STATES & CITIES: New Machines

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Only dissatisfaction among the delegates was that the machinery was merely being oiled instead of put to use at once. When the question rose of how to get each state to chip in its "Stenographer's salary." up bounced State Senator Ralph Gilbert of Kentucky. Said he: "Gentlemen, I am a busy man. I didn't want to come to this meeting because I was so busy at home. We've had a lot of fine talk here about cooperation, but high sounding phrases aren't enough. I can get $5,000 from my legislature if I can show them what it will do for them. I have on my hands the immediate problem of the whiskey tax. The distillers threaten to move to Indiana and Illinois if we levy even a 5¢ tax. I heard the same threat at the meeting of the Indiana legislature last fall. Will the gentlemen from Indiana and Illinois meet with me on this problem right now?"

That noon at luncheon twelve representatives of the three states got down to brass tacks on whiskey taxes.