Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1920-11-26
Further and Fairing Worse.

The Tunng tnat matt ana nops, De-
cause they are constituent parts Of
beer, are to be withdrawn from gen
eral commerce under a forced, con-
struction or the Volstead act, aside
from the impossible situation it pre-
cipitates, draws fresh attention to a
curious result of all prohibitory leg
islation, when it is drastic, invariably
operates to encourage the consump-
ton of strong or distilled liquors
with high percentage of alcohol,
like whiskey and brandy, and to make
impossible the manufacture and con-
sumption Of low per centage and less
harmful beverages like beer. Any
man who owns a teakettle can take
a pint Of corn meal and a given
amount Of water and in few hours
distill enough alcohol to make the
whole neighborhood lousy drunk, and
even the government of the United
States cannot muster sufficient force
TO stop the violators. 1t would re-
quire a spy in every home in the
land, unless king corn is withdrawn
from commerce in turn Ia course not
likely, even though there were
drunk on every corner) and these
violations on an extensive scale will
continue. They will increase and the
consumption of strong and poisonous
liquors of the kind now converting
the cities of the United States into
murder pens grow in proportion to
the restrictions on home brewing,
which has become so general as to
ruin the sale of commercial malt
products practically of non-alcholic
content. Distilled liquors are small
in bulk Ia quart of home-distilled
raw alcohol will produce double the
intoxicati0n possible in a case Of
beer, with none of the neutrahzing
food constituents the latter contains)
and as a result can be bootlegged
with much less chance of detection.
1t is chemically compounded liquors,
made from home-distilled alcohol.
along with home-brewed beer of high
alcoholic content, that is responsible
for the fresh outbreak of drunken
ness and crime throughout the coun-
try.
1t makes the men and women who
drink it crazy. The fact remains that
the soberest period in the country's
history was in the year 1888,
when, owing to wartime restrictions
only 2.75 per cent beer was sold.
Strangely enough, the drinkers them
selves were satisfied with it, it was
practically Misunderstanding, and as a
result the alcoholic wards in all the
big hospitals of the country were
closed. Now all are open again treat
ing thousands Of cases monthly, and
the doctors, placing the blame on inn
pure liquors, report alcoholic poison
ing much more acute. In reality
PTS per cent beer was and still is
the solution to the problem of enforc-
ing what appears to be an ulen-
forceable law, and Of reducing the
consumption Of deadly distilled Ii
duors to a minimum. Making he ul-
ira dry enthusiast see It is too diff
ficult a task-he demands the appear
ance even though the fact itself be
lacking. It is a curious situation in
deed. The ruling on malt and hops,
coming as it does close on the heels
Of the supreme court decision releas-
ing 46,OOO,OOO gallons of whiskey
furnishes an even greater paradox
10 far as promoting abstinence is
concerned. In effect 1t cornpels the
drinker Of the lighter beverage to be-
come an addict Of strong distilled h
quors that wreck him in body and
mind This was far from the intent
of'tha AnneFican people h v0tiny pro-
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