Evening star., 1932-11-16
STRENGTH OF BEER
DEPENDS ON COURT
Vest Case Anticipated if
Congress Modifies VOL
stead Act.
(continued From First Page.)

conclusions of the court in this cele.
brated case were comparatively brief
surprisingly so, in view of the tremend'
Gus importance of the case. They vert
confined to IL points, the last of which
bears most specifically on the hopes OF
the vets for beer.
On this point the Supreme Cour'
said: while recognizing that there are
limits beyond which Congress cannot &C
In treating beverages as within It's
power of enforcement, we think those
limits are not transcribed by the pro-
vision of the Volstead act
wherein liquors containing as much as
one-half of l per cent OF alcohol by
volume and fit for use for beverage
purposes are treated as within that
power"
This language is interpreted by con-
stitutional lawyers of both vets ano
drys to leave the door open to the au-
thority of Congress to increase the con-
tent above one-half of l per cent-but
the drys point with warning to the first
words, where the court said there were
''limits beyond which, Congress cannot
60" The difficulty now appears to be
that no one knows where that limit
a. The court has never fixed 1t.
Such an eminent authority, however,
ms Representative Beck of Pennsylvania,
former Solicitor General Of the United
states, believes that real beer can be
authorized under the Constitution.
December Meeting Planned.
Oficials of the Anti-Saloon League,
who are busy studying the whole leg1s-
iative problem Of beer, today pointed
with significance to another part of the
Supreme Court decision.
The court said, in effect, that "the
declaration in the prohibition amend
ment that Congress and the several
States shall have concurrent power TO
enforce this article by appropriate les
isIation does not enable Congress or the
several States to defeat or thwart the
prohibition, but only to enforce it by
appropriate means"
The full program of the Anti-Saloon
League in its battle against beer will be
developed at q conference called to con-
vene here during the opening week of
the next session of Congress, in De-
cember.
In declaring against beer, r. Scott
Mcbride general superintendent OF the
league, has already presented many ar
gllments, but he has also admitted !: IF
the alcoholic content of legalized beer
should be fixed at a point low enough
to be lawful under the eighteenth
amendment the demand would be in
guffcient to raise the anticipated reve-
nue." In this statement he has virtually
foreSeen the prospects Of low-powered
beer, but he goes on to say that "the
experience of Canada with A beer
demonstrated that drinkers will not
purchase beer with low alcoholic con-
tent sold at a high price They will
either buy untaxed near-beer at low
price or higher-powered beer from boot
Ieggers."
On the other hand, what kind of
beer is being asked and expected by
the vets?
2.75 Beer Sought.
The figure "2.75 beer" has been the
most generally used It is the figure
included In most of the beer bills, and
has been canpz4gned for through
1abor's National Committee for Modifi-
cation of the Volstead act. This is
somewhat weaker than the commercial
beer Of e-prohibition days, according
TO Government chemists.
One Of the clearest expositions of
this kind Of 275 beer as a hope was
made by Representative Dyer Of Mis-
souri, appearing before the so-called
Wickersham law enforcement commits
sion.
Explaining his bill for 2.75 beer,
Dyer said, in part: Under title / of
the national prohibition act any beer,
whether manufactured inside or out
side the home, is unlawful If it contains
as much as one-half of l per cent of
alcohol, but millions of householders are
today manufacturing beer containing
from 4 to 6 per cent Of alcohol on the
theory that, If 1t is legal to manufacture
wines and elders in the home, it ought
not to be illegal to manufacture beer
OF a much less alcoholic content. How
ever, under strict construction of the
Law, there is no doubt that it is unlaw-
ful to manufacture beer in the home If
IL contains as much as one-haf of ]
per cent Of alcohol, although it is not
unlawful to manufacture wines and
elders containing 10 to 20 times that
amount Of alcohol
"The Federal Prohibition Bureau"
claimed Dyer, has not made any seri-
Gus effort to interfere with the manu-
1aeture OF beer In the home, probably
upon the theory that 1t would be highly
3noersistent to arrest and prosecute
householders for the violation of the
national prohibition act for making beer
OF lesser alcoholic content than wines
and elders, the legality of which is fully
recognized under the provisions Of sec
e1CAA 80 NNOlctCdO dCtJ.
Jury Verdict Required
Under the national prohibition law
as 1t now stands" said Dyer, ANY bev-
erage containing as much as one half
Of per cent of alcohol, not manufac-
tured in the home, is an intoxicating
liquor in violation Of the law, but un-
der section 29 it is entirely legal to
manufacture in the home cider and
mountaineering fruit juices; in other
words, wines, regardless of their alco- !
holic content. The Prohibition Bureau
In its instructions to prohibition agents
states that the elders and fruit juices
manufactured under section 29 of the
Volstead act do not have to conform
TO the one-half of / per cent standard
In Title I of the law, but may contain
alcohol in excess of that amount The
amount of alcohol by which these bev-
ersges so manufactured may exceed the
one-hah Of per cent standard before
they become Intoxicating in fact can