MANUFACTURING: Patriotic Distillers

The U.S. liquor industry last week turned up as a helper in a critical sector of the munitions business. From 20,000,000 bushels of Government-owned surplus corn, the distillers will run off 40-50,000,000 gallons of ethyl alcohol within the next year.

The U.S. needs this alcohol. Each time a 16-inch naval gun is fired, 1,500 Ib. of smokeless powder, which took 60 gallons of alcohol to manufacture, is blasted into air and even a rifle shot blows up enough alcohol to make a cocktail. U.S. alcohol output is not geared to this kind of shooting. Regular producers like Commercial Solvents and U.S. Industrial Alcohol have nearly doubled their output since March, can go no further because of the shortages in copper and machine tools needed for new stills. Yet reserve stocks are only 5,000,000 gallons (three or four days’ supply) v. 32,919,000 gallons at war’s beginning. OPM expressed the shortage thus: 1941 output 200,000,000 gallons; demand 213,000,000 gallons.

But OPM made this forecast before the liquor industry stepped up. By making a few quick (and inexpensive) changes in their present stills, the distillers can convert the shortage into a surplus. This will cut whiskey production by only 12-15%, not enough to worry barflies (current liquor stocks could last for five years). The Government meanwhile rids itself of some near-useless, near-rotting corn. The transportation squeeze is helped a bit because most distilleries and powder plants are in the same area—Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia.

For this neat scheme all nosegays go to big, fast-moving, hard-punching Lewis Rosenstiel, tsar of the U.S. liquor industry, boss of No. 1 U.S. rectifier Schenley Distillers. In late 1938, dead-sure war was coming, Rosenstiel began bulwarking his company against war’s impact. He pow-wowed with all his executives, warned them hard times were on the way. Then he started barking orders like an Army sergeant, did not stop until he was sure Schenley was as shortage-proof as Rosenstiel could make it.

Rosenstiel did not stop there. War-wise, he wanted to find some defense work for his industry. Last summer, while distillers were still romping outside the defense corral, he put his ideas on paper, sent them to President Roosevelt, his good friend Treasury Secretary Morgenthau, his many distilling pals. Main points of the report: 1) by re-using containers (now restricted by law) the industry could save 500,000 oaken barrels, 700,000,000 bottles, 20,000,000 paperboard cases annually. 2) With the “thin slop” now thrown away, the industry could feed vitamin B2 to millions of cattle. 3) If needed, the industry could switch 75,000,000 of its 435,000,000-gallon capacity to industrial alcohol.

This week Lew Rosenstiel was bubbling over. Because his company has the biggest capacity (53,400,000 gallons) he will get the lion’s share of the new war business (formal contracts have not yet been signed). Moreover, the Treasury is considering his plan for re-use of beverage containers. Bellowed Rosenstiel: “In the last war, the distillers got shut down because they didn’t have the brains to look around the corner. But it will not happen again.”

Latest victim of priorities on scarce materials: fire-engine bells. Because “an ordinary siren will do the job,” OPM last week forbade bells (on new fire engines) for the duration.