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Abroad, the effect has been even more striking.

The ink was hardly dry on the printed law and the hearings in the committees in Congress before they were found in the possession of the authorities of several European countries. England, handicapped by the necessity of importing corn and molasses from which to manufacture spirits, promptly transferred the expenses of supervision from the consumer to the Government, reduced the quantity of denaturant required for ordinary methylation from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, and provided that in future all denatured alcohol, however used, and all pure alcohol authorized to be used free of tax in any art or manufacture should draw from the treasury an allowance equal to that paid on the exportation of plain British spirits. This is in effect a bounty of from 6 to 10 cents per gallon, and the price of denatured alcohol will be reduced accordingly.

In April, 1906, denatured alcohol was selling at wholesale in Berlin at 25.21 cents per gallon.

The practice in Germany has been to make allotments of quantity to be made by each farm distillery. This is called the contingent. On all made in excess of this, no abatement of the consumption tax was allowed. Since August the limit on production has been removed and the trade papers have quoted plain alcohol at Hamburg, without the package, at 14 cents per gallon, for August, September, and October.

One of the largest locomobile and motor works of Germany has been issuing a trade circular which states that "the Central Syndicate of the Alcohol Manufacturer's Interests in Germany with letter dated Berlin, July 23, 1906, have announced that commencing October 1, 1906, the price of 90 per cent motor alcohol (completely denatured) will be reduced to 20 marks per hectoliter."

This is equivalent to 18 cents per gallon.

In view of all these facts, your committee recommend the passage of H. R. 24816 with sundry amendments, as a needed supplement to the denatured alcohol law of June 7, 1906.

Annexed hereto is copy of bill as reported.

[H. R. 24816, Fifty-ninth Congress, second session.]

A BILL To amend an act entitled "An act for the withdrawal from bond tax free of domestic alcohol when rendered unfit for beverage or liquid medicinal uses by mixture with suitable denaturing materials," approved June seventh, nineteen hundred and six. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That notwithstanding anything contained in the act entitled "An act for the withdrawal from bond tax free of domestic alcohol when rendered unfit for beverage or liquid medicinal uses by mixture with suitable denaturing materials," approved June seventh, nineteen hundred and six, domestic alcohol when suitably denatured may be withdrawn from bond without the payment of internal-revenue tax and used in the manufacture of ether and chloroform and other definite chemical substances where said alcohol is changed into some other chemical substance and does not appear in the finished product as alcohol.

SEC. 2. That the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may authorize the establishment of central denaturing bonded warehouses, other than those at distilleries, to which alcohol of the required proof may be transferred from distilleries or distillery bonded warehouses without the payment of internal-revenue tax, and in which such alcohol may be stored and denatured. The establishment, operation, and custody of such warehouses shall be under such regulations and upon the execution of such bonds as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may prescribe.

SEC. 3. That alcohol of the required proof may be drawn off, for denaturation only, from receiving cisterns in the cistern room of any distillery for transfer by pipes direct to any denaturing bonded warehouse on the distillery premises or to closed metal storage tanks situated in the distillery bonded warehouse, or from such storage tanks to any denaturing bonded warehouse on the distillery premises, and denatured alcohol may also be transported from the denaturing bonded warehouse, in such manner and by means of such packages, tanks, or tank cars, and on the execution of such bonds, and under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may prescribe. And further, alcohol to be denatured may be withdrawn without the payment of internal-revenue tax from the distillery bonded warehouse for shipment to central denaturing plants in such packages, tanks, and tank cars, under such regulations, and on the execution of such bonds as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 4. That at distilleries producing alcohol from any substance whatever for denaturation only, and having a daily spirit-producing capacity of not exceed ing one hundred proof gallons, the use of cisterns or tanks of such size and construction as may be deemed expedient may be permitted in lieu of distillery bonded warehouses, and the production, storage, the manner and process of denaturing on the distillery premises the alcohol produced, and transportation of such alcohol, and the operation of such distilleries shall be upon the execu tion of such bonds and under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, may prescribe, and such distilleries may by such regulations be exempted from such provisions of the existing laws relating to distilleries as may be deemed expedient by said officials.

SEC. 5. That the provisions of this act shall take effect on September first, nineteen hundred and seven.

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2d Session.

No. 7099.

CHANGES IN THE POSTAL LAWS.

JANUARY 31, 1907.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. OVERSTREET, of Indiana, from the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 10095.]

The Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 10095) making certain changes in the postal laws, as follows: "That from and after thirty days from the final passage of this act when, in addition to the stamps required to transmit any letter or package of first-class mail matter through the mails, there shall be attached to the envelope or covering ten cents' worth of ordinary stamps of any denomination, with the words 'Special delivery' written or printed on the envelope or covering, the said packge shall be handled, transmitted, and delivered in all respects as though it bore a regulation special-delivery' stamp," reports the same to the House of Representatives with the recommendation that the bill pass with the following amendment:

In line 9, after the word "covering," insert " under such regulations as the Postmaster-General may prescribe."

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59TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session.

TITLES TO CERTAIN LANDS IN TEXAS.

January 31, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed.

Mr. HENRY, of Texas, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 24466.]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred House bill No. 24466, have had the same under consideration and recommend the passage of same with the following amendments:

In line 9, on page 3, strike out the word "Thursday" and insert "Tuesday."

On page 4 strike out all after the word "obtained," in line 5.

The facts which authorize the passage of this bill are presented in a communication to this committee by Hon. H. M. Hoyt, Acting Attorney-General, and by a report of Examiner Leigh Chalmers and United States District Attorney J. E. McComb, which follow:

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, January 26, 1907.

SIR: Replying to your favor of the 19th instant, inclosing copy of bill H. R. 24466, for such recommendation or suggestion as I may see fit to make, I have the honor to submit the following:

On December 11, 1873, in case No. 1037, in the United States circuit court for the western district of Texas, the United States recovered a judgment against William T. Scott et al., sureties on an official bond of Davis B. Bonfoey as collector of internal revenue for the fourth district of Texas. An alias pluries execution was issued on June 10, 1878. A levy thereunder was made on September 5, 1878, on 57 sections of 640 acres each, aggregating 36,680 acres of land in Tom Green, Mitchell, Atascosa, and Concho counties, Tex., as the property of William T. Scott, and on the first Tuesday (not Thursday, as stated in H. R. 24466) in October, 1878, 52 sections, aggregating 33,280 acres. were sold and bid in for the United States at from 15 to 26 cents per acre, being an aggregate of $8,176, which sum was credited on the execution; and on December 9, 1878, the said land was conveyed to the United States by S. H. Russell, United States marshal.

Since its conveyance to the United States the land has been in charge of the office of the Solicitor of the Treasury, under section 3750, United States Revised Statutes.

The five sections levied on as above, but which were not bid in for or conveyed to the United States, are covered by patents 58, 116, 117, 152, and 330.

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