Evening star., 1932-12-08
BEER BILL HEARING
SPEEDED BY GROUP
Committee Limits Testimony
in Order to Offer Meas
ure Soon.
Continued From First Page.)

action, testifying, "I think we are agreed
that the American people have issued
mandate to Congress to modify the
Volstead act"
| AS member of the Judiciary Com
| mittee, he invited the Ways and Means
Committee to read his groups record of
testimony on prohibition.
Il am convinced that YOU will be
convinced that 80 per cent beer is non
| intoxicating" he said.
Dyer said 80 per cent beer was about
| the smallest alcoholic content that
brewers could make beer that was
really worthwhile and would hold its
own in competition with home brew"
The alcoholic content put in the Vol
stead act was dishonest" he contended,
and was put In simply because "a
number Of States felt it would help
| enforcement"
Representative Ragon, Democrat, of
Arkansas, asked what Dyer thought
would happen where the Supreme
Court is concerned" II Congress de-
clares 80 beer legal.
| Slaps Repeal Defeat.
Nothing. in my opinion" promptly
answered Dyer. "Of course, II we legal
ize a beverage palpably Intoxicating it
might be declared illegal, but even then
there would be the question Of getting
it before the Supreme Court.
| Dyer took occasion to slap the House
for its failure to adopt the prohibi-
ton repeal resolution.
I'm view Of this action" he said, II
sometimes doubt whether it is as dis
tinguished and able as 1t has been in
the past"
| Representative Boland urged the
! committee to approve the O'Connor
bill. He said medical testimony had
convinced him beer was medicine
and food"
In some Pennsylvania coal mines, he
said, water acted as q poison" to the
workers fresh from the depth" but
| it had been shown that beer served
the ordinary purposes Of water and had
no bad effect
Prof. Henderson told the COMMITTEES
dilution of alcohol enormously de-
creases the effect. He produced a
liter measure and a small bottle of
water to illustrate the decreasing effect
| of spirits as they are diluted.
Defines Cocktail.
"If man pours per cent beer into
his body" he said, ''its effect would
not begin until he had swallowed a
relatively enormous quantity.
Beer and wine are generally taken
with and after meals. On the other
| hand cocktails and highballs are
! usually taken before meals. The alb
sorption is rapid and the effect great. F"
Representative Treadway wanted to
know what "is cocktail and what Is
the cocktail habit?"
! 'WeIl, a cocktail is ordinarily a
mixture of spirits, gin generally, with
| orange juice and other substances. A
| lot of people, young and old, are in the
habit of drinking these before dinner" "
Now isn't the number small?" ques-
| toned Treadway, that is, as compared
to the general population. You see a
good bit Of it about Yale"
In Private Capacity.
Perhaps So" replied the professor,
''but am not referring to Yale Uni
versity am here in private
capacity"
But you said that wine drinking
would be better for gatherings Of young
men and women than the liquor gen.
i orally drunk? You have seen those
| gatherings at Yale?"
II see little of Yale students outside
of class hours" Henderson answered.
Treadway asked Henderson If he
favored the wine provision in the Col
lier bill
"I do, because believe 1t would pro-
mote temperance" the professor said.
How would you define cocktail?"
Treadway asked.
ITS a drink composed Of 80 per cent
| alcohol in spirits of some kind, either
gin or rum and some other ingredients
to make it taste good" Henderson re-
piled.
kick, do you?" Treadway pursued.
Are Used Differently.
well, 80 per cent alcohol in cock
tail will give you a kick" the professor
answered.
-Four per cent beer and 10 per cent
wine is an apparent contradiction" !"
| Henderson said in reply to Treadway's
question as to the percentage OF Light
! wines. "but 1t is not real because they
are used differently. Wine is drunk in
smaller quantities and at meals"
In a statement made public in ad-
| vance of his appearance before the
| committee, Prof. Henderson said the
alcohol problem can best be solved
by legaiizing beer and wine, and placing
distilled spirits under as strict Federal
control as the Government now main
tainS over narcotics.
THE cocktail habit" he said, rs a
| form of drug addiction"
On the other hand, he said, a per
cent beer is so dilute as to be virtually
notwithstanding.
"It would require considerable effort
| to drink enough to get drunk on 1t.
IF no alcoholic beverage other than
per cent beer were known, the al
cohol problem would be no more serl-
GUS than the problem Of tobacco.
Those who wish to keep the eight
zenith amendment in the Constitution
and the Volstead act in its present
form claim and fear that the legaliza-
tion of light beer will bring back the
saloon. There is good grounds for this
| fear. In my opinion, the saloon will
| certainly come back In an aggravated
form unless we make a distinction be-
tween spirits and beer and unless the
Federal Government controls spirits
along somewhat the same lines that II
| now controls narcotics.
Would Make Addicts.
Spirits are as Intoxicating as NOR.
phine. On the other hand, glass OF
beer is less intoxicating than a cigar.
But suppose that the same law applied
| to narcotic drugs as to tobacco and
that every tobacco shop offered its Gus
toners the choice Of tobacco or opium;
cigar or a grain of morphine. The
certain result would be thousands of
| morphine addicts.
The point is that. if non-intoxicat-
! ing beer and natural wines are to be
legalized safely, the highly intoxicating
| distilled spirits must be subjected to
totally different type of control from
anything that we have had In the past.
~, l-4y -srr rk.f u
ment, as interpreted in the Volstead
act, is due mainly to the failure to make
| this distinction. . -
Wine is drunk so little In this coun-