Resurrection

Centuries ago the dead were sometimes resurrected. Last week U. S. businessmen, inexperienced in resurrection, were trying to forecast the nature of a dead industry about to be brought to life. Millions of dollars of profits depended on correctly gauging the size, the requirements, the effect upon their own concerns of the resurrected brewing industry. Basic criterion, to be modified by current conditions, were facts about the beer industry before it died thirteen years ago:

P: It brewed 60 million 31-gallon barrels of beer a year.

P: It employed (1914) 77-300 people in brewing and malting, about 16,000 makers of barrels, bottles, caps, labels, etc.. etc.

P: It consumed (1914-1916 average) about: 42,000,000 Ib. of hops; 60,000,000 bu. of barley; 18,000,000 bu. of corn. C. It had invested (1914) about 42,000,000 in plant and equipment.

A large part of this old equipment has been scrapped, is obsolete, ruined by time and neglect or converted to other uses. Last year only 2,700,000 barrels of 1/2% beer were sold. The Treasury in planning on beer taxes estimated the production capacity of the U. S. today at 20 to 30 million barrels in a year. On the assumption that 30 million barrels of beer will be made in the next twelve months, the requirements of the brewing industry in labor and raw materials ought to be about half what it was formerly:

P: 38,000 employes in brewing and malting, less about 7,000 now so employed or a net increase of 31,000 in employment.

P: 21,000,000 Ib. of hops* (80% of the 1932 crop), 30,000,000 bu. of barley/- (10% of the 1932 crop) and 10,000 bu. of corn (about 1/3% of the 1932 crop). But home brew, illegal brew, and 1/2% beer is already using part of these amounts. About 6,000,000 Ib. of hops were used for other than brewing in pre-Prohibition days. Assuming that this amount still holds, then the beer business may be said to be already operating at about 45% of its pre-Prohibition capacity. If it is going to operate at 50% the demand for raw materials for brewing should increase only about 10% over last year: 2,000,000 Ib. more hops, 3,000,000 bu. more barley, 800,000 bu. more corn. Hardly a pinch in a peck of U. S. grain production. The big new grain consumption will come only after beer production exceeds 30,000,000 bbl. a year.

But no statisticians last week could throw cold water on the fact that an $800,000,000 industry will have to be largely rebuilt. While increased grain consumption may lag till the beer business gets back into stride, during that time the rebuilding and re-equipment business is going to be at its best. Last week F. W. Dodge Corp., trusted reporters on the building trades, set forth that $58,000,000 will be spent on breweries during the next four months in 37 States east of the Rockies, probably $65,000,000 in the nation.

This is for building and remodeling. George J. Meyer Manufacturing Co. of Cudahy, Wis., last week had on its books $1,360,000 of unfilled orders for bottling machinery and George J. Meyer himself wrote out and mailed a $5,000 check to the Democratic National Committee congratulating it because "at least one political party kept its pre-election campaign promise." Lumber prices in Chicago were reported up 10% to 20% on requirements for beer barrels and cases for bottled beer. All cooperage factories, like bottle factories, were last week running at capacity.

Liquid Carbonic Corp., makers of brewing machinery, estimated that 5,000 carloads of machinery would be required.

General American Tank Car Corp. last week announced contracts to furnish refrigerator cars to Schlitz, Pabst. Blatz, Miller (Milwaukee). Schoenhofen and Prima (Chicago), Goetz (St. Joseph, Mo.): had already reconditioned 500 of its 20,000 refrigerator cars for beer and expected to need 2,000 for the beer trade (in pre-Prohibition days Milwaukee shipped 43,000 carloads of beer a year). General Tank likewise laid plans for special tank cars similar to 300 once used to ship California wine.

The outlay for beer trucks was estimated to reach $12,000,000, affecting many automobile accessory makers including the makers of storage batteries since many beer trucks will probably be electric.

Brewers were last week picking advertising agents, planning advertising campaigns. National appropriations were estimated at $15,000,000 to $20,000,000.

Makers of cork and other forms of heat insulation were receiving orders for insulation of brewery vats. General Motors announced that the Frigidaire plants at Dayton had jumped from three-to six-day-a-week production, had in the last month spent $1,100,000 for new plant equipment. Reason: daily production of 300 units for cooling draft beer and new home refrigerators with space for a full case of beer.

These items enter into the rehabilitation of the beer manufacturing industry but do not include large secondary effects from beer retailing. Hotels and restaurants have reason to expect increased income with beer sales. Other drinking places must be built and remodelled. All must have new equipment. Items for which demand was last week reported high:

Beer glasses and mugs, mirrors, linen, uniforms for barkeeps and barmaids, cabinet work including paneling for bars, murals, mosaic and composition floorings; also sausage, pretzels, pickles.

The Beerage. If there had been an Almanach de Gotha of beer, its publishers after a 13-year lapse might hardly know how to start again, so many have been the changes. Yet the publishers would certainly know where to begin: with B for the Busches of Budweiser, unquestionably the foremost house of the beerage, a house which one year produced 1,650,000 barrels,* an alltime record. Adolphus, the founder of the Busch line, was the hearty offshoot of a wealthy Busch family of Mainz on the Rhine. He arrived in the U. S. in 1857, aged 15, served in the Union Army, married Lily, the daughter of Eberhard Anheuser who had a brewery in St. Louis, went into partnership with his father-in-law and built up the greatest beer business in the U. S. In March 1911, he celebrated his golden wedding in his sunken gardens in Pasadena. (He had other estates near St. Louis, near New York, in Germany.) To his wife, Lily, who had given him seven children (two sons, five daughters) he gave a gold crown set with diamonds & pearls, worth $200,000. Two years later on one of his frequent visits to Germany the Grand Duke of Hesse gave him the cordon of the Order of Philip the Magnanimous in recognition of his hearty German goodness. Ten days later he died of dropsy at "Villa Lily" in Langenschwal-bach on the hills above Wiesbaden.

Adolphus' son August lived on through much more trying times, lived through the war-hatred of Germans, through the threats of Prohibition (to counteract which he put out Bevo, near-beer that sold well in Dry States until Prohibition actually arrived and 'legging began), through Prohibition itself with the necessity of trying to make money out of near-beer, malt syrup, and back to Repeal. Meantime he has carried on the Busch tradition of generosity (generosity is made of rubber: one of his servants died in 1929 and left him $19,000). Somewhat high-eyebrowed by some of St. Louis' more snobbish socialites, the Busches never got into the St. Louis Country Club, but started their own Bridle Spur Hunt Club which developed a swankier waiting list. August's son. August Jr. is vice president of the company but August himself is still the sidewhiskered patriarch of U. S. beer, hurling to the last his verbal thunderbolts at Prohibition. While Missouri had the greatest brewery of the U. S., New York produced more than twice as much beer as any other state. The Hell Gate Brewery of George Ehret was going strong before Busch rose, the greatest brewery in America. Ehret was very scientific. His Franziskaner was famous. In 1912 he was offered $40,000,000 for his business, but he could not see bottled beer--would not produce it--and he fell behind Busch. Then came the war which caught him (like Frau Lily ) in Germany. He did not get back until 1918 and although a U. S. citizen had to fight to get his brewery back from the U. S. Government which had seized it. A fine, mustachioed, barrel-chested brewer of the old school, although he had three sons, he kept the reins of power. He could nob believe that Prohibition would ever come, was aghast when it did, believed it would soon end and struggled on making less & less near-beer. He died in 1926, aged 92, much saddened, but he left his heirs a rich heritage in real estate acquired in the beer business. His only surviving son, Louis, the youngest, is in the real estate business, but has made preparations for re-entering the beer business. Unlike August Busch, however, he seems hardly likely to be a big figure in the new beer industry.

The other great New York brewer was and is Jacob Ruppert. His Grandfather Franz had a brewery in Manhattan in 1850; his father, the elder Jake, learned brewing from the time he was ten and started a separate brewery of his own. The younger Jake was also brought up in the brewery, became one of the dandies of New York, a stalwart of Tammany (eight years in Congress), was made Colonel by New York's Governor. Father & son worked hand in hand. They had a house on Fifth Avenue. In 1913 they built themselves a brand-new 2,000,000-bbl. brewery; they grew to rival Ehret's. Both were good joiners and their popularity made sales. The elder Jake never lived to see Prohibition. He died in 1916. Colonel Jake just before his father's death acquired the New York Yankees which continued to bring in the money after beer ceased flowing. He is still one of the heartiest bachelors in New York, a lover of boxing. He plans to serve his beer at the Yankee Stadium when the baseball season opens April 12.

Greatest beer city by reason of its fame was Milwaukee, and great was the beerage thereof--but 13 years have taken their toll. The Pabsts like the Busches stood by to let Prohibition pass. Fred Pabst turned to cheese, ginger ale. near beer, pop. While he was doing so a chemist, Harris Perlstein. in Chicago picked up an old brewery and started to make malt syrup in a bigger and more profitable way than the ex-brewers. "Blue Ribbon" was Pabst's beer and Perlstein took '"Blue Ribbon'' for his syrup. Pabst sued and lost, but long enmity was not engendered. Last autumn efficient Mr. Perlstein bought control of Pabst (TIME, Nov. 14), became president of Premier-Pabst. Fred Pabst and four of his six sons are still in the business.

As for Blatz, the Blatzes have long since left it (for a time it belonged to a British syndicate). It is controlled by Edward Landsberg who in two or three decades has made his way up from the bottom of the beer business, a very capable, round, red-faced, white-haired man with a cigar in his face, president of both Blatz in Milwaukee and United States Brewing in Chicago.

Schlitz still belongs to the Uihleins (Joseph Schlitz. the founder, adopted the late August Uihlein who made Schlitz great), belongs in fact to 17 Uihlein heirs. Three potent Uihlein brothers (Joseph, Robert, Erwin) still sit in the office managing their many interests, but in actual charge of brewery is its Secretary & Treasurer Sol E. Abrams. Joe Uihlein has fine furniture and Gobelin tapestries, likes to make speeches on Gaul, the History of Cavour or the Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire. At one time he built an elaborate candy plant "Eline's"* to compete with Hershey. It was not a great success, was said to have swallowed $15,000,000--an amount said also to have been more than compensated for by profits in A. 0. Smith Corp. (steel products).

Fourth great Milwaukee brewery is Miller, of which Fred Miller is president, with the management in the hands of stocky, black-headed W. H. Kraft whose father has been for many years brewmaster, whose brother is chemist of the firm.

*Grown principally on the Pacific Coast and in upper New York State. /-The best brewing barley is grown mostly in Iowa. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, California. *Only a little over 2% of U. S. production. Beer like ice is mostly a local product, though it can be shipped far & wide as Budweiser was. *Phonetic spelling of his last name.

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