The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1923-12-28

poses after becoming intoxicat-
ing.
(c) If intended for
immediate beverage use or if in
gar, such cider and fruit juices
need not be sterilized and sealed,
or otherwise preserved, but after
becoming Intoxicating such cider
or fruit juices should not be used
for beverage purposes.
The home brew and beer which you
champion is a beverage and is not a
practical method, by the natural pro-
cess of fermentation, for the domestic
manufacture of vinegar. 1t is an in
toxicating beverage. There is no way
! by which it can be legalized as a bev-
erage under the Constitution. Your
inability to appreciate, or your wiful
disregard OF the difference between
cider and fruit juices which are the
! incipicnt stage of vinegar, and home
brew, which is used as a beverage,
does not commend you as safe
mentor of constitutional nterpreta-
ton.
! The opinion you request concerning
the Interpretation of the law on the
maximum alcoholic content permitted
in fruit juices is before the court be-
fore whose bar you are to appear as
defendant in an action brought by the
government to abate an alleged
nuisance at your. residence. 1t is suf-
fcient for this controversy to reply
that | Los per cent wine that you are
reported as making in your home is
Intoxicating and is clear, plain,
palpable violation OF the Eighteenth
Amendment and the National Prohibi-
ton Act Courts take Judicial notice
that per cent beer is Intoxicating
ll68 per cent wine is three times as
Intoxicating as the average prewar
beer. us per cent beer will intox-
cate many people, as the sworn testi-
money of many scientists proved be-
fore the Judiciary Committee when the
prohibition act was being considered.
Alcoholic liquors affect people diff
ferently, varying according to age,
nervous temperament, federation to the
use of alcohol, and many other con-
ditions For these and other good
reasons, the legislatures of the states
and the overwhelming majority OF
Congress decided that the only safe
method was to put the alcoholic con-
tent so far below what is actually in
toxicating for the average person that
the law could not be successfully
evaded. If there is any appreciable
amount OF alcohol i'll the liquor, the
scheming, lawless, commercialized
traffic will try by selling increased
amounts to individuals, or by other
devices, to defeat the purpose of the
law. The standard OF one-half of one
per cent i'll the nationl prohibition act,
applicable to commercial beverage,
was not put there because that
amount of alcohol could intoxicate but
because it was found to be necessary
to secure effective law enforcement.
AS long as more than two-thirds OF
the states maintain this one-half OF
one per cent standard on their own
initiative, Congress should not attempt
! to legalize what the overwhelming
majority of the states prohibit. When
majority of the states change this
standard to conform to the brewers
standard, then will be the appropriate
time for Congress to act on this ques-
ton.
We shall expect you, as you have
always done, to continue your in
effective efforts to discredit prohibi-
ton and its enforcement. On the
other hand, the overwhelming major
ity of the nation will continue to main
tain the prohibition laws that we have,
and strengthen them as rapidly as
necessity requires to meet the schemes
and devices discovered by the op-
ponents of prohibition, in an effort to
circumvent the Constitution.
Yours very truly,
Wayne B. Wheeler.