Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-21
WATSON ASSA|LS
A|VT|-DEER BILL
The Atlanta Journal News Bureau,
623 Riggs Building.
BY THEODORE TILLER

WASHINGTON, July 2O.-In az
bitter a speech as the senate has
heard on the prohibition question,
Senator Tom Watson, of Georgia,
Tuesday afternoon assailed the Anti
Beer bill and drastic prohibition leg
islation which congress has adopted.
That these sumptuary laws have
caused the death of thousands of per-,
sons who have drunk poisonous
whiskies. and made alleged criminals
out of respectable men whose habits
have bee ninterfered with by legis-
Iation was among the statements
made by the Georgia senator.
The anti-beer bill, he said, was a
reflection on an honorable profess
sion-that of medicine.
"Such legislation as this" shout
ed Senator Watson, would penalize
the habits of Moses, the great law
giver, it would penalize the habits of
great and triumphant race, the
Jews. 1t would penalize the habits
of Jesus Christ who took wine at the
Vast supper.
"You may think by act of congress
you can make man different from
whst God made him. but you can't
10 - whether you IRE from Mime
sofa or South Dakota (referring to
Volstead and Sterling, authors of the
t.err bills).
Il don't drink whisky myself, 1
don't drink even wine now, 1 am on
the water wagon, but when you tell
a physician BE cannot prescribe beer
and can prescribe only a little blt
of whisky for his patient you are
going too FAR. y Such laws as this
have caused wood alcohol and other
poisons 70 go into alleged WHISKY
they have caused the death of men
all over this country and will con-
tinue to do so. They have caused
honorable men to become technical
violators of the law.
ct wrote the first anti-saloon plank
ever put into a political platform
south of the Mason and Dixon line.
don't drink whisky myself but when
it comes to debating to an honorable
profession what it shall prescribe Tor
patients we are oVerstepplng all
tics trying to tell us how to eat or
dress. In the last few years. this
mad rush Of prohibition Legislation
has been more dangerous than any
other form of legislation.
Senator Watson said that Abra-
ham Lincoln had sold whisky over
the bar when it was the custom to
do it. The Georgian said the anti-sa-
loon league was organized to drive
out the saloon and the saloon mas
gone. When the league attempts to
90 further than that, he said. it is
going beyond it's mission and former
prote stations. Seantor Watson re
scented the claim Of radical drys that
opponents of the beer bill were
whisky soaks."
What good would it do, WHISKY
soak" he asks to prescribe little
beer for him.
The Georgia senator also assailed
the so-called substitutes for WHISKY,
declaring that lemon extract, Jamaica
ginger, perfumery and other harm-
full fluids are now being consumed III
lieu of whisky.
Senator Watson said he has been
opposed to the saloon since ne was
fourteen years old when he was bap-
tized in SWeetwater creek In Geor-
gia.
bill would be passed within "a hours.
Senator Walsh, Montana, said that
the bill was entirely within the pro-
visions of the Eighteenth amend
ment. ,
Senator Edge, New Jersey, attack
ed the measure on the ground that
erich men can get all the liquor they
want while congress proposes 10
pass a measure to deprive the SICK
and helpless from medicinal stimu-
liant that may be necessary to save
human life"
Brewers are carrying on a propa-
eanda for medincal beer and wines
as an opening wedge for the return
of the saloons, Senator Nelson, of
Minnesota, charged. He defended
the restrictions on liquor prescr1p-
tions, saying that without them doc
tors would be writing prescriptions
for old soaks from morning to
night"