TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13094, 20 April 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Commission appointMysteries ed recently at Home to enof quire into the desirability Whisky, of placing restrictions

upon the materials and processes used in tho manufacture of whisky, is eliciting some remarkably evidence from revenue and other exr perts. The Chief Inspector of Excise says that whisky advertised as the products malt may. have an origin different from that imagined by the consumer. In addition to malt and unmalted grain (including maize, barley, oats, rye, and wheat), distillers use rice, molasses, glucose, sugar, sago, tapioca, and bran. In Scotland, 58 -per cent, of the whisky produced is made from malt, and the remainder from unmalted grain and other stuffs. In Ireland, the proportion of malt whisky is 31 per cent., tyid in England about 25 per cent. There is no restriction as to the materials which may be used, so long as the product passes the specific, gravity test of the exciseman.* -• Thero are regulations governing the blending and manipulation after manufacture of whisky intended for home consumption, but in whisky intended for export, the distiller may exercise an unfettered fancy. Large profits are derived ;from blending, and according to one expert sham whiskies are made under . the; noses oi the -excise officers by flavouring "silent" spirit with certain essences. In some blends there is 96 -per cent, of patent still to 4 per cent, of pot still liquor. It was the question whether this patent still spirit could be called whisky that gave rise to the Commission. J}r. Murrell, a London specialist in the effect of alcohol and drugs, said pot still whisky was very valuable in certain cases, and was much superior to patent still whisky, for medicinal and general use. Patients who used patent still spirit derived no benefit from it, but there was immediate improvement on taking the product of the pot still. Whisky, he said, had largely superseded brandy in . both hospital and general practise. Good old brandy—the only kind that should be used— was almost unobtainable at a reasonable price. Mr Samuel, principal analyst at the Customs laboratory, found that whereas he could drink the strongest pot still whisky with impunity, patent still whisky gave him a headache and a tightness across the chest. His assistant was made so ill by the experiments- that he had to discontinue them for a week.

''Pessimists and cynics A Word cannot developthis counto try," remarked : Mr Pessimists. Hughes, Governor of

New York, in an address delivered on* the anniversary of Washington's birthday, and the American Press has echoed the .assertion with emphasis. Mr Hughes's speech

is interesting to everyone, for every country has its pessimists who sigh for the "good old times." Tho evils ono deplored should not, he said, blind them to the progress which had been made. He quoted from a letter of Washington to Benjamin Harrison in 1778 to show that the evils which discouraged reformers to-day had their counterparts even in those days of patriotic exaltation. "If I was called on to draw a picture of the times and of men," wrote Washington, "I should in one word say that idleness, dissipation, and extravagance seems to Jhave laid fast hold of most of them. That speculation—peculation—and an insatiable thirst for riches seems to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of every order of men." Commenting on this, one newspaper points out that a hundred years later Samuel Tilden declared that corruption pervaded the whole country, and everywhere wero violated public and private trusts. It is high time, remarks this paper, that Americans were taught that these times are not evil beyond all precedent. Mr Hughes went on to declare, that an intelligent comparison of to-day with the past showed that the country was morally sound. Making all allowance for the crimes of predatory wealth, for unwholesome speculation* and infidelity to trust, without ignoring any evil, the fact re-m-ained . that the business men of America were for the most part honest, represented the moral standards of the people, and were earnestly desirous

that corruption in.business should be stopped. "To distrust the future in this land of opportunity, of educational privileges so eagerly seized, of moral influences so widespread and effective, is to despair of humanity itself." Other Americans are saying the same thing in homelier language. The round dough-nut with a hole in the middle is taken as a symbol of the true 6tate of affairs. The doughnut represents America's resources and real progress; the hole represents financial depression and commercial immorality. "Keep your eye on> the doughnut, and never mind the hole," is the cry of the optimist.

Dr. Emil Reich has writ-

German ten an instructive little Ambitions, book called "Germany's

Swelled Head," in which he gives some extraordinary instances of the megalomania of the Pan-Ger-mans. There are some who claim for tlie Teutonic race every great achievement in art, science, and war. It is suggested, for instance, that the great painters of Italy, and, incredible though it may seem, Christ Himself, were of Teutonic origin. Dr. Reich assures us that such suggestions are seriously received by the educated public. A striking example of this profound belief in the overwhelming superiority of everything German is to be found in the recent proposal of. a German professor to Germanise France, Italy and Spain, by a 6y6tem of colonisation so simple, that it is strange no one has thought of it before. The Latin Taces are decaying, he says, and tho teeming population of the Fatherland has to find somo outlet. It is not worth whilo for Germans to seek room for national expansion in fardistant over-sea territories; let them take what is ready to their hand. "We must flood the oountrios of the Latin races with instalments of our own population. The result may be long in coming, but it will be inevitable, and I can quite fancy Paris and Brussels, even before France and Belgium aro annexed, speaking German." German is to be made the popular language, and German manners tho prevailing cii6tom, and when the Germans outnumber .the native population, by a swift coup they will seize tho towns, run up the__German colours, and a mighty "Hoch dor Kaiser" will assail the heavens from half Europe. Apparently the armies of these countries are negligible quantities. It is one of those delightful schemes which are produced by enthusiastic and academic minds, by the simple process of magnifying all the weak points in an adversary's armour, and ignoring all tho strong ones. But it furnishes important evidence of the trend of German ambitions. The professor is one of the prominent political writers in Central Germany, and men of his type exercise a profound influence on the thought of the country. And what the Pan-German thinks to-day, his countrymen are apt to think to-morrow.