Viewing page 315 of 355

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image - black and white photograph of four men standing in front of building with sign "Jefferson Community Service Center"]
[[caption]] Representatives of National Distillers and McKesson Liquor Co., Buffalo, are shown outside the doorway of the Jefferson Community Service Center, where they presented a contribution to this renowned organization. Shown from left are John Rosinski, National Distillers Sales Representative in Buffalo; W. H. Barnum, Upstate New York Sales Manager, National Distillers; Herbert Bellamy, President, Jefferson Community Service Center; and Paul Liptak, Sales Manager, McKesson Liquor Co. [[/caption]]

[[image - black and white photograph of a woman wearing hooded leopard-print coat and a man in a black topcoat carrying a suitcase]]
[[caption]] Bill Wall, Ohio Sales Representative for National Distillers, won a week's vacation in Jamaica for distributing Old Crow Light American Whiskey in Ohio. [[/caption

WITH OUR NATION 

it was just a year later that the young U. S. Government, in need of income to retire its Revolutionary War Debt, imposed an excise tax on the domestic manufacture of spirits. There was violent opposition in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and especially in Western Pennsylvania where not only tax collectors, but law-abiding farmers paying their tax were given rough treatment by neighbors opposed to the bill.

By 1794, the issue had reached such proportions that President Washington authorized Alexander Hamilton to assemble the militia from four states to march into Western Pennsylvania, enforce the tax and supress what history records today as "The Whiskey Rebellion."

The rebellion—if one could call it that—turned out to be pretty much of a stalemate. A few stills were destroyed, a few farmers seized only later to be released.

Both sides benefited. The federalized militia from four states developed a taste for Pennsylvania whiskey, greatly expanding the market for American spirits. Farmer-distillers seeking to avoid involvement in the "rebellion" migrated down the Appalachians into Kentucky, and recognizing the quality of Bourbon—the new whiskey created by Reverend Elijah Craig, began to produce it in commercial quantities.

The Federal Government had enforced its right to collect taxes. The Farmer-distiller had established the right to protest unfair taxation. In 1802, the tax was repealed. In 1792, Kentucky was admitted to the Union and by 1811, 2,000 distilleries were operating in the state. Thus Bourbon became one of the earliest contributors to the industrialization of the country. The new distilleries provided markets for grain farmers, were large purchasers of lumber for fuel and supported a major cooperage industry.

In 1814, the excise tax on domestic liquor was revived to help finance the War of 1812. The Internal Revenue Bureau was established in 1862 to collect taxes on liquor and other commodities to help defray costs of the Civil War. The whiskey tax was twenty cents a proof gallon.

The tax went up to $1.50 a proof gallon in 1864. Then to $2 a proof gallon in 1865, only to be reduced to fifty cents in 1868 to combat widespread illegal distillation. It was in this year that a bonding period of one year was set up—the same year that General U. S. Grant was elected President. The federal excise tax on domestic liquors now is $10.50 per gallon and the bonding period has been extended to twenty years. The industry contends that this very high excise tax encourages the present widespread illegal distillation which some authorities claim amounts to over 20 million gallons per year.

Bonded whiskey is bottled under Federal Government supervision and is certified as 100-proof in alcoholic content and at least four years old at the time of the bottling. The father of bonded whiskey is Colonel Edmund H. Taylor, the distiller of Old Taylor, who originated the bonding idea and championed the Bottled-in-Bond Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Grover Cleveland in 1897. The green revenue stamp on a bottle of Bourbon indicates that the contents is Bottled-in-Bond whiskey.

[[image - black and white photograph of sculptress Inge Hardison standing with five of her Ingenious Americans busts]]
[[caption]] The Ingenious Americans Program sponsored by the Old Taylor Bourbon Company, has won many honors over the years. [[/caption]]
GREAT BLACK AMERICANS FEATURED BY OLD TAYLOR
One of the country's most widely acclaimed public relations programs is The Ingenious Americans Series sponsored by The Old Taylor Distilling Company. The series features a long list of great black Americans whose contributions to science, culture, industry and education have placed them in the top rank of leading American achievers.

The popularity of the Old Taylor Program is evidenced by the thousands of orders for the sculptured bronze busts of the Ingenious Americans which have been made availabl by the company. The busts are created by America's great black sculptress, Inge Hardison (above are sold at cost—$5.00 apiece—by the Old Taylor Company. The busts have proven so popular that it currentl ytakes eight weeks to obtain one. The company is making every effort to expand production facilities so as to produce them more rapidly but, since each is individually made, this has proven very difficult. John D. Lethbridge, vice president and marketing director for Old Taylor called it "a frustrating kind of success. All we can do," he said, "is ask our friends to be patient and promise them that the busts will reach them eventually."

This is the third year that the Ingenious Americans Programs has been featured in Old Taylor's newspaper and magazine advertising. They are also featured in two pocket-sized booklets which are available from the company without charge. To date, more than 300,000 of these booklets have been distributed. Requests for them come through trade channels, from independent individuals, educational institutions, civic, cultural, fraternal, social and religious organizations.

The Ingenious Americans Series has prompted imitations by other companies, imitations which the Old Taylor people welcome as contributing to the dissemination of accurate black history.

Among the great black Americans included in the Old Taylor series thus far are:
BENJAMIN BANNEKER. Without him the White House might not be on Pennsylvania Avenue. Banneker assumed responsibility of defining the boundaries of Washington and of designing and laying out its streets, after the chairman of a committee, appointed by President Washington to do the job, resigned and left the city with the plans. Banneker also built the first clock of wood made in America.
GARRETT A. MORGAN. It took a disaster of a tunnel explosion trapping over twenty men working 228 feet below Lake Erie to prove the effectiveness of his invention—the gas inhalator, or gas mask, as we know it today. He also invented the electrical traffic light.
GRANVILLE T. WOODS. His invention of a telegraph system enable moving trains to communicate with each other. He also patented over thirty-five electrical and mechanical inventions.
JAN MATZELIGER. His inovation of the lasting machine for mass production of shoes created thousands of new jobs for an operation which has been limited to a few craftsmen. The invention enabled the price of shoes to be cut in half and wages doubled.
ELIJAH J. McCOY. His invention of an automatic lubricator—a container with a tiny stopcock which regulated the continuous flow of oil on heavy machinery—eliminated the need to stop the work of these machines for lubricating purposes. In time, people inspecting new machines would ask, "Is it the real McCoy?" His name has become part of our language, and his inventions (over fifty) are part of our lives.
ANDREW J. BEARD. Maiming or amputation of the right arm of workers having to drop a coupling pin to join railroad cars was halted by his invention of the "Jenny Coupler," an automatic device which did the work.
MATTHEW A. HENSON. (Bottom row, center, above) The first man to set foot on the North Pole. He was a member of Lt. Robert E. Peary's renowned arctic expedition and was able to calculate the course to the Pole when Peary became exhausted and crippled from frostbit.
DR. DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS. (Bottom row, right abov) Founder of President Hospital in Chicago, developer of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D. C., and creator of its school of nursing, is best known as the first surgeon in America to operate successfully on the heart.
NORBERT RILLIEUX. (Top row, right, above.) All of our lives have been made sweeter as a result of his development of the process that turned sugarcane juice into a finer grade of sugar at about one-half the cost current in the early 1840.'s.
CHARLES RICHARD DEW. (Top row, left above.) He found a way to save lives by creating a method of storing blood plasma by type for blood transfusions.
LEWIS LATIME. (Bottom row, left, above.) From his improvement of an impractical in candescent lamp invented by Thomas Edison, the world today has the electric light.

315