The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1921-05-20
BEER BY PRESCRIPTION
philadelphia North American)

only be found to separate the cause
of mild health-giving brews from
that OF strong spirits and wines, over
whelming public sentiment would
rally to their aid and Congress would
swiftly relieve beer from unjust con
demnation
1t Is probably true that ii the brew
ing interest twenty-five years ago,
when the intensive fight for Prohib-
ton began, had had the foresight and
the desire to renounce their alliance
with the distillers and their profitable
partnership with speakeasies and vice
dives, their business would have
gained better character and total
prohibition OF the beer traffic might
have been postponed for consider
able time. But in the blindness OF
greed they made common cause with
the other booze interests and with
elements OF lawlessness, and when
they tried to draw apart it was too
late.
Now, however, the boon OF square
fight on their own ground, for which
they have longed, is theirs Thf
Anti-Saloon League, instead OF stand
ing upon the real intent OF the Vol
stead Act and seeking ruling in ac-
cord with its spirit, has decided to
put up to Congress the direct issue
raised for the brewers by the Palmer
ruling. The Prohibition forces will
make clean-cut fight against beer
without involving i'll the controversy
other kinds of booze.
We might reveal to the beer advo-
Gates the gloomy prospects of their
cause by showing that the present
Congress is even stronger for Pro
hibition than the last incidentally
it was elected after the troops re-
turned from Europe; instead OF TAX
ing dire revenge against Prohibition
as the liquor forces had predicted
they would, the soldiers helped to
elect the driest Congress in the his
tory of the United States.) But leav-
ing this aside, let us cite some OF the
facts the brewers and their friends
must meet.
Beer has never been recognized as
a medicine. 1t has no such status in
law, science or tradition. 1t is not
listed at all in the United States
Pharmacopoeia, the standard author
ity in the science OF medicine, nor is
its use advocated in any text book
generally accepted by the medical
profession.
The laws OF thirty-eight states pro-
hibit the prescribing of beer as med
icine; of these, Ohio adopted such a
measure after the Palmer ruling was
announced. Up to the time OF that
ruling. the prescribing of beer was
unlawful in every part of the coun-
try, and his action affected only
eleven states, one OF which has al
ready closed the gap.
II there are any giving viz
tues i'll beer, they reside in that which
contains the lawful alcoholic content
OF less than one-half of | per cent
and which can be obtained without
prescription. We have impressive
authority for this statement = the
brewers themselves. Advertising a
"near-beer" which he manufactures
under the same trademark name as
his former real beer, Christian Feig-
enspan, president of the United States
Brewers Association, solemnly de-
clares: TESTS have shown that its
taste and bodybuilding qualities re
main unchanged"
But it is insisted that there is a
tremendous demand for the legaliza-
ton of beer, the real "old stuff as q
medicine. Whence does the urging
come? Not from the sickroom or the
hospital. certainly. During the ifteer
months of Prohibition prior to the
Palmer ruling beer could not be pre-.
scribed anywhere in the United
States, and even since that ruling the
prescribing of it has been unlawful il
SO states. Yet there has been no out
cry from undernourished sufferers, nc
piteous petitions from invalids fol-
life-giving bottled suds. 1t require:
no very discriminating ear to decide