Evening star., 1933-01-16
The District Beer Bill.

The hearings scheduled for tomorrow
on the proposed bill regulating sale Of
beer In the District-the hearings to
be held by the Judiciary Subcommittee
of the House District Committee
should be approached with certain fixed
principles of policy.
The District beer bill differs from the
national beer bill in that in respect to
the latter legislation the Democrats
or some of them, take the view that
they are not bound by their party plat
form and by their leaders to commit
ments to prevent the return OF the
saloon, their commitment in this re-
spect being that the question OF the
return OF the saloon shall be left to
the States. Their platform said:
We urge the enactment of such
measures by the several States as will
actually promote temperance, effec-
lively prevent the return of the saloon
and bring the liquor traffc into the
open under complete supervision and
control of the saloon by the States.
In the case of the District, Con-
gress, as the Districts State Legisla-
ture. will, OF course, respond fully and
heartily to the invitation and appeal of
she platform Of the majority party, and
will, az the Capitals local legislature.
effectively prevent the return Of the
saloon to the District. Since a Demo-
cratic Congress as the Districts local
legislature Is pledged to prevent the re-
turn OF the saloon 1t will in good faith
no shape the pending local beer bill as
surely to accomplish this result. 1t will
not repeal the Sheppard prohibition
law, which preceded national prohibi-
tton, without substituting local liquor
trafic law which will at least be as
drastic and effective In regulation Of
the liquor trafic as the licensing
system which preceded the Sheppard
Law. 1t will not, as local legislature,
merely repeal the Sheppard law and
substitute liquor license system which,
though pledged to prevent the return
cf the saloon, facilitates return Of a
distributing system with far less effec-
tive restriction upon the liquor trafic
than prevailed under the local liquor
law preceding the Sheppard law. 1t
does not suffice to avoid the use of the
word saloon" If the places for the
sale Of liquor are multiplied and greatly
exceed in number those existing in pre-
prohibition days with far less restric-
tions and regulation Of such sales than
under the high-license saloon system
ut that time prevailing.
The pending bill is subject to this
criticism. Instead Of preventing the
return Of the saloon, it licenses selling
places Of liquor with far less safeguards
against the evils OF the saloon system
than were in force under the old high
license system
call some of the regulations regarding
sale Of liquor in the District before the
enactment on March 8, 1917, of the
Sheppard law, which outlawed liquor
and the liquor trafic In Washington
three years before ratification Of the
eighteenth amendment. The Sheppard
law closed 267 saloons, including twenty
two in hotels and nine in clubs, and
eighty-nine wholesale establishments,
including four breweries. But the num-
Der had been steadily diminishing for
several years previously because of the
gradual tightening of excise regulations.
In 1914, for instance, revenues from
license fees yielded the District $4,000.
When the Sheppard act became efTec-
tive, the yield had been reduced, by
gradual elimination of saloons, to
$474,T0
Some OF the regulations enforced by
the Board of Excise of the District,
which, by the way, originated in an act
which defined intoxicating liquor as
that containing more than two per-
centum by weight OF alcohol" were
that wholesalers paid annual license fees
OF $500 and retailers paid license fees
OF $500: no saloon could be located
within 900 feet of places commonly
called slums," except by unanimous vote
OF the excise board; no saloon could be
placed within 400 feet Of any public
school house, university, college or house
Of religious worship. No saloons could
be located at railroad stations nor in
"any residence portion of the District"
except for establishments which sold
liquor in packages, not to be consumed
on the premises. Not more than three
bar room licenses Except for hotels or
clubs) could be issued in any one block
on any one side Of the street, and not
more than four on both sides of the
street. No saloon was permitted within
q mile Of Soldiers Home. Applicants
toe licenses had TO be twenty-one years
q sge, citizens of te- -->..ted States,
bona fde residents of the District not
guilty Of previous violation of liquor
laws In the District and their character
was investigated by the excise board
Protestants against the granting OF
licenses were entitled to full hearing.
No liquor could be sold on Sunday, nor
TO minors, and no hotel with less than
30 rooms for guests could be granted a
license.
Contrast these regulations with some
Of the regulations for sale of beer, ale,
etc., of an allowable alcoholic content,
ss proposed in the pending bill. In
that bill license fees are 500 a year
for retail sale OF beer on the premises
and s25 for sale of beer of the prem
ises. with no provision for licenses fos
}