•^Tiy^^9'2": }    Alcohol:  Its  Relation  to  Science,  Etc.  48 1 
to  the  Bureau  the  abandonment  of  Form  14 10  as  applied  to  all 
purchases  of  original  stamped  packages  of  alcohol,  and  the  substi- 
tution therefor  of  a  "floating"  permit  similar  to  that  used  successfully 
for  many  years  in  the  procurement  of  specially  denatured  alcohol. 
Such  a  permit  would  bear  upon  its  face  a  statement  of  the  maximum 
quantity  of  alcohol  which  the  holder  would  be  allowed  to  purchase 
during  a  ninety-day  period  under  his  outstanding  bond  and  could 
be  lodged  with  any  distiller  and  drawn  against  from  time  to  time, 
by  mail,  telegraph  or  telephone,  until  the  limit  of  the  bond  should 
be  exhausted.  The  distiller  or  dealer  making  shipment  on  this 
floating  permit  would  enter  the  amount  thereon  and  at  once  mail  a 
notice  of  the  shipment  to  the  Prohibition  Director  of  the  district  and 
to  the  Prohibition  Commissioner  in  Washington. 
Under  existing  conditions,  and  especially  because  of  the  scarcity 
of  alcohol,  it  is  difficult  to  procure  spirits  promptly  and  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  orders  on  Form  1410  have  to  be  returned  to  the 
holder  of  the  permit  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  quantity  ordered. 
Thus  vexatious  delays  occur  and  holders  of  permits  to  use  alcohol 
for  manufacturing  purposes  frequently  find  themselves  without  any 
of  this  very  necessary  material  at  hand.  The  existing  requirement 
that  all  the  copies  of  Form  1410,  of  which  a  large  number  are  re- 
quired each  month,  shall  be  sworn  to,  is,  of  course,  a  wholly  un- 
necessary expense,  for  if  a  manufacturer  holds  a  permit  no  further 
evidence  of  his  right  to  use  alcohol  should  be  required. 
The  importance  of  the  reform  that  would  be  effected  by  the 
substitution  of  a  single  floating  permit  for  the  numerous  copies  of 
Form  1 410,  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  at  the  time  of  the  recent 
conference  of  our  trade  committee  with  the  officials  of  the  Prohibi- 
tion Unit,  one  Prohibition  Director  was  being  called  upon  daily 
to  sign  12,000  individual  permits  to  purchase.  Relieved  of  this 
purely  clerical  work,  the  entire  supervisory  service  could  be  devoted 
to  the  investigation  of  applications  for  permits,  a  task  of  crying 
necessity  in  view  of  the  large  number  of  permits  perfunctorily  issued 
during  the  days  immediately  following  the  taking  effect  of  the 
Volstead  Act.  Many  unscrupulous  persons,  seeking  to  reap  a  harvest 
in  a  short  time  through  the  diversion  of  alcohol  and  other  intoxi- 
cating liquors  to  beverage  purposes,  procured  permits  which  they 
could  not  have  obtained  upon  full  investigation,  manufactured 
quantities  of  fake  medicine  or  toilet  articles  or  spurious  liquors,  and 
after  marketing  them  at  enormous  profits  decamped  for  parts  un- 
