Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-31
HOME BREW URGED
TO FIGHT BOOTLEG
Representative Fort Tells
House Prohibition Good Has
Exceeded Evils.
Continued From First pase)

Nolstead act, except to say that per
hays the act needs Qualification on the
question of home brew-althougf
nobody has ever been convicted fol
making IL for home use"
mo question:" said Mr.. Fort, which
moves its partisans to fanatical emo
tionalism will ever be solved by their
efforts Therefore, it seems to me that
those of us who have not felt the urge
of surging emotion to talk upon this
question must try to find some solvent
in cold reason which can at least lift
the debate here and elsewhere to the
dignity which any discussion of the
Constitution and the laws Hereunder
made demands-must try to analyZe
the causes which led to the adoption Of
prohibition; the effect Of prohibition on
those causes: where we are today, and
what lies ahead Of u.s."
Cites Optional Control" Plans.
After reciting the many dement's
which have accrued to the American
people from prohibition, Mr.. Fort con-
tinued:
MY friends, who do not like the law
and there are many-what alternative
can you offer the American people
which will save what we have gained?
Is it Government selling you want?
Well. there are two possible ways to
run it, Either we can hold down con-
sumption by high prices and make a
vast profit for the Government or we
can hold down. the profit by low prices
at the risk Of increasing consumption.
wonder which Is the more repugnant
thought. I'll venture that there aren't
10 men in the House who like either
alternative What, then, of reinStating
the trafie? Well, shall it be for drink
ing on the premises? Of course not
that's the saloon again. Bat If that is
not to be-we1l have to drink at home,
even though home drinking is one OF
the evils we decry in the present sys-
TEN.
We'll, If we're going TO drink at home,
we can do that now-if We want 1t
bad enough to make 1t. So why change
the law at all unless, Of course, we
want hard liQuor-and none OF the ad-
vocates of change want that. do they?
so where do we finish? Just where
we started-with the eighteenth amend
ment and the Volstead act.
Urges Educational Work.
-To those who want abstinence to
follow prohibition, may ] suggest that
they leave enforcement to the officers
Of the law and return to the kind OF
educational work so splendidly done
for so many years by the Womens
Christian Temperance Union and the
Father Matthew T.. A. B. s. To those
who want beer and. light wines, I sug-
gest that they forego the wish to buy
and be content with what they make,
but, above and beyond all, that they
be good sports. They have made their
fight and lost--lost to o combination
of two mighty tendencies Of the age
the economic and ethical reorganization
Of the American people"
Used Liquor for "a Years.
At the outset Of his address, Mr..
Fort said:
Personally my record IL that began
the use Of liquor IS . beverage IS Q
boy Of 10. feeling its use to he q social
necessity, and quit at AZ, feeling its dis
continuance to be . social duty.
IF had been . member OF this
House in 1917, I would not have voted
for-the eighteenth amendment, nor did
/ then believe in prohibition; but the
first few years under the amendment
changed my opinion, and Is candidate
for election to this House in 1924, In
what was considered q strong anti
prohibition district, my platform con-
tanned . definite statement that I be-
neved In prohibition"
Two irresistible ground swells in our
national life," Mr.. Fort told the House
today. had been responsible for the
adoption Of national prohibition. One
Of these was the growing trend toward
mechanization Of our whole life and the
systematizing Of our industry" The
other was the demand that wives and
children be protected from the evils
which flowed from the liquor trafnc.
After the eighteenth amendment had
srH& H. NrNV1
Stitution, Mr.. Fort continued. Congress
tackled the job and produced the vol
stead act.
Explains Manufacture" PrOViSo.
What does that say?" said Mr.. Fort.
Most of its language relates to the
method and means of enforcement and
I am not going to discuss those pro-
visions today. The real legislation In
the act is all In four or five sections.
First, 1t defines the word liquor" and
the phrase Intoxicating liquor" as
meaning anything At for use as a bev-
erage which contains one-half per cent
or more Of alcohol Then 1t prohibits
any one from manufacturing, SELL
ing, bartering, transporting, importing,
exporting delivering. furnishing or
except as authorized in the law
When it comes to the matter Of
possession Of liquor, 1t provides
that such possession Is prima facie evil
dence that 1t Is kept for sale in viola
ton of law, but that lit shall not be
unlawful to posses liquors in ones
private dwelling-provided such liquors
are for use only for the personal con-
sumption of the owner thereof and his
family, and Of his bona flde guests
when entertained by him therein" but
puts upon the poSsessor the burden Of
proving lawful acquisition of the liquor.
Finally, there is no definition OF what
the word manufacture" means, but the
penalty section says: THE penalties
provided in this chapter against the
manufacture Of liquor without permit
shall not apply to q person for manu-
featuring mountaineering cider and
fruit juices exclusively for use in his
home"
This latter provision seems to me
rather clearly to lift cider and light
wine, homemade for home use, out OF
the one-half OF / per cent definition
and, as to them, to apply the test OF
they can be lawfully made, they can be
lawfully possessed in the home OF the
maker and used by him, his family and
his guests. Whether this language can
be stretched to cover notwithstanding
home brew in fact Is another question
but clearly the making, the possession
and the use of homemade non-intox-
icating light wines and elders Is not
prohibited by the act.
Mr.. Fort said that in his Judgment
sincere friends of temperance have donS
the cause of prohibition its greatest in
jury by insisting that the use OF alcoho
since the eighteenth amendment hai
become immoral. He said that the op'
ponents of prohibition make :. serious
case Of the non-enforcement situation