The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-12-14
MONDAY, DECEMBER IA, 1881
Four Pints Before Breakfast

While to Fiorcla LaGuardia, the hery congressman from New York, went credit for the best speech in Congress last week, to Representative William E. Hull, republican, of Illinois, goes credit for the most stirring. The legislator made congressional mouths water and eyes become moist with sup pressed emotions when he described his trip to Europe last summer and climaxed 1t with the remark that at one brewery he drank four pints of beer before breakfast without any mental or bodily harm. Not that the majority of his fellow members cared whether he sustained any ill effects hey were probably rcfecting upon the good for tune of some men.
 It may be recalled that Representative Hull on his own initiative conducted sweeping survey of the liquor control sys- tems in all European countries especially those where some form of governmental monopoly is exercised He visited Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, France. Eng land, and smaller countries in his travels. From time to time he sent reports Of his findings not expressions of opinion, back to the United States. Those who were lucky enough to read them found that the representative was making thorough sur vey, but that the facts as he presented them to the folks back home were So overwhelm- ingy against prohibition. as enforced in this nation. as to antagonize the dry forces here'
 Originally Mir Hull was in the brewing business However. he was good respecter of the Constitution. so when prohibition went into effect he became a prohlbltionlst. In few years he was convinced that the ex- permcnt was such failure that only by dropping it and substituting something more suitable to the masses in its place could con- dtions be restored to normalcy Tn the United States He has been firm advocate Of wet measures in the last two or three years He now proposes that beer of 3.2 pct cent content by weight is legaized.
 Continuing along this line he stated. If we can bring about law whereby the farmer will have an output for his products. he then will begin to come out of the de- pression that he is in at the present time
 Tn my judgment. the brewing of beer, which is intoxicating, will bring about the future sale of l20,000,000 bushels of barley year. Take l20,OOO,OOO bushels of barley off the market and, in my judg- ment, you will advance the average price ot all grains 5 cents a bushel. In doing this you will stimulate the farm industry; you will tighten the burdens of the farmer to the extent that he will know he will have a cash market for at least the amount of bar lev that the brewerics will use
 Beer of 32 per cent alcoholic content by weight is equivalent to 4 per cent by vol ume. It is just about what the oeandi- navian countries permit to-day. In this r.- spect might it not be better to permit the individual state to prescribe its own legal percentage Personally we think that Rep resentative Hull-is on the right track. Pro- hibitionsts were too thorough in removing at one fell swoop all beverages with aleo- holic content. It has taken the nation few years to recover from the wartime measure, but we think it has now and is merely gath ering it's forces to make counter-attaek It may be of such herceness that the good liquor control might have done will entirely vanish