The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1921-06-03


the laws SO that we could not manu-
facture even the pure, healthful soft
drinks that we are now permitted to
manufacture under the Voistead act.
"As matter of business, we have
filed an application for a permit to
manufacture beer for medicinal pur-
poses. For ii the sale of beer for
medicine is permitted, we shall, of
course, meet competition and supply
the demand for tbis article. We re-
alize that if the goods should be
found in the possession of those not
lawfully authorized to sell them we
probably will be criticized, even
though we had used every reasonable
precaution to prevent illegal sales.
Purely Question of Law En-
forcement
Until the adoption OF the Eight
zenith Amendment we fought Prohi-
bition with every lawful resource at
our command. If the issue here be-
fore this committee was one of Pro-
hibition or anti-Prohibition, we should
be here fighting Prohibition. because
we are opposed to Prohibition as a
principle. But, the question before
you is not question of Prohibition
or anti Prohibition. 1t is a question
of whether the law, as it was decreed
by the law-making authorities of the
American nation, shall be fairly and
honestly enforced or be trampled
under foot. Therefore, we stand here
on the side of law enforcement, be-
cause that has been the policy OF our
firm from time immemorial.
However, if this Congress, in its
wisdom and conscientious judgment,
cannot or will not do this (restore
beverage beer), then it is incumbent
upon you to make the Prohibition
laws SO stringent that you can go
home and say to your constituents
that, as they had elected you to make
this nation bone dry, you have given
them what they asked for. Eliminate
every makeshift Remove every sub
terfuge. Destroy illicit distilling.
Make the law mean what the people
intended it should mean Then let us
fairly try it, and if the majority of
the people say they like it. continue it.
If majority is opposed to it, liber-
alize, amend or repeal j.
"Our Beverages Better for the Sick
Than Beer"
"We deny that there is any enier-
gency demand for beer for the sick.
The cereal beverages manufactured
by AnheuserBus in strict compli-
ance with the law, contain 20 per cent
more of the. soluble substances of the
ingredients from which they are
manufactured than the average good
beer brewed in the United States. IF
BEER IS GOOD FOR THE SICK
OUR CEREAL BEVERAGES ARE
BETTER. And, moreover, we have
been for rs years manufacturing a
malt-tonic that contains approximat-
ely IS per cent of malt solids, and it
is ever 50 much better as a medicinal
product than any beer that was ever
THERE IS, THERE
FORE, NO EXCUSE FOR THE
SALE OF BEER FOR MEDICI-
NAL PURPOSES. If the patient
needs alcohol, the physician can pre-
scribe it, If he needs merely tonic,
he can get that without the alcohol.
ALL THIS CAN BE DONE AND
THE DIGNITY AND SANCTITY
OF OUR, LAWS PRESERVED.
Our position, reduced to single
phrase, is simply this: We must
either be brewers of beer and be per-
mitted to sell enough of it to support
our institution, or we must be manu-
facturers of cereal beverages and not
have to compete with unlawful beer.
We cannot do both. What is true as
to Anheuser-B Busch also applies to all
other law-abiding manufacturers. We
know that if beer can be prescribed
as medicine the country will be so
flooded with unlawful sale of it that
cereal beverages made under the Vol
stead act cannot compete with medic
inal beer.
Beer for All or Beer for None
Il am reminded that a very dis
American statesman,
whose memory is now revered
throughout the civilized world, once
voiced the sentiment that this nation
could not exist half slave and half
free. Ii | might be permitted to
the language of the i'm
mortal Lincoln, should say: This
nation ought not to be, in the sense
| mean, half wet and half dry. When
we live under National Prohibition
enforcement law, it should be either
all wet or entirely dry. The farcical
that now exist, and which
would be a thousand times worse UNI