Evening star., 1925-06-07
LIGHT VINES AND BEER WILL NOT
RETURN, WOMAN DRY HEAD SAYS
Mrs. Agnes b. Stallings
Leads Var against ,
Beverages.
Sees Great Progress in
Wiping Out Illicit
Beverages

Light wines and beer will never
return to this country, according to
| Mrs. Agnes B. Stallings, who for five
years has been head of this division
| II the prohibition unit. Too much
| progress toward wiping them out has
| )een made TO allow for any return,
! ihe says.
Since prohibition has been in effect
the United States the fate of those
handling light wines and beer has
| been in the hands of Mrs. Stallings.
While the manufacture of light wines
has caused little trouble, beer has pre-
sented a difficult and sometimes baf-
ding problem.
An earnest worker is Mrs. Stallings,
| and one who was practically brought
up in the fight for prohibition. Long
before the prohibition amendment was
passed-in fact, in the days when it
was only a very remote possibility
Mrs. Mary Huther, the mother of
Mrs. StallingS, was one of the best
known Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union workers in the country.
1t was in Texas that the Huther
family lived and Mrs. Stallings got
her first experience in prohibition
work in the Lone Star State. She was
in the Department of Internal Reve
nue., in the light wine division, when
the passing of the prohibition amend
ment made a special department nee
essary.
Heads Division.
She inherited the beer division also
and brought her legal experience to
the prohibition unit and was made
head of the light wine and beer divi-
sion.
Although the plants involved are
still spoken of as breweries, they are
H. 1l,y hot n CT n -
it would give some of the older gen
Grafton who for years enjoyed their
quota of beer, 10 hear 1t called cereal
beverage" That is it's legal name
now and the plants are no longer
legally breweries. Some Of the brew
ers, however, do not like the idea of
cereal beverages--that is, anything
with one-half of one per cent kick
and in going over this stipulated per-
centage, they run afoul of Mrs. Stall
ings.
Many obstacles have confronted
this particular department during the
five years of prohibition" says Mrs.
Stallings "One of the greatest of
these has been the attitude Of the
public toward the manufacturers OF
beer Many persons who would not
think of countenancing the activities
of bootlegger, condone the brewer.
They do not realize that ne Is just as
great "a violator OF the law as the man
who illegally makes liquors"
In reviewing the activities of her
department during the past five years,
Mrs. Stallings points out the fact that
in 1919 the prohibition unit acquired
through the passage of the eighteenth
amendment, some 1,141 dealcoholiZing
plants. These plants had an output
of 1885, ,o00, 900 gallons of beer yearly.
Only $50 of the plants went into
other industries. The rest chose to
struggle along. get what return they
could from the capital invested. and
interpret the law to their best advan-
tage. Some of the brewers, con-
fronted with the opportunity to make
fortunes in Illegal beer traffic, con-
tinued to make and sell beer which
contained more than the legal per-
centage of kick.
Force Was New.
THE prohibition unit at this time
had a force new and unframed" says
Mrs. Stallings, with few regulations
and no court decisions defining the
meaning of the act"
During the first year perhaps some