AGRICULTURAL ALCOHOL IN GERMANY. 9 
ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL ASSOCIATION. 
-In 1899 there was organized the Society of German Distillers for 
the Disposal of Alcohol (Verwertungsband deutscher Spiritusfab- 
_rikanten), which included not only practically all of the agricultural 
distilleries, but the most important of the city distilleries and refiners 
as well. The members of this new organization entered upon a pre- 
liminary contract for nine years with the Central Association for the 
' Disposal of Alcohol (Zentrale fiir Spiritusverwerthung), which also 
was a new corporation, with limited liabilities, to which belonged 
‘almost all the rectifiers of alcohol. The members of the Distillers’ 
Society (Verwertungsverband) pledged themselves to turn over to 
the Central Association for the purpose of disposal all of the alco- 
hol manufactured by them. The Central Association in turn prom- 
ised to dispose of the alcohol in the best manner possible, for a cer- 
tain compensation which the members received primarily for the 
rectification of the alcohol thus obtained. The essential feature of 
the new cooperative organization was that the cooperating agricul- 
_ tural distillers would receive the full year’s value for their product 
and that fluctuations in the price would no longer result exclusively 
- to the benefit of the dealers. 
On September 15, 1899, the new cooperative arrangement went 
into force. A limitation of the production of alcohol by contract was 
not contemplated. The peculiar nature of the agricultural distilla- 
tion industry (Brennereigewerbe) did not lend itself readily to such 
a limitation. Besides, the position of those distillers who remained 
_ outside of the arrangement would have been strengthened, since these 
distillers would not have been subject to such a limitation. It there- 
fore became apparent from the very beginning that the Society of 
Distillers would soon have to face the disposal of large quantities of 
alcohol, and that this disposal could not be sought in an increase of 
the amount of spirit used for drinking purposes. 
The future of the distilling industry, therefore, lay first of all in 
the increased use of alcohol for technical purposes, and especially for 
_ those purposes to which petroleum was applied. The Central Asso- 
ciation from the very beginning of its organization regarded the 
increase in this demand as its prime object. <A special department, 
the technical section of the Central Association (technische Ab- 
teilung der Zentrale fiir Spiritusverwerthung), was created, having 
manifold duties. It was to test existing apparatus which had been 
constructed for developing heat, light, and power from alcohol; to 
establish stores in which such apparatus might be offered for sale to 
the public; to start a literary campaign for the application of alcohol 
to household needs; to send outfits to exhibitions; and to organize a 
retail trade in denatured alcohol, thus assuring the public that the 
74027 °—Bull. 182—15 2 
