New-York tribune., 1920-03-08
Assembly Bill
Legalizes Beer
And 1O% Wine
$50 Brew. Provided For
IN Measure That Would
Restrict Hours of Sale
and Eliminate the Saloon
Colonel Cillett Is Patron
Former Army Man Asserts
Drinkables as Defined
We're Tested by A. E. F.
rre.. a stat correspondens


ALBANY, March Another "wet"
III, will make its appearance to-mor-
-.w when Colonel Ransom H. Gillett,
representing Columbia County in the
Assembly, introduces a measure per-
hitting the manufacture and sale of
beer and light wines.
Colonel Gillett, who is a Repub~
,;.sn. and saw service in France, de-
elares that his bill, which limits the
slcoholic content of beer to 331 per
;s designed after the regulations re-
sneetinS the sale of beers and light
zines adopted by the American Ex-
dictionary Force in France.
The sale of the beer and wine is
regulated by the State Excise Depart
ment which is continued in power by
the measure, and Colonel Gillett esti-
mates that the yield from licenses will
net the state s6,000,0o0 annually.
Aim Is Temperance"
cit is the underlying intention of
the measure to educate the radical,
unreasonable liquor interests on the
one hand and the radical, fanatical
prohibition interests on the other to
temperance" explained Colonel Gil
lett.
The measures eliminates the saloon
by providing that the consumption Of
beer and wine outside the home be
limited to bona fde restaurants.
The local option feature of the old
liquof tax law is preserved.
The bill defines wines containing 10
per cent of alcohol per volume as non-
intoxicating. and also defines beers and
ales containing 8 u per cent or less.
The restaurant is defined as a room
feet Of floor space, with seating
capacity for at least forty persons, and
these restaurants must be equipped
with kitchen facilities sufficient to pro-
vide meals to all who apply at any
time the restaurant is open
Hours of Sale Limited
The sale OF wines and beers is lin
tied to the hours between in the
morning and II at night, except on
Sundays, when the hours are from
noon to 8 in the evening. The bill
provides that in no case may beer or
wine be sold over bar.
Colonel Gillett declared that all the
light wine and beer bills introduced to
date attacked the problem in the wrong
direction.
"The Eighteenth Amendment is an
accomplished fact, and all good citizens
must conform to it," said Colonel Gill
lett. II believe the language of the
amendment read in connection with
Article 10 OF the Federal Constitution
reserves to the state the power to
enact appropriate legislation to carry
the terms of the Eighteenth Amend
ment into effect.
"All are agreed that the Volstead act
is unenforceable. The best proof Of
that is that Mr.. Roper, the man who
tried to enforce it with all the power
Of the government behind him. found
1t impossible to do so and resigned.
1.-THE Federal authorities attempted
to enforce some provisions of the Vol
stead law in Michigan and had to re-
cede from their position.
Since the Volstead act went into
effect an exception had to be made to
cover foreign vessels in United States
ports, thereby creating a discrimina-
tion, which left very bad impress
sion upon the whole country. Consid-
erlng all these things, figure that the
most reasonable way to treat it was as
It was treated in the army.
we drank lots of light wine and
peer IN France without any i'll effects,
ana, IN fact, with very beneficial
sHects. | know that light wine and
peer, with the alcoholic contents pre-
scflDed IN this bill, are not intoxicat-
ing, because | have tried it.
from these and many other consid-
sslatlons, 1t seemed to me about time to
formulate some legislation which would
noI be IN the interests of any political
parry any organization, whether a
aquor dealers organization or an anti
saloon organization