Evening star., 1925-09-10
CONGRESS TO SEE
"REAL- BEER" DRIVE
Brewing interests Behind
Plans Seeking Compromise
With Dry Forces.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Brewing interests of the United
States are preparing to launch the
most concerted drive for real beer
yet attempted since the enactment of
prohibition. They will concentrate on
an effort to legalize 212 per cent alco-
hohC content, which, while five times
the one-half per cent permitted by the
NolStead act, the brewers contend is
we'll below the Intoxicating point.
Meetings of representative brewers
took place in Washington in July, and
further meetings have been arranged.
The plans of the beer trade have been
familiar to the Anti-SalCon League of
America for some time. The attitude
of the national dry organization, while
mistrustful. is not irreconcilably hos
tile.
when workable plan for increas-
ing the alcoholic content of cereal
beverages has been devised" said
Wayne B. Wheeler. generalissimo of
the Anti-Saloon League. to this writer,
Congress and the dry forces of this
country will, of course. determine
whether it is a feasible plan. AS yet.
so far as l know, such a plan has not
yet been evolved "
Brewers Seek Modification
The principal brewing concerns of
the Union are behind this first con-
laws. They are proceeding on the
theory that prohibition will become
more 'palatable" in quarters where
it is now detied anad iagrantly vio-
lated. and that enforcement will be-
come COrreSpondingly easier. Spe-
officially, the brewers are ready to
niedge themselves that they will take
d hand in enforcement, as far as
beer is concerned, just as the owners
Of ,,.DE. ~,
nized allies of the prohibition authori-
ties in rigid control of that product.
With regard TO their proffer of aid,
General Wheeler says he is re
minded of the man who came home
from a poker party with tobacco
bespattered shirtfront. When up
braided by his wife for not turning
around to spit" he said, mot when
you're playing poker with that gang"
The brewery people are under no
Illusions as to the barriers that con-
front them in Congress. They have
Just learned that the dry forces have
counted noses and consider the Sixty
ninth Congress, to assemble in De
cember. materially more prohibition
iSt in sentiment than it's predecessor.
There are said to be at least 10 more
'drys" in the new House and at least
more "dryS" in the new Senate
the specific issue of higher voltage"
beer, Congress will have before it the
findings of the special committee,
headed by Representative Grant NJ.
Hudson Republican, of Michigan.
which has just been looking into "A
per cent beer in Canada. Wayne B.
Wheeler accompanied the Hudson
committee on his mission of inquiry.
He asserts that 95 per cent of the evi-
al y4ElC m he off hlf
"A beer has distinctly failed to quench
the thirst of Canadians who long for
liquor of higher alcoholic content. and
has complicated. rather than solved,
the prohibition problem.
Give Three Arguments
Advocates of 212 per cent beer pre-
sent three major arguments. They
say, first, that under the present sys-
tenn it costs too much to make one.
half of l per cent beer. They have
to dealCoholize it after il is brewed
by the usual process and this makes
il too expensive to sell as a soft drink
In the second place, it is claimed that
in boiling out the alcohol from cereal
beverage the latters palatability is
lost and the drink becomes insipid,
like boiled water. Thirdly, it is con-
tended that the brewers who are
cheating and making stronger beer
than the law allows are getting all
the trade, leaving honest brewers to
hold the sack, because they cannot
compete with the intoxicating stuff
that is being produced Illegally.
The impending effort to increase
the alcoholic content of beer" SAYS
Mr.. Whee er, 'is on all fours with
repeated attempts by the distilling
and brewing forces to approach the
Anti-Saloon League with compromise
plans. When the eighteenth amend