48o  Alcohol:  Its  Relation  to  Science,  Etc.     { ^"^^  ^°juiy^^92o: 
Internal  Revenue  Bureau.  Mr.  Kramer,  the  Prohibition  Com- 
missioner, is  discharging  his  duties  with  an  intelligence,  an  impar- 
tiality and  a  resourcefulness  that  have  already  inspired  the  con- 
fidence of  every  one  who  has  had  dealings  with  him.  In  Deputy 
Commissioner  Gaylord,  we  have  one  of  the  most  experienced,  far- 
sighted  and  progressive  men  in  the  entire  Government  service. 
Mr.  Gaylord  is  an  expert  not  only  in  Internal  Revenue  Law  and 
regulations  and  in  the  administration  of  statutes  requiring  tact  as 
well  as  skill,  but  he  is  probably  the  best-informed  man  in  the  In- 
ternal Revenue  Bureau  with  regard  to  the  industrial  position  of 
alcohol.  His  technical  knowledge  and  his  keen  appreciation  of  the 
necessity  for  administering  the  Prohibition  Law  in  such  a.  way  as 
to  minimize  the  restrictions  and  annoyances  imposed  upon  manu- 
facturers who  are  obliged  to  use  alcohol,  render  him  not  only  an 
exceedingly  useful  aid  to  Commissioner  Kramer,  but  an  official  who 
can  be  counted  upon  at  all  times  to  give  the  fullest  possible  considera- 
tion to  legitimate  interests  while  executing  this  difficult  statute  in 
accordance  with  its  spirit  as  well  as  its  letter. 
That  there  is  much  room  for  improvement  in  the  present  code 
of  regulations  the  officials  of  the  Prohibition  Unit  will  be  the  first 
to  concede.  The  present  code  of  rules  was  framed  to  cover  un- 
charted ground.  There  were  no  precedents  for  supervision  of  the 
character  and  extent  required  by  the  Volstead  Act,  and  much  that 
has  been  done  will  doubtless  be  undone;  nevertheless,  the  regula- 
tions as  a  whole  have  thus  far  disclosed  as  few  faults  as  have  been 
developed  in  the  case  of  any  similar  code  which  the  Government  has 
heretofore  adopted  under  any  other  statute,  and  it  has  already  been 
demonstrated  that  the  officials  feel  no  pride  of  authorship,  but  stand 
ready  to  modify  any  regulation  when  it  can  be  shown  that  it  can 
be  improved  in  any  important  respect  without  sacrificing  the  validity 
of  the  statute. 
The  present  method  of  obtaining  alcohol  upon  permits,  known  as 
Form  1 410,  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  It  is  clumsy  and  costly  and 
its  use  frequently  involves  indefinite  delay.  It  does  not  adequately 
protect  the  Government,  but  discriminates  in  favor  of  unprincipled 
persons  seeking  to  exploit  the  statute  and  against  the  honest,  con- 
scientious manufacturer  or  dealer. 
I  recently  had  the  honor  to  be  chairman  of  a  committee  repre- 
senting the  drug  and  allied  trades,  which  after  extended  conferences 
with  representatives  of  all  branches  of  our  industries  recommended 
