Evening star., 1932-01-13
ASSAlS DOCTORS
PROHIBITION VIEWS
Witness Says Medical s>1o-
citation and Others Imposed
on Congress in 1917.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The opinion that Congress, in adopt
ing prohibition enforcement laws, was
imposed upon" by the American Med
ical Association, the United states Re-
tail Druggists Association and the late
DR.. Harvey Wiley, pure food expert, was
expressed to Senate Committee To-Day
by DR.. j. c. Vorbeck Of st. Louis.
"The people were misled," DR.. Vor-
beck said at hearings on the Bingham
per cent beer bill, in being told "tnat
alcohol was without food or medical
value and therefore was evil They
were misled by eminent physicians and
medical organizations"
Dr. Vorbeck pronounced "unadulter-
ated beers" as food and medicine
without substitute" He held them
indispensable to the maintenance and
preservation of human life.''
The st. Louis physician said resolu-
ton adopted in 1917 by the American
Medical Association, holding alcohol
had no food value for therapeutic pur-
poses, served as the basis for con-
gressional action.
Serve Paid Advocates.
"Those opinions" he added, will
continue to serve the purpose OF paid
advocates of prohibition unless some
one places before Congress the scientific
facts refuting them"
Repeal of the eighteenth amendment
and passage of a law which permits
moderate drinking to replace the pres
ent unenforceable and intolerable
measure" was urged by DR.. Graham
Lusk, professor of physiology at Cornell
University.
Testifying before the Senate Manu-
facturers Subcommittee, DR.. Lusk said
the introduction of light wines and
beer to legitimate sale in this country
under the Canadian system will, in my
judgment, provoke no injury whatever
to the community"
There Is no drunkenness in France,
he said, except that Of visiting Amer
! leans; there Is greatly reduced intoxl-
cation in England, and our neighbors
in Canada are just as fine people, are
just as prosperous and honest (they
have not had single bank failure) as we
are, who have been made the victims
Of a false philosophy with regard tc
the regulation of human conduct.
I'VE have been cursed by making a
crime of something which, in the nature
of things, is entirely honest and right.
DR.. Francis E. Fronczak, health COM
missioner of Buffalo, urged passage OF
the beer bill as an aid to digestion and
to turn people from bad" liquor.
Alcohol Deaths Decline.
He said alcohol deaths in Buffalo hao
dropped from about 80 to 40 year
since the opening of the Peace Bridge
between Buffalo and Canada, per-
mitting people to go across the border
and get beer.
"On Sundays and holidays, before
the bridge was opened" he said, "thou-
sands of persons would go to the parks
and drink bad whisky. There has been
decided decrease since opening of the
bridge. Now, from 10000 to 100000
persons go to Canada on Sundays and
holidays and get glass Of beer"
Prof. Francis G. Benedict, director OF
the nutrition laboratory of the Car
negie Institute in Boston, told of ex-
periments to determine the psyche
logical and food effects of alcohol.
He said alcohol, in moderate guam
titles, certainly had food qualities from
scientific standpoint. His conclu-
sions were based on per cent alcohol
by volume.
In the ordinary sense Of the word, he
told Senator Bingham, the beer taken
by the German was not Intoxicating.