Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-09-18

| Washington, D. c., Sept. 15.-It now
appears that when J. Barleycorn is Of
ficially pronounced dead by the national
coroner next January, he will leave two
poor, weak country cousins to mourn
him and to comfort his friends, insofar
as they are able.
| These survivors of the lusty old trou-
bic maker are officially known as non
Intoxicating cider and wine. 1t is, of
course widely rumored that other and
more powerful descendants Of the Jim
| Jam king will really be about in hiding
after that date, and that the internal
revenue office will play an exciting game
of hide dseek with them throughout
the rest of this republics troubled his
tory. But they will be llegitimates-
! outlaws with prices on their heads
| Not SO with on-intoxicating cider and
wine. These two sweet and innocent
bucolics have been officially spared to
| us by the mercy of the United States
senate. The house wanted to hand them
| along with the demon himself, but the
senate decreed that they should live, and
the conference committee of the house
and senate, which now is working on the
! prohibition enforcement bill, will prob
ably not cancel their reprieve 1t is
said that even the prohibitionists them
selves have been moved to pity, and
will not oppose the continued existence
of the non Intoxicating twins.
There are some who claim that these
little known infants Of the spirit world
nave great potentialities. The senate is
tight in holding that it is not against the
law to make these two beverages. be-
cause when made they are nothing but
pure fruit juice, and no more alcoholic
than spring water. You can't pinch a
man for squeezing the juice out of an
apple, can you? Certainly not, And
supposng. after he has squeezed it out,
he sets it in a cool place and leaves it
alone. Surely, there is nothing wrong
in that. But in the said cool place, ex-
posed to air and the laws Of nature, these
two sweet innoeents will develop like a
bad boy away from home for the first
time. They will inevitably acquire small
but refreshing percentages of alcoholic
content And after they have developed
these said percentages, you can't take
them away from the man who careiessly
left them about in an uncovered condi-
tion, for he has a perfect right to possess
alcoholic beverages in his own home. So
there you are.
These two little strangers have seldom
been seen in our cities, but they have
been known and loved by the country
people for a couple of hundred years.
Not only cider. but wine of grapes, elder
berries, and a variety of other small
fruits have long been made in the rural
districts according to recipes OF great
age, some of which came over frora Eng
land. During this summer it was almost
impossible to buy any small fruits III
Maryland and Virginia near Washington,
because their juices were so highly val
uad And it is now suspected that some
Of these juices are moving cltyward.
If you have a good recipe for making
wines and cider you are perfectly safe
in passing it along to friend but YOU
must not supply friend with a recipe
for liquor. One section of the dry en-
foreement act provides that no person
shall solicit or receive from any person
any order fer liquor. or give information
Of how liquor may be obtained IN viola
ton Of this act.
This is considered dragnet to get
every person who in any way gives IN
formation as to the location Of liquor for
sale or the methods of making liquor
illegally. Under this provision, lawyers
hold, it would be illegal to give friend
or neighbor a recipe for making any
thing tabooed under the prohibition laws
Civil damage suits can be brought by
person injured by intoxicated per
sons" against any such person contrib
nting to such intoxication by selling
liquor or assisting in procuring i.
When the dry enforcement bill was
passed by the house an unsuccessful at
tempt was made to permit the manu-
facttIre Of cider and wine in the homes
The drys defeated the attempt but since
the senate decided in favor Of these mild
beverages it is understood that repre-
sentatives of the dry forces will not OPP
pose these concessions to the vets III
conference, where the bill is now being
considered.
The bill settles a moot question by
specifically stipulating that the enforce
ment Of prohibition is up to the com
missioner of internal revenue. his as
sistants agents and inspectors, and all
other officers of the United States whose
duty it is to enforce criminal laws.
70 enforce prohibition is big job.
and the commissioner of internal rev
enue knows it. He IS now busily en-