LIQUOR: Dividends to Drink

Some 2,800 stockholders in two lately obscure U.S. corporations are about to be inundated with 255,000 bbl. of rye and Kentucky bourbon. That is 12,240,000 gal., or 48,960,000 quarts, or 61,200,000 fifths of Christmas cheer. The cheer:

To save excess-profits taxes, Baltimore’s small Tom Moore Distillery last week declared a dividend of 27 gal. of bourbon whiskey for every one of its 17,500 shares.

New York’s American Distilling Co., now busy with “buna and bombs,” this week announced it would sell all of its 245,000 bbl. of bourbon and rye to its stockholders at cost (around $30 a bbl.). Two days before, OPA had hit American with a $7,500,000 ceiling violation suit.

The stockmarket, already on a liquor spree (TIME, Nov. 8), promptly went through the roof. In New York, American Distilling opened the week at 100, 25 points above last week’s close and up 85 points from the year’s low. In Baltimore Tom Moore hit a high of $200 v. its $27 1943 low. But before the ordinary stockholder can drink his dividends, he must pay State and Federal taxes, have the bulk liquor shipped around to bottlers, labelers, wholesalers and retailers (who are entitled to the regular 33⅓% markup).

Even at that, the cost (estimated at more than $7 a gal., excluding personal income taxes and nervous breakdowns) would be a good deal less than the price of any old Paregoric at retail today—if any could be found. For the thirsty the news was all bad: the two hoards were among the last in the country that the whiskey-pinching Big Four distillers have not already snapped up.