Evening star., 1932-02-09
INDUSTRIAL WRITER
ASSA|LS BEER BILL
Whiting Williams Lauds Dry
Law at Hearing of Senate
Committee.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Legislation to permit 4 per cent beer
was opposed before Senate commit
tee today by Whiting Williams, Cleve-
land writer on industrial subjects.
He said that for q number of years"
he had lived as a working man here
and abroad to study labor conditions.
Appearing at the request Of DR.. F.
Scott Mcbride of the Anti-Saloon
League. he said there has been a
very great shift in the expenditures of
the working man away from beer and
whisky and toward cars and radios and
such things as that"
Hits Bingham Bill.
Passage Of the beer bill of Senator
Bingham Republican, Connecticut), +,
Williams said, would increase the diff
culties of enforcement and at the same
time lessen the amount of money avail
able for the more constructive pur-
poses of industry"
Closing of the saloons" Williams
said, has taken the weight of the
liquor traffic of the shoulders of the
l00,0O0,000 laborers who are forced to
choose between shoes and booze and
collar class who can afford both shoes
and BOOZE"
he was questioned by Senator Bing-
ham and by Senator Hatfield, Republi-
can, West Virginia, a prohibitionist
IN answer to a query from Hatfield,
Williams said the working men of the
country are using enormously less"
liquor than before prohibition.
HIS observations at Homestead, Pa.
IN 1913, and again in 1880 and 1881,
ne said. led him to the conviction that
all the speakeasies in Homestead are
not doing one-half as much business
as any one OF the saloons there did In
the days before prohibition"
Had to Shoe-Hor to Bar"
The witness described how in the
role of working man in Homestead in
pre-prohibition days he had rushed
with other working men from the fac
tory to the saloons, which were so
crowded "a man had to shoe-horn him
self up to the bar"
Replying to Williams, Bingham cited
figures that arrests for drunkenness in
Pittsburgh were 5000 more In 1925
than in 1914.
Williams responded that there was
no justification for assuming we have
had effective machinery for enforce
ment until civil service became effective
in the enforcement units"
Continuing, Williams said that as a
joblesS worker in Detroit last Summer.
he had seen not a single workingman
under the influence of liquor in five
| days.
Little Headway in Canada.
IN Canada" he said, the existence
Of per cent beer has been making very
little headway with respect to offering
itself as a substitute for the high
powered stuff"
You're not pleasing the American
workingman as much as you think by
suggesting to him per cent beer" he
said.
Bingham replied that the American
Federation of Labor had advocated 2.75
per cent beer and felt the workingman
| would be satisfied with it.
Williams contended improved rela-
tions between capital and labor have
resulted indirectly from prohibition. He
said the law had eliminated Blue Mon
day"
Testifying against the bill, E. S. Brad
ford, director of the Bureau Of Business
Research Of the College of the City of
New York, said there would be no net
gain in the total number Of persons en-
( ployed in all industries" If beer were
/ legaliZed.
Cites Statistics.
He cited statistics to show that "in-
creased employment and sales in the
brewing industry would take away that
much from the soft drink and allied in
dustries"
Questioned by Senator Hatfield. Brad
| ford said most economists feel that
the net gain from prohibition-badlya as
it is enforced-is very great"
Most economists are on the dry
side" he added. At this there was ap-
plause from the prohibitionist specta
tors, who included Bishop James Can
non, jr and DR.. F. Scott Mcbride.
Senator Bingham asked Bradford
whether he meant to say that the man
who wants glass of beer will take a
| plate of ice cream instead"
| Bradford replied that the previous
testimony by Williams had indicated
| the working man was very largely
drinking milk instead