdraw my amendment to the order, being bill of the House No. 513, to perpetrated by the large distillers,
amendment. amend an act entitled "An act to provide
I move to amend by striking internal revenue to support the Government, to pass laws discouraging a man in the prose- ont after the word "monthlyin the thirtyto pay interest on the public debt, and for cution of any particular business because he third line the following: other purposes,'' approved June 30, 1861, and is not able to employ the same amount of сар- And in addition to the above compensation, such acts amendatory thereof, and had come to no ital in pursuing that business that the large inspector shall receive one eighth of one cent for resolution thereon. distiller has. I therefore trust that my amend
each and every proof gallon of distilled spirits inment will prevail, and that the Government will
spected by him and removed to the bonded wareCLOSE OF DEBATE.
house, which shall be paid by the distiller or owner from the public Treasury the expenses of
pay Mr. MORRILL. I move that all debate
of the spirits; but no compensation shall be allowed this restriction, as the Government is to be
to such inspector for more than ono inspection of in Committee of the Whole on the state of the
such spirits. benefited by their operation. I inaintain that Union on the pending paragraph of the special the revenue from this source will be largely
The CHAIRMAN. That amendment is not order terminate in ten minutes after the com- increased by a diminution of the tax. I hold germane to the pending amendinent, and is mittee shall resume the consideration of the that a dollar tax upon whisky would produce
not in order. subject.
a larger amount of revenue than the two dollar On the amendment of Mr. DARLING there The motion was agreed to.
were-ayes 42, noes 51, [Here the hammer fell.]
Mr. HARDING, of Kentucky, called for
tellers. Mr. STEVENS. I ask leave of absence
Mr. HARDING, of Kentucky. I move pro indefinitely for Mr. Blow.
formâ to strike out the last word of the amend- Tellers were ordered ; and Messrs. DARLING No objection was made, and leave was
ment of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. l) and GARFIELD were appointed.
Darling.] I think the amendment proposed
The committee divided ; and the tellers granted. by him will test the soundness and sincerity of
reported-ayes 42, noes 51.
TAX BILL-AGAIN.
the argument used by gentlemen here that this
So the amendment was not agreed to.
Mr. MORRILL moved that the rules bo gas- tax is paid by the consumer and not by the Mr. SCHENCK. I move to amend by in.
Kow, I think the Government has no right Ir. SLOAN.
tax.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE.
The pur
serting after the word "spirits" in the fortieth number of gallons of spirits distilled, and also the Mr. HALE. I move to substitute one dolline the following words:
number of gallons romored to honded warehouse lar and one cent.
and the proof thereof-which said account shall be No inspector shall continue on duty at one and verified by affidavit prescribed by law, and be certi
Mr. Chairman, while I have had so far, and the same distillery for more than sixty days contin
fied by the inspector-and shall immediately forward still have. every disposition to sustain the Comuously.
to tlic collector of the district one of' said accounts, mittee of Ways and Means in the bill which is The amendment was not agreed to.
and shall pay to the collector the taxes on the spirits Mr. DARLING. I move to amend by striksodistilled before removing the same from the bonded
before the committee, it does seem to me, after warehouse, unless removed as provided by law. The the very elaborate argument reported by the ing out in lines thirty-seven and thirty-eight | entries to ho made in the books of the distiller, as
revenue commissioners on this subject of the the words "by the distiller or owner of the
aforesaid, shall, upon the several days when the re-
turns are to be made, as provided, be verified by the
taxation of whisky, in which they very strongly spirits" and inserting in lieu thereof the words
signature of the person or persons by whom such demonstrate the impropriety of the present out of the public Treasury."'
entries shall have been made, in the presence of the The amendment was not agreed to. assessor or assistant assessor, or other proper oflicer,
high tax and the propriety of lessening it, the who shall append thereto his certificate of the exe- question ought to be considered in a fuller Mr. RANDALL, of Kentucky. I move to cution of the same. The owner, agent, or superin- House than we have to-night. I rise to sug
tendent of any distillery shall, in caso the original amend by inserting at the end of the section entries required to be made in his books by this act
gest the propriety of passing over this section the following:
shall not have been made by himself, subjoin to the so that we may take it up in a day session when And provided further, That the provisions of this certificate of the person by whom they were inade the the House is fuller and an opportunity may be section shall not apply to the distillers of apples, following certificate: "I do certify that, to the best
afforded for an interchange of views. "Without grapes, or peaches, who distill less than fifty barrels of my knowledge and belief, the foregoing entries per year from tho samo.
are just and true, and that I have taken all the means expressing the intention of taking one side or
in my power to make them so." And my owner, The amendment was not agreed to; there
the other, it seems to me to be a question ngent, or superintendent who shall neglect or refuse
which should not be voted on in a thin House. being-ayes twenty-four, noes not counted. to furnish the accountand duplicate thereof, as herein
Mr. MORRILL. If it were an original ques. Mr. HARDING, of Kentucky. I move to
provided, or who shall refuse to permit the said as
sessor or assistant assessor, collector or deputy col- tion very likely I might not disagree with the amend by striking out from line thirty-one to lector, or inspector, to examine the books in the line thirty-three the following words: manner herein provided for, when requested, shall,
gentleman from New York, but I do not sup. for every such noglect or refusal, forfeit and pay the pose any different result would be obtained if And the amount of compensation thus paid for sum of $500.
the House were fuller. I think it is the purinspection shall be assessed by the assessor upon tho disiiller, and returned to the collector monthly.
Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I move pose of a very large majority of the House, as The amendment was not agreed to; there
to amend by striking out in line thirty-one the well as of the country, to try the two dollar being-ayes twenty-one, noes not counted. words "to be."
rate until the law has been fully tested. Mr. O'NEILL. I move to amend by adding The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. HALE, by unanimous consent, withat the end of the section the following:
drew his amendment to the amendment. And provided further, That the distillers shall bo
The amendment was then disagreed to. Sec. 36. And be it further enacted, That, in addition entitled to a certificate of inspection from any per- to the special tax provided, there shall be levied, col- The Clerk read as follows: son who, under the provisions of this act, may have lected, and paid on all spirits that may be distilled made an inspection, upon which certiticate shall be
SEC. 37. And be it further enacted, That proof spirit and removed from the bonded warehouse for connoted the time of the day at which said inspection
shall be held and taken to be that alcoholic liquor sumption or sale, of first proof, on and after the pas
which contains one half its volume of alcohol of a was made, and also a statement, if such be the fact, sage of this act, a tax of two dollars on each and every that the distiller is complying with the law. proof gallon; and the said tax shall be a lien on the
specific gravity of .7939 at sixty degrees Fahrenheit,
and the tax on all spirits shall be levied according to Mr. Chairman, the committee having voted
all , down an amendment offered by me earlier in the same, with the stills, vessels, fixtures, and tools
their equivalent in proof spirits; and the Secretary therein, and on the interest of said distiller in the lot
of the Treasury is hereby authorized to adopt, prothe evening with a view of decreasing the count- or tract of land whereon the said distillery is situated,
cure, and preseribe for use, such hydrometers, weighless inspections to which distilleries are daily until the said tax shall be paid: Provided, That the
ing and gauging instruments, meters, or other means tax on all spirits shall be collected at no lower rate
for ascertaining the strength and quantity of spirits subjected, I now submit this one. than the basis of first proof, and shall be increased in
subject to tax, and to prescribe such rules and retu
lations as he may deem necessary to insuro a uniform pose in view is to require the person making proportion for any greater strength than the strength and correct system of inspection, weighing, and gaug: the inspection to give a certificate to the dis- of first proof.
ing of spirits subject to tax throughout the l'nited tiller. This involves some trouble to the in- Mr. HARDING, of Illinois. I move to amend States. And in all sales of spirits hereafter made,
where not otherwise specially agreed, a gallon shall spector, and would, perhaps, satisfy a subse- || by striking out " two dollars" in line five, and be taken to be a gallon of first proof, according to quent one that the prior inspection showing || inserting in lieu thereof "one dollar."
the foregoing standard set forth and declared for tho the law had not been disregarded was sufficient, Mr. Chairman, in offering this amendment, inspection and gauging of spirits throughout the Uniand thus his duties were rendered unnecessary.
ted States. I am actuated by the purest of motives in refWhile we must protect the Government, we erence to the attainment of a large amount of
No amendment being offered, should strive to make the law as little irksome revenue from this source. I have no interest
The Clerk read as follows: us possible, and avoid, if we can, the too nu- in any distilling establishment, nor have many
SEC. 38. And be it further enacted, That the owner, merous visitations of officials.
agent, or superintendent of any distillery established of my constituents. They are generally a sober, as herein before provided, shall erect, in a room or The amendment was not agreed to.
agricultural people, who produce very largely building to be provided and used for that purpose, The question recurring on the motion of Mr. the gross grains which are grown upon the
and for no other, two or more receiving cisterns, each
to be at least of sufficient capacity to hold all the Harding, of Kentucky, to strike out the sec- western prairies-mainly corn and rye. Here
spirits distilled during the day of twenty-four hours, tion, the motion was not agreed to.
tofore in our isolated condition we have found into one of which shall be conveyed each day all the The Clerk read as follows: a large market for our products in these distill
spirits manufactured in said distillery during that
day: and such cisterns shall be so constructed as to eries which manufactured grains into spirits. Sec. 31. And be it further cnacted, That there shall
leave an open space of at least three feet between the be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, in
They enabled us in a much easier way to trans- tops thereof and the floor or roof above, and of not every collection district where the samo inay be port our products to market. The effect of the
less than eighteen inches between the bottoms thereof necessary, one or more general inspectors of spirits,
and the floor below, and shall be separated in such a tax of two dollars a gallon is to destroy the manner as will enable the inspector to pass around
the same, and shall be connected with the outlet of duties, in such form as tho Commissioner of Internal legitimate manufacture of any large quantities Revenue may prescribo, and who shall be entitled to of these grains into high-wines and alcohol.
the stills, boilers, or other vessels used for distilling, receive one quarter of one cent for each and every And let me say another thing. The pre
by suitable pipes or other apparatus so constructed wine-gallon gauged and proved by him; and any
as always to be exposed to the view of the inspector: owner, agent, or superintendent of any distillery or
mium is too high for legitimate manufacture, and such cisterns and the room in which they are conbonded warehouse who shall refuse to admit an in- so long as we continue it we can provide no
tained shall be in charge of and under the lock and
seal of the inspector: and on the third day after the spector upon such premises, so far as it may be neces- legal machinery which will enable us to collect sary for the performance of his duties, or who shall
spirits are conveyed into such cisterns the same sbal! obstruct an inspector in the performance of his du
the full revenue. I notify the House that the be drawn off into casks or other packages, under the ties, shall forfeit and pay the sum of $300, to be re- experience of last year will be the experience
supervision of the inspector, and shall be immediately covered in the manner provided for recovery of
inspected, gauged, and proved, and the casks or packof next year.
With the temptations held out other penalties imposed by this act.
ages marked, as herein provided, and be removed by this law we can have no expectation of a directly to the bonded warehouse before mentioned: No amendment being offered, faithful performance of duty on the part of
Provided, That the spirits may be drawn off from said The Clerk read as follows:
cisterns at any time previous to the third day, if so these inspectors. I have no expectation of it. desired by the owner, agent, or superintendent of such Sec. 35. And be it further enacted, That every owner I believe that a tax of two dollars a gallon on distillery: and all locks and seals required under this of any still, boiler, or other vessel, used or intended to be used for the purpose of distilling spirits, as spirits is too great a temptation to be guarded
act shall be provided by the Secretary of the Treas
ury, at the expense of the owner of the distillery, and hereinbefore provided, or who shall have such still, against. If gentlemen will look into the machin.
shall be combination locks and susceptiblo of at least boiler, or other vessel under his superintendenco, ery of this bill they will see it is required that ninety-six changes, and the bits of the keys thereof either as agent for the owner or for his own account, or who shall use any still or other vessel as aforesaid, the whole product of these distillations shall be
shall be changed at least once a week, and shall
always be in tho custody of the inspector or assistant either as owner, agent, orotherwise, shall from day to run into vats every day. Some of these vats
inspector, or the officer having charge of the distillday make true and exact entry, or cause to be entered, will contain six thousand gallons. Do gentle- ery and warehouse. in a book, to be kept in such form as the Commispioner of Internal Revenue may prescribe, the num
men expect the temptation will be resisted by Mr. STEVENS. I move to strike out that ber of pounds or gallons of materials used for the men who are receiving only five dollars a day? || section. It is the most extraordinary contrirpurpose of producing spirits, and the number of gal- They have only to shut their eyes
ance I ever heard of since I read of the colls lons of spirits distilled, and also the number of gal. lons placed in warehouse and tho proof thereof, which
[Here the hammer fell.]
under old feudal castles. The man who in. book shall always be open for the inspection of any Mr, MORRILL. Our experience has shown vented it ought to have a patent. We are to assessor, assistant assessor, collector, deputy collector, that the cheating commenced about as rapidly have locks with ninety-six combinations and supervisor, or inspector, who may take minutes, memorandums, or transcripts thereof; and shall ren
at twenty cents and sixty cents as at two dol. | creepings in and about and around until it der to the assessor or assistant assessor of the district, lars. Believing the mind of every gentleman becomes a labyrinth more involved than Crete on the 1st, 11th, and 21st days of every month, or in the House is made up on this question, and ever had. A man who went into it would have within five days thereafter, an account in duplicate, taken from his books, of the number of pounds and
that we do not want any discussion, I only rise to take a thread with him to find his way out. wallons of material used in producing spirits, tho to oppose the amendment pro forma,
Mr. GARFIELD. I hope this section will
not be stricken out. I acknowledge that the paragraph. I withdraw my amendment to the casks, barrels, and other vessels not under the conprovision is a stringent one, but it does not amendment.
trol of the inspector, when required so to do by any
duly authorized officer, under a penalty of $200 for require them to rebuild. They have their cis. The question was taken on Mr. STEVENS'S any refusal or neglect so to do. terns already and it only requires that they | amendment, and it was disagreed to-ayes
SEC. 42. And be it further enacted, That all spirits shall inclose them and that the inspectors may
distilled shall, before the same are removed to the twenty-three, noes not counted.
bonded warehouse, be inspected, gauged, and proved have a key to the locks of the room in his The Clerk read as follows:
by the inspector appointed for that purpose, after the possession and be able to go around and see Sec. 39. And be it further enacted, That any person
same has been drawn into casks or packages, each that there are no secret pipes leading out by who shall knowingly and fraudulently uso any false
of not less capacity than twenty gallons, wine measwhich a few barrels may be drawn out and weights and mcasures in ascertaining, weighing, or
ure, and said inspector shall mark, by cutting or measuring the quantities of grain, meal, or vegetable
branding, upon the cask or package containing such sold without paying the tax. I know of no materials, molasses, or beer, or other substances to
spirits, in a manner to be prescribed by the Commis. way except by some such thorough, stringent be used for distillation, or who shall fraudulently
sioner of Internal Revenue, the quantity and proof measure as this by which an inspection shall mako falso record of the same, or who shall destroy
of the contents of such cask or package, with tho or tamper with any locks or scal which may be placed
date of inspection, the collection district, the name be made, so that we shall absolutely know on any cistern, rooms, or buildings, by the duly
of the inspector, and the name of the distiller, and what is done, how much is manufactured daily, | authorized officers of the revenue, shall be guilty of such progressive number, for every distiller, to begin
also the number of each cask in progressive order, and where it goes. It thus comes under the
a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be impris-
oned for the term of two years, and pay a fine not
with number one with the first cask or package in-
supervision of the Government itself. As a
exceeding $1,000, in the discretion of tho court; and
spected after this act, and subsequently with number
one with the first cask inspected on or after the 1st matter of course to do this we have got to any person who shall use any molasses, beer, or other
day of January in each year, and no two or more point out with a great deal of particularity the
substances, whether fermented on the premises or
elsewhere, for the purpose of producing spirits, beforo
casks warehoused in the same year by the same mode of inspecting and securing the revenue an account of the same shall have been registered in
distiller shall be marked with the same number, and from distilled spirits. the proper record book provided for this purpose,
the officer in charge of the warehouse shall refuse If any gentleman here knows any better way shall forfeit and pay the sum of $1,000 for each and
to allow any cask of spirits to be taken out there
from which has not cut or branded thereon all the every offense so committed. to do this as thoroughly and with less trouble SEC. 40. And be it further enacted, That on all wines,
several particulars aforesaid, and in the manner and annoyance to the owner of the distillery, I liquors, or compounds known or denominated as
required by this act. And the inspector or other shall be very glad to hear it, and should be wine, made in imitation of sparkling wine or cham
revenue officer in charge of any distillery shall make pagne, and put up in bottles under the label, name,
a prompt return of all spirits inspected by him in very willing to adopt it. But the revenue designation, or similitude of any imported wine, or
accordance with the provisions of this act, and tho commission that looked into this matter and wine of foreign growth or manufacture, or with the
name of the distiller, to the collector, and a duplicato
thereof to the assessor of the district; and any percompared it with the system in other countries appearance or pretense of being imported wine, or wine of foreign growth or manufacture, there shall
son who shall fraudulently evade or attempt fraudhave been able to devise no better, more simple, be levied and paid a tax of six dollars per dozen bot
ulently to evade the payment of the tax upon any or cheaper means of effecting the object, and tles, each bottle containing inore than one pint, or
spirits distilled as aforesaid, by changing
any marks I hope it will prevail. three dollars per dozen bottles, cach bottle contain
upon any such cask or package, or in any other maning not more than one pint; and the returns, assess
ner whatever, or who shall fraudulently put into such I will say, however, before I sit down, that ment, collection, and time of collection of the tax on
cask or package spirits of greater strength than that a thing greatly desired by all countries, not yet such imitation wines shall be subject to the regula
inspected and certified to by the inspector, shall pay attained, but which I hope is to be reached in tions of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. And
double the amount of tax on each proof gallon of any person who shall willfully and knowingly sell or
the quantity of such spirits, and forfeit and pay as a this country, is the invention of a meter that offer for sale any such wino inade after the passage
penalty the additional sum of $500 for each cask or may be fixed to a still by which all the fluid of this act, upon which the tax herein imposed has
package so altered or changed, to be recovered as shall be measured as it is manufactured. It not been paid, or which has been fraudulently evaded,
herein
provided ; and any inspector who shall knowshall, upon conviction thereof, bosubject to a penalty
ingly put upon any such cask or package any false is declared that such an invention has been of $1.000, or to imprisonment not exceeding one year,
or fraudulent marks shall, on conviction, be imprismade by a citizen of the United States, and at the discretion of the court.
oned one year, and be liable to a fine of $500, in the
discretion of the court; and any person who shall it is now being examined by the officers of the Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I move fraudulently use any cask or package bearing inspecCoast Survey and the Smithsonian Institute; to amend section forty by striking out the
tion marks, for the purpose of selling any other but it cannot be determined in time for the
spirits than that so inspected, or for selling spirits of words "the label, name, designation, or." a quantity or quality different from that so inspected, action of the internal revenue department or The amendment was agreed to.
shall be imprisoned for a term of six months, or shall Congress this year. Therefore I hope we shall
pay a fine of $100 for each cask or package so used,
Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. In lines in the discretion of the court; and any person who be permitted to use this system, however cum- five and six I move to strike out the words shall knowingly purchase or sell, with inspection brous it may appear to be, until another ses" or wine of foreign growth or manufacture."
marks thereon, any cask or package, after the samo sion of Congress, when, perhaps, we shall have
has been used for distilled spirits, or who shall
The amendment was agreed to. found that the invention is a success, and will
fraudulently omit to erase or obliberate the inspec
Mr. PRICE. I move to amend that section tion marks upon any such package or cask at the very much simplify this whole matter and render our revenue from this source more certain. in the ninth line by inserting after the word
time of emptying the same, shall forfeit and pay tho
sum of fifty dollars for every cask so purchased or "pint" the words " and not more than one used, or on which the marks are not so obliterated. But until that is done I hope this House will
quart." stand by the committee in maintaining this
And any person who shall, with fraudulent intent, The amendment was agreed to.
use any inspector's brands or plates upon any cask system of thorough inspection.
or package containing or purporting to contain disMr. BROMWELL. I move to insert the
Mr. WILSON, of Iowa. Unless the Com- tilled spirits, except in the employ of the inspector,
or who shall knowingly make or use any counterfeit word "three" in the place of "two'' in line
mittee of Ways and Means can give some reason or spurious brand or plate upon any cask or package four. for retaining the words I move to strike out of distilled spirits, as aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty
of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall forfoit I wish to ask thé gentleman from Ohio [Mr. the words or similitude." GARFIELD] if this section does not materially
Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. I suggest
the same, and shall pay a fine of $1.000, and be im
prisoned for not less than two nor more than five interfere with the business of carrying on dis
to the gentleman that he will accomplish his years. And any inspector who shall permit any pertillation of alcohol. If the business of distilla-object by moving to strike out the words son not employed by him to use any of his brands or tion is not to be put under the ban of moral - similitude of;" and insert in lieu thereof
plates, or who shall negligently or willfully leave
such brands or plates where they can be used by any considerations, which I think influences some
"in imitation of;'' so that the clause will read : other person than those who may be in his employ, minds, if it is to be left like any other business That on all wines, liquors, or compounds known or
shall pay a fine not exceeding $1,000, in the discretion in this country, as a matter of money and busidenominated as wine, made in imitation of sparkling
of the court. And any inspector who shall employ wine or champagne and
any owner, agent, or superintendent of any distillery ness, we certainly do not wish to hamper and
or warehouse under his supervision, or who shall
employ any person in the service of such owner, disturb it in its most profitable form.
Mr. WILSON, of Iowa. I accept that as a agent, or superintendent, to use his plates or brands, Now, sir, in regions remote from market, modification of my amendment.
or to discharge any of the duties imposed by this act the corn which is manufactured into whisky is The amendment, as modified, was agreed to.
upon such inspector, shall, for each offense so com
mitted, be subject to the same fine last mentioned. also made into alcohol, and I would ask the chairman of the committee, or the gentleman
Mr. WILSON, of Iowa. I move, also, to Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. On line
strike out in line six the words " who last addressed the committee, if the re
appearance | thirty-nine, in the forty-second section, I move
or.'' It seems to me that if a man puts up quirement of these cisterns and warehouses is
to insert the words "not less than fifty dollars wine in bottles and it has the appearance of not going to materially interfere with the busi
nor more than ;'' so that the clause will read: foreign wine, it is rather sharp to subject him ness, of distilling alcohol. I do not know
And any inspector who shall knowingly put upon enough about this business to give any infor
to these penalties. It might be very difficult any such cask or package any false or fraudulent to put up wine in bottles that might not have
marks shall, on conviction, be imprisoned one year, 'mation as to it myself, but I understand that it
and be liable to a fine of not less than fifty nor more is a great convenience and saving of labor and the appearance of foreign wine.
than five hundred dollars, in the discretion of the The amendment was agreed to.
expense if the distiller is allowed to run his
whisky directly into 'alcohol at his pleasure,
Mr. HOOPER, of Massachusetts. At the The amendment was agreed to.
without having it barreled or stored up in a
request of my critical friend from Maine, (Mr. Mr. THAYER. I move to insert in line bonded warehouse.
BLAINE,]. I move to amend the section in line | thirty-eight, before the words "shall, on convicNow, sir, this will affect the western dissix by striking out the letter "c" in the word
tion, be imprisoned one year,' the following: tillers injuriously, I think; for it is a great pretence" and inserting "gin place of it.
And any inspector, assistant inspector, or officer deal cheaper to ship alcohol to New York or [Laughter.]
temporarily in charge of any distillery under this act, the eastern market than it is to ship corn and
The amendment was not agreed to.
who shall conspire with the proprietor of any distilla
ery or with any other person or persons to defraud let it be distilled at the East. Every western
the United States of any revenue or tax derived from man can see that if a distillery is worth any. Sec. 41. And be it further enacted, That every owner,
distilled spirits or any part thereof, or who shall with thing to the West, it is worth more for the agent, or superintendent of any distillery shall, at
intent to defraud the United States of such revenuo all times when required, supply all assistance, lights,
or tax make any fraudulont return, or entry of cerpurpose of making alcohol than whisky. I Jadders, tools, staging, or other things necessary for
tificate of return, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, &c. should, therefore, from my understanding of inspecting the premises, stock, tools, and apparatus The committee have prepared a very elaboit, favor the motion of the gentleman from
belonging to such person or persons having paid the
special tax aforesaid, and shall open all doors, and
rate system of defenses here in regard to the Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] to strike out the
open for oximination all boxes, packages, and all payment of this tax to protect the Government
of any imported wind, met up in bottles in imitation


text:
Jacobs '85 and Haubenstock '84 on Renewable Energy
by Cynthia Rockwell • August 3, 2010
Michael Jacobs '85
Two Wesleyan graduates, Michael Jacobs '85 and Arthur Haubenstock '84, joined five other experts in the field of renewable energy in Washington, D.C., on April 26, on a Capitol Hill panel. The seven offered a presentation to Congressional staff on advances needed to integrate renewable resources—including wind and solar energy—into the electric grid. The panel was organized by the EESI (Environmental and Energy Study Institute) and WIRES (the Working Group for Investment in Reliable and Economic Electric Systems). Jacobs, a senior engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) focuses on wind power, and Haubenstock is chief counsel and director of regulatory affairs with BrightSource Energy, a large-scale solar energy company.
Arthur Haubenstock '84
"One of the greatest challenges in developing an alternative power source is developing a transmission structure," says Haubenstock. "Unlike fuels in other sources, renewable energy tends to be intermittent, yet we need to maintain a robust and reliable grid. A pretty broad group of people are trying to figure out how to make it work."
Jacobs concurs. "We're finding enormous interest across the policy and political spectrum in modifying the electric power grid."
As for the briefing, he offered this update: "The planning and real practice of adding energy from both wind and solar is smoother and more useful than just one or the other. This is because the daily patterns and the variations of solar offset much of those from wind, and vice versa."
At Wesleyan, Jacobs was a CSS major. As a senior, he studied urban planning with Professor Robert Wood and recalls that campus conversations piqued his interest in alternative energy sources. After graduate school in urban planning, his interest in renewable energy led him to a career in regulatory work—"changing the paradigm, and working through the political process that ultimately governs our choices about the sources of energy available to us," he says.
When asked what advice he'd give the average energy consumer, he advocated education: "Learn a little bit about where your power supply is coming from. When people heard about the latest mining disaster, many were surprised to learn that the U.S. even uses coal for energy. Yet half the power supply of the country comes from coal. Many are just hearing about the wind farm that has just been approved off Cape Cod. Yet it's been in the works for nearly a decade—held up for nine years in the approval process. Before we're able to convert to renewable power, there's a lot that will have to change and the educated consumer can make a difference."
"There's no question that climate change is the most important issue of our age," says Haubenstock. "It's going to take a wide variety of answers to address that challenge. One of the things I love about Wesleyan is that it empowers students to think of creative solutions and to implement them. Alternative energy solutions present opportunities for everyone to explore and contribute."
To download the 37-page visual presentation, the white paper, Challenges in Integrating Renewable Technologies into an Electric Power System by the Power Systems Engineering Research Center, as well as an MP3 of the briefing go here: http://www.eesi.org/electric-transmission-202-integrating-variable-renewable-resources-26-apr-2010
Cynthia Rockwell
Cynthia Rockwell, MALS '19, P'11 View all posts by Cynthia Rockwell →
Tags:alumni sustainability
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At last I have had some work………ok only two days and about 5 hours on each one but it is better than nothing and money coming in………………only data entry and envelope stuffing but it kept me out of trouble for a few hours…………….I also had two agency interviews last week and the agency that got me the odd days has said they will try and get me some more work but more permanent work ie long term temping or contract……………..I am not worried as long as I am working and its continual………….I'm happy to do a week here and there if I have to and can go in at short notice if I have to…………….money may not be brilliant but it is better than no money at all………………..
Lost 2.5 lb last week and picked up two new books full of great ideas and one is Family Feasts for under a fiver (not including store cupboard staples like salt and pepper or soy sauce……………) Going to try a couple in the week…………and tried a lovely Chinese fried rice one last week which was really nice…………….lets hope we are now back on track properly and get on with losing this weight more quickly……………………….
Not been out on the bike since I fell off……………….my knee is still causing me problems and is driving me mad……………I want to ride but I am worried that if I do it too soon it could cause more damage……………..ironically it is the same knee that I badly damaged in a kiting accident 4 years ago at Easter……………….then I could not fly for about a year so I am hoping that this does not take anything like as long to recover…………….
Now we are cycling we have reached a decision to sell most of the kite gear……………purely because its not getting enough use and to find any decent sites we have to travel……………..I still want to visit some of the places I have come to love as a result of kiting like Westward Ho! and we are keeping some of the small kites and the kids boards so we will still fly some of the time but not as often……………Mountain biking is the way forward and we do not have to travel so far to do it………………I will still be out taking pictures sometimes of the flyers wherever we go…………….there is always a camera on me even if it is only the one on my phone………………….I have made a lot of friends through kiting and still intend to keep in touch with them through forums or Facebook………………..
Still in a substantial amount of pain from the fall on Saturday………….but at least the swelling on the knee has gone down………..the biggest problem that I have now is that I have trouble going up and down stairs and hills………….don't think I'll be cycling at the weekend unless the pain goes away completely…………..which I doubt that it will…………..
Not much else to report at the moment……………….
That is the thought that I am having now…………had two interviews last week and got declined on both but have taken all the positives out of them to move forward on to the next ones…………..got two possibly three lined up for this week……….one with an agency, one for a proper job and the other is with a company that I have been interviewed by before but then it was for a part time job……………something must come up soon……….
As I said I am being positive about things as it is the way forward in everything…………..it should help me get my head straight………….I see things in a different way slightly as I was really low before…………..for example this morning…………I decided to go into Bournemouth to check with the agencies I am registered with for updates…………the fact I did it on the spur of the moment was a new thing for me because as him indoors put it 'it is out of character for you to do something like that' (or words to that effect)…………..may be but I have to make my own decisions as to what I need to do and when……………getting a job is the most important thing at the moment…………followed by my MRI scan results and the Tinnitus counselling…………….
The diet is a bit hit and miss at the moment…………I am trying to eat sensibly but it does not always work………..if I have a lunchtime appointment or interview my eating habits go to pot and I end up eating junk……………….so for example I have cereal at breakfast…………..a Mugshot with a yoghurt and fruit for lunch and something decent in the evening for dinner………if I am out I normally end up with a sausage roll or something and a hot chocolate…………….
Been out on the bike a couple more times…………now we did Badbury Rings and round there on Saturday…………….few bits I could not ride up due to claggy clay………….and did a spectacular fall on what I thought was hard solid ground but turned out to have a patch of mud at the bottom of the hill which I skidded out and landed rather heavily on my elbow…………the same one I broke in a road accident 25 years ago or there abouts………….nice big bruise on it now……………….previous Saturday did in the New Forest up to Linwood and had a pub stop part way round…………..Now I am getting to love this cycling lark…………..still not too sure about some of the downhill bits but still having fun with it………………can only really manage one ride at the weekend but may start to do evening rides now that the evenings are getting lighter……………..
Speedway season starts this month………….looking forward to seeing who is doing what…………..cannot believe I have followed Poole for 34 years…………..must get down there and to the GP this year…………….
Still not been out with the camera much…………not really had the time to…………..will take some of all of us on the bikes or flying at some point…………….need to get out and fly too…………..
More updates as and when things happen………………will remain positive til then…………….


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Tag: road building
South Gloucestershire want you to believe that building roads is the solution to climate change
South Gloucestershire are consulting on expanding road capacity, and to justify it they cite their Climate Emergency declaration and tell us that building roads will solve climate change.
As a local issue, I've written about it elsewhere. But it covers lots of themes that are really At War With The Motorist material: zombie road schemes, highways departments who have never yet seen a problem for which they won't suggest building roads is the solution, no matter how absurd, and councils who sell you road building with the empty promise that it will be accompanied with investment in public transport, active travel or liveable neighbourhoods.
It's on a new blog I've been trying out for local things, tentatively called Bristolize (I don't really like the name or its associations, I just haven't thought of a better one yet). The other posts on it so far are perhaps a little bit in the style of Crap Cycling & Walking Waltham Forest, and clearly starting it is inspired by feeling a little bit nostalgic for the 2008-12 era blogosphere and very jaded with the social media that killed it off. I'm not sure I'll keep it up for long, but I might have fun with it for a little while.
Read and subscribe to Bristolize here.
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on June 17, 2021 Tags bristol, misappropriation, road building, south gloucestershire1 Comment on South Gloucestershire want you to believe that building roads is the solution to climate change
Your country needs you
On Friday:
Join the London Cycling Campaign protest ride this Friday calling for clear space for cycling on our streets
Meet 6pm for 6.15pm start at Tower Hill (where it meets Minories) http://goo.gl/maps/8CzmeThe protest ride will last approximately 20-30 minutes, including a brief stop at the junction of A11 Whitechapel Road and A1202 Commercial Street to pay respects at the place where last week's victim died
The ride will be marshalled by LCC staff and volunteers, and will finish at Altab Ali Park around 6.30pm
And read more about why at ibikelondon.
On Saturday:
National rally against road-building
Saturday 13 July 2013 at Crowhurst, East Sussex
Come to the Combe Haven valley to raise the alarm about Government plans for a massive programme of new roads. Join campaigners from across the UK for a rally and walk along the route of the most destructive and fiercely opposed new road being built in England – the £100 million Bexhill-Hastings Link Road.
And read more about why at Sian Berry's blog.
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on July 10, 2013 Tags cycling, flashride, politics, road buildingLeave a comment on Your country needs you
Privatising roads might be silly, but does it really matter?
So the government is looking into some form of privatisation of the motorways and trunk roads that are still under their control — that is, the English Highways Agency network.
It sounds radical, it sounds like it could be frightening, it sounds almost like a parody. Actually, it's boring. It's probably even more boring than the familiar private roads like the M6 Toll and all our big motorway suspension bridges. It will probably turn out to be about as boring as the management of motorways and trunk roads in Scotland, where private companies manage and maintain the roads using railways-style regional franchises. You'll know them by the names and emergency contact numbers plastered over the countryside on massive signs, but otherwise, the difference they make to the road user is entirely hidden: the roads are still toll-free and they're still full of potholes. As far as I can tell, the main purpose of this kind of "privatisation", like with Network Rail, is as a quick way of fiddling the accounts on the national debt. The extra billions that these things inevitably end up costing taxpayers are apparently worth it for the extra tens of billions of borrowing being kept off the national books, so that George Osborne can appear to be on trajectory for his arbitrary debt reduction target.
I wouldn't worry too much about any implications for cyclists. England's trunk roads network is way beyond the stage where anybody would dare cycle on it. We're talking about motorways and motorways in all but name.
Where things might matter is with the prime-minister's suggestion that privatisation might allow large-scale road construction programmes to recommence, with the idea that companies who build new roads could collect tolls on them capturing the headlines. It would be a shame if this happened. The Tories should try to think back and remember why they abandoned that approach last time.
But do we actually have to worry about a return to large-scale motorway construction led by private investors? I not sure we do. Quite aside from the many reasons that forced the Tories to abandon that unpopular policy last time around, I can't imagine the private sector wanting to invest in a dying technology.
Local Transport Today reported this week that, despite private motor vehicle use in London being in near constant decline for thirteen years, the Department for Transport are standing by their prediction that in two decades time, traffic in London will be a whopping 43% above 2010 levels. Similar predictions are made for the rest of England, with 44% in the country as a whole. Given the exodus of young people from learning to drive, who do they think will be driving this traffic in the mid 2030s? What technology or fuel are they expecting to be an affordable means of powering all this traffic? Where do they think it's going to go? This is the city whose streets are famously "too narrow", whenever you propose giving some street space to something other than private motor traffic, but which apparently have room spare for 43% more of that.
Look at it. Just look at it.
What purpose could such absurd and crudely fantastical forecasts of traffic growth and confident rejections of the idea that motoring has peaked and is passing have? Is it perhaps meant to be the prediction in a predict-and-provide programme? Or is it less a prediction and more an ambition, for this greenest-ever-government? Are they pining for The Great Car Economy?
It's true that car use fell in tandem with the economy, but if we want to stop the plummeting economy, we have to come to terms with the fact that both falls are merely symptoms of the fact that the cheap fuel that powered both cars and economy is a thing of the past. The lines on that graph simply aren't possible these days.
Whatever. I can't see private investors having such confidence in roads as a growth market that's worth putting their money in. Unless someone can give them plausible answers to the questions like "by the time the road is built, who will want to drive on it?" and "how will they power their vehicles, and how will they be able to afford that?", I'm not sure they're going to want to take the risk on a the basis of a made up graph.
This quite aside from experience with the M6 Toll Road, whose operating income still doesn't, and didn't even during the economic boom times, come close to paying off the annual interest on its construction costs, despite attempts by the road's owners to encourage new development around its junctions. Turns out that, despite their moaning, most people are quite happy to sit in traffic jams on the old roads if it saves a few quid on the toll.
But there is potentially another reason why Cameron might want to offload our motorways, beyond fiddling the national debt or encouraging new construction. The old Severn Bridge is falling down. The Scots are spending £790 million replacing the Forth Road Bridge (though nearby infrastructure projects suggest that the final bill might end up at £7.9 billion). Who knows how much the emergency repairs to the Hammersmith Flyover will end up costing London? The main motorway and trunk road construction boom began in the late 1950s, and a big chunk of engineering is about to reach the end of its design life, corroded and crumbled by rock salt, ice and billions of truck movements. What if privatising the motorways is just preparation by central government for distancing themselves from the difficult decisions of whether to repair, replace or abandon our collapsing concrete highways in the sky?
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on March 21, 2012 August 6, 2012 Tags coalition government, david cameron, highways agency, motorways, privatisation, road building, the end of oil, trunk roads8 Comments on Privatising roads might be silly, but does it really matter?
Why the Scottish budget matters
So Glasgow has been building what are (by our very low British expectations) pretty good cycle routes. Far from perfect, but a league above the usual crap cycle lanes. And in the Highlands, routes (primarily recreational) suitable for pootling families and hardcore tourers alike are taking shape. But this progress is under threat from cuts proposed in the budget bill that is currently going through the Scottish Parliament.
The Caledonia Way between Oban and Glencoe is not yet complete (and Sustrans never did get back to me regarding the status of funding for the final third), and patchy bits of a route like this is barely better than nothing: if you were put off by the fifty kilometres of main road, you'll probably still be put off by the remaining fifteen. Nice to have for the 1% who were already cycling, but no use for growing that 1%. And by ending at Glencoe the route currently misses the trick of linking two railway towns, Oban and Fort William, 20km beyond Glencoe up the A82 trunk road. There is little sign of activity on there, or anywhere else on the Campbeltown to Inverness route, outside of the Oban to Glencoe section.
Glasgow's routes are also currently incomplete, though somewhat safer as beneficiaries of the Connect2 project — a £50 million National Lottery grant awarded to Sustrans after a public vote (who says the public isn't interested in funding cycling?). However, Connect2 is a one-off project that will only fund these few routes, and whether to move to the next level — from routes to the network, which the Dutch experiments of 30 years ago demonstrated to be where the really big gains can be made — will be a decision for Scottish politicians.
And politicians in the SNP administration now intend to cut their support for cycling — support that is already mediocre compared to that of the National Lottery, and embarrassing compared to the continent. The budget for "active travel" — cycling and walking — is to be cut from "pocket money" last year to "spare change" next year. At a protest in Edinburgh last month the transport minister in the Scottish government, Keith Brown, tried to blame the Westminster Treasury, who have forced a cut to the overall budget for Scotland. The crowd showed remarkable restraint in the face of such blatant dishonesty. Everybody there already knew that, despite Westminster's cuts, Scotland's transport budget is to rise, with additional spending on motorways and other old fashioned road widening projects on a scale that will dwarf the active travel budget.
How Scotland chooses to spend money on transport is obviously important to its residents. Glasgow especially feels the problems of car centric planning and car dependency greater than most of the UK. The city occupies unfortunate positions in league tables of health and deprivation, and while some would like to pin all of Glasgow's health problems on personal failings involving Buckfast and deep-fried Mars bars, we know that a crucial factor in our health is the environment in which we live and extent to which it allows us to live healthily. For several decades the environment in Glasgow has been one in which choosing to walk or cycle has been made unattractive and difficult, and in which those who do make the choice will spend their travel time stewing in the fumes that drift off the motorways.
That's not to say that everybody chooses to sit behind the wheel instead. Like the rest of the UK, a lot of people simply don't have that choice — though you might be surprised to hear it given the reluctance of our media and politicians to acknowledge the existence of people who have never been able to afford to own cars. In fact more than half of Glasgow households are car free — one of the highest rates in the EU. A lot of those households are therefore denied many of the economic, educational and cultural opportunities that arise in this world built for drivers, at the same time as having to deal with all of the consequences of the motorways that thunder through their neighbourhoods. Glasgow's transport environment has been propping up inequality as well as ill health, and the new budget proposes extending the out-dated policies that created that environment.
In a time of austerity and struggling economic recovery, what Britain generally, but Glasgow especially, desperately needs is a cheap, easy and egalitarian means for people to access economic opportunities, not more motorways on which those who can still afford it can burn wealth in the form of oil.
But how Scotland spends its money on transport is important to all of us, even if we don't plan on using Scotland's transport, and for the same reason that the outcome of the upcoming election in London matters to the whole UK. Devolution of power over transport planning and investment enables the sort of radical new policy directions and innovations that transport secretaries at Westminster have been unable to achieve in decades. In Scotland, the previous Labour administration used that power to make some notable reversals of the Beeching Axe. In London, Ken Livingstone used it to introduce the Congestion Charge, with its associated improvements to buses, ticketing and streets. In Wales, a cycling bill is in the current legislative schedule, and it looks likely (though details are not yet available) that if passed this would introduce new responsibilities and tougher standards for Welsh local authorities to provide for bicycle journeys, and may make changes to the law where the law currently stands in the way of quality provision.
The devolved administrations get to invest, experiment and innovate in a way that doesn't happen in the rest of the country. But the rest of the country will follow eventually, when the solutions are no longer experimental or worryingly innovative. These administrations are the trend setters, so when they choose to squander their opportunities on old fashioned motorways instead of the transport we need in the 21st century, the whole country is waiting behind them doing the same.
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on February 2, 2012 February 2, 2012 Tags budget, cycling, devolution, equality, glasgow, health, road building, scotland1 Comment on Why the Scottish budget matters
Big roads, crap cycling and bendy buses in the Development Pool
While London's attention is turned to Blackfriars Bridge, those blissfully unaffected by the bumbling buffoon Boris* might like to take a look at the 45 proposals that councils around England have submitted to the DfT's Development Pool in the hope of being picked for a share of the current £630 million available for local transport projects.
Heads of council transport departments and engineering consultancies have dusted off the bypasses, relief roads, distributors and links that they have been drawing and re-drawing, submitting and resubmitting for funding for fifty years.
Look at your local area in the Development Pool and you'll find them all there. They'll be called something like "town centre improvement", "bus rapid transit", or "cycle route enhancement and congestion relief package."
Things like the Weston-super-Mare package, which will provide better bus services and enhanced cycle routes, by, erm, widening town centre roads and ensuring that they have substandard and probably unusable shared pavements alongside.
Of the Cross Airfield Link Road, proposed to open a large brownfield site to light industrial and retail developments,** the Weston package says:
The approval is for a single carriageway road 2.4km in length, four roundabout junctions and parallel shared-use foot and cycle ways. The proposed road is 7.3m wide single carriageway. A 3.0m wide segregated shared pedestrian and cycleway will be provided along the northern side of the new road with a 3.0m footway along its southern edge. Both the cycleway and the footway will be segregated from the carriageway by 5.0m verges which are to be planted with trees to create a boulevard along the road's length. The scheme design includes Toucan crossings in strategic locations.
This sort of stuff should be illegal — I mean that, actually legislated against. Proposing a shared pavement as a transport route in a built-up area should mean automatic rejection from the Pool, pending a suitable revised design. Three metres should be the bare minimum width requirement for a two-way dedicated cycle track on busy roads like these, where large trucks are expected, and even then the council/agency should have to provide a very good explanation for why a 4.0m track or a pair of 2.5m unidirectional tracks would be unreasonable. Weston are proposing to spend our money on a future facility of the month, and that should be against the law.
There is a pattern to the Development Pool proposals. Another Westcountry project is the "South Bristol Link". It's a Bus Rapid Transit route, and definitely not the South Bristol Link Road, the extension to Bristol's southern bypass that the council has been drawing and re-drawing, submitting and re-submitting for funding since the sixties. It just happens to be a road, and to follow the route of the South Bristol Link Road. But it has bus lanes, which makes this a Bus Rapid Transit project, and definitely not the same old bypass. Bristol has grown since the road was first proposed, but the route was set aside, leaving a strip of undeveloped land surrounded by housing. Here's the artist's impression of the Bus Rapid Transit system:
Look at that lovely 3.0m shared pavement — in this case divided into equal shares of 1.5m footway and 1.5m bidirectional cycle track. Doesn't it look so inviting, riding against traffic, alongside the car parking bays, in a space barely wide enough for one bicycle. One bicycle is presumably all that the council are expecting: there is no provision for two bicycles travelling in opposite directions, or travelling in the same direction at different speeds. The council will no doubt seek a solution to that problem if and when it ever arises.
It's a classic British road mockup. Hide all the cars and clutter and put unnaturally large pedestrians and cyclists in the foreground. The road would be carrying thousands of vehicles per day, swelling with induced demand, but here it's all free flowing, and just a single homeowner parks a car in their neat free parking bay, gift from the council. Perhaps all the other cars are parked in the city centre because neither a 1.5m bicycle track nor a bendy bus to an edge-of-town park and ride interchange are attractive methods of getting to work?
A 1.5 metre bicycle track will be of no use to anybody. The parking bays will, if you let them, fill with second and third cars, and spill out over the drop kerbs and green spaces. Within a few years the city will discover, to everybody's surprise, I'm sure, that there is limited demand for a bus between suburban housing and an edge-of-town park and ride interchange, and the bus lanes will quietly be turned into general traffic lanes.
I'm really quite embarrassed for Bristol, having praised them for exceeding our (low) British expectations on Redcliffe Bridge. Seriously, what the fuck, Bristol? "The country's premier national and international showcase for promoting cycling as a safe, healthy and practical alternative to the private car for commuting, education and leisure journeys." Bristol's "cycling city" status clearly hasn't really sunk in for the highways engineers, who plainly have no experience of cycling or how to provide for it, but who confidently give it a go anyway having read something once in an instruction book.
The city council are cutting hundreds of jobs, and I think I've spotted where a few of them of them could go.
While cutting those jobs, the city is seeking £43 million for this bypass Bus Rapid Transit line. I think the Cycling City team could use the money far more profitably, retrofitting the city's existing big roads with wide, fast, direct, prioritised, attractive tracks, and could never support Bristol throwing the money away on the South Bristol Link. But even for an urban road project, and even leaving aside the contemptible crap cycle facilities, this is an especially bad scheme. The one potential benefit of a bypass is to have a designated road on which to push traffic from city streets. But to capture that benefit you have to reclaim those city streets immediately — make it unattractive to drive on them for anything other than essential property access and loading — otherwise people will just find new ways to fill the old streets with more ridiculous car journeys. With a southern bypass Bristol could close ratruns through the southern suburbs; take back space on the main southern arterial roads — the A38 through Bedminster, for example — for the pedestrians and cyclists who spend more money in the shops along them; it could even close some more of the inner ring road. Bristol failed to capture those benefits when it previously built big bypass roads, on the northern and eastern fringes, and it would fail to capture any potential benefits of a southern bypass, proposing to make it a little bit less attractive to drive only on a couple of residential streets and a country lane:
Take a look at your local schemes on the map. There are potentially worthwhile projects in the pool too, like rail upgrades and even reversing railway closures. More has been written about the bids by Sian Berry and George Monbiot. The DfT are soliciting comments on development.pool@dft.gsi.gov.uk, deadline TOMORROW, Friday — though I'm not sure why, and whether anybody will ever read them.
* but we're all affected, sadly, due to London's unfortunate influence over the nation.
** it's actually one of the least indefensible of the new roads, and one of the least bad sites for such developments, being on brownfield located alongside a railway and within walking and cycling distance of the town's population and railway stations. I'm sure they will fail to make good use of all that potential, but it's still progress over road-only out-of-town greenfield sprawl.
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on October 13, 2011 August 6, 2012 Tags bristol, bus rapid transit, buses, closing roads, crap cycleways, cycling cities, cycling infrastructure, department for transport, development pool, induced demand, road building, shared-use, south bristol link road, westcountry, weston-super-mare11 Comments on Big roads, crap cycling and bendy buses in the Development Pool
Weymouth: on the right track, and the road to nowhere
It's always sad to see a town's residents asking for a bypass, citing the fact that their town centre is choked with traffic. Here's some traffic heading south out of Dorchester, county town of Dorset, about to cross over the 1980s bypass and onto the main road to the seaside resort of Weymouth, six miles and a big chalk hill away. It's as much traffic, or more, as there was before the bypass was built.* Continue reading "Weymouth: on the right track, and the road to nowhere"
Author Joe DunckleyPosted on September 16, 2011 August 15, 2012 Tags cycle tracks, cycling, cycling infrastructure, dorchester, dorset, infrastructure safaris, national cycle network, road building, westcountry, weymouth7 Comments on Weymouth: on the right track, and the road to nowhere