Ethyl alcohol is second in importance as a chemical solvent; first is water.
Ethyl alcohol is an essential material in the manufacture of artificial leather and all other products in which ethyl acetate is used—such as celluloid, waterproofing materials etc.
Ethyl alcohol is also used in large quantities in the manufacture of artificial silk, more of which is annually produced and consumed in the United States than natural silk.
The alcohol which is used in automobile radiators to prevent freezing is 90 per cent ethyl alcohol with 10 per cent methanol (wood alcohol) added as a denaturant.
The dye industry, the perfume and flavoring extract industries use tremendous quantities of ethyl alcohol.
The total capitalization of manufacturing concerns which require ethyl alcohol as an essential raw material for their operations in the aggregate is well over one billion dollars.
In the formation of the prohibition enforcement organization of the government, those persons most active in obtaining the ratification of the eighteenth amendment and in framing the passage of the National Prohibition Act and the Volstead Act, were consulted and assumed charge of the drawing up of rules for the enforcement of the law.
For more than two years chemical industries using large quantities of alcohol have complained that the enforcement regulations hampered them seriously in their work and imposed unfair and unnecessary burdens upon them.
The prohibition enforcement officers and officials of the Anti-Saloon League replied to such charges by saying that the protesting industries were guilty to a large extent of violating the law. A large number of “wholesale drug houses” sprung up and under the industrial alcohol rulings were enabled to get alcohol for diversion to beverage purposes.
In efforts to prevent the manufacture by illegal methods and distribution for illegal purposes, the just suffered along with the unjust.
The result was a total lack of sympathy between the industrialists and the prohibition commissioner and his workers. The industrialists were, at first, poorly organized. A little later they formed groups and raised funds to protest against the interference with their legitimate uses of alcohol.
For the last year they have been exerting pressure upon he
