Evening star., 1926-08-25
Official Liquor ''Poisoningg''
Subject of Bitter Argument

A new Volstead law tempest has
been aroused by the charge that. In
denaturing alcohol, for industrial pur-
poses, the Government has been in
Producing poison into the product.
Many editors denounce the practice
as wholesale poisoning of drinkers.
others believe the drinking public as
sumes the risk when warned in
| advance.
1.-The denaturing process" the New
York World explains, was innocently
enough employed at first to distin-
guish between industrial and potable
alcohol for purposes of taxation.
Nobody was poisoned, because 1t was
possible to buy taxed beer, wines,
| liquors and grain alcohol. Poisoning
alcohol now, when these things are
not legally obtainable, means poison
| ing people. The poisoning is admit
| ted the consequences are known" 4"
The Chattanooga Times declares "it
will be for the taxpayers and the
| friends of taxpayers to say whether
they approve that sort of way to i'm
pose a death sentence for a mere
statutory misdemeanor." The San
Francisco Bulletin comedies 1t is true
that 1.-The victims of poisoning would
he lawbreak kers,' but insists that "as
yet poisoning has not been ordered
as a legal punishment for violations
Of the Volstead law"
| "To pour good alcohol down a sewer
for fear somebody might get 1t and
drink It," says the Newark Evening
News, '1S spectacular and mainly un-
economic. A resort on the part of the
Government to wholesale poisoning
Of tho unWary drinker in order to
save prohibition goes beyond the
realm Of popular government into the
vagaries of a Caligula." The Hart
ford Times believes 1.-The Government
should rely on humane chemists and
not on executioners. There must be
some way to fix alcohol so that the
cost Of "'unfixing' will be prohibitive
and it's effect, when taken internally,
will be to create intense discomfort,
but not to blind or slay." The Spring
| field Union also declares that unless
they "can discover a. formula that
will so denature alcohol as to leave
it harmless and yet unsuitable for
conversion to beverage purposes, the
Government will hardly solve it's
problem Of freeing itself from the
responsibility Of poisoning that which
may be used in spite of the poison v
| "If, by accident. a Government stool
1
| son-liquor victim." suggests the Oma.
ha World Herald, "he may be written
| down as a martyr to the cause"
! On the other hand, IF people will
| violate the law in order to buy and
i drink what they know is deadly poi.
son." argues the Nashville Banner
1T Is difficult to see what the Govern.
ment Is to do about it." The Chicago
Daily News points out that 'at least
the Government chemists and agents
for the enforcement of prohibition
have been careful to warn drinkers
of the grave risk they incur" The
| Ann Arbor Times News thinks that
eventually II enough poison-liquor
deaths occur. the iQuor-consumine
public will awake to the realities and
turn against the men who are reapine
q financial harvest by vending poi
son." Referring to recent cases, the
| Times-News adds that "for that mat
ter, 1t would seem that 80 deaths art
quite enough for Buffalo"
when chemists in the employ oi
the boOtlegging industry failed in the
/ task set for them" states the Hamil
ton Spectator. the poison alcohol was
sold, anyway, and it quite evidently
had a ready market. President Cool
idge's opposition to the poisoning Of
industrial alcohol will save human
lives, but 1t will submerge the United
States In Industrial alcohol. The boot
leggers will applaud 1t more heartily
than will those who would like to SCI
prohibition given a test in the United
States" The jamestown Evening
Journal believes that "the chemist.
who prepare formulas containing poi