Evening star., 1933-09-19
PRESIDENT URGED
T0BAR OLD SALOON
Tax Reduction League Asks
Special Congress Ses-
sion to Act.

President Roosevelt is requested In
a letter sent to him by DR.. F. w. Buck,
executive secretary of the Federal Dis
pensary-Tax Reduction League. Inc, to
call special session of Congress in
November to pass legislation to prevent
the return Of the old saloon.
DR.. Buck Is convinced that in many
Of the cities of the country today the
return of the licensed saloon is a mat
ter of a few months probably soon
after the repeal of the eighteenth
consummated by December S.
His suggestion to the President Is
that Congress pass law without delay
providing that mo internal revenue tax
receipt, or permit. shall be issued to
any premises for alcoholic liquors to be
sold by the drink over bar or counter"
Text Of Letter.
In his letter to the President. DR..
Buck said
"The repeal Of the eighteenth amend
ment to the Constitution OF the United
States is practically assured by De-
cember S. This will leave many States
without any regulatory legislation to
prevent the return Of the saloon, which
both party platforms and which you IN
no uncertain terms declared against.
The cny way to prevent return OF the
saloon is through an amendment to the
internal revenue laws"
DR.. Buck quoted the amendment pro-
posed by himself and added:
This provision might be amended so
that LIQUOR could only be sold at tables
in clubs, hotels and restaurants. Such a
law will prevent what was commonly
known as a saloon, and minimize Its
most vicious evil and cause OF excess,
namely, the practice OF treating
strangers as well as friends.
mo State can object to such Federal
regulation, as since the whisky rebellion
in 1893 it has been the custom OF the
Federal Government to provide tax re-
ceipts before liquors could be sold any
where. and 1t Is now the duty OF the
Federal Government to inform tne
LEGISLATURES of all States just What
regulatory measures it Is going to adopt
for the future, that they may leglslate
accordingly. Hence the need OF an
extra session"
Finds Favorable Sentiment.
DR.. Buck said that he talked to many
members of Congress regarding his pro-
posed amendment to the internal rev.
enue laws to prevent a return OF the
saloon and that he found many Of them
favorable to the idea.
If special session of the Congress
were called to deal with the liquor prob
lem in November, Dr. Buck said today,
it should also take up the question OF
rectifled or blended liquor. He predicted
that after prohibition has been repealed
the distillers and liquor dealers will un-
dertake to increase their supply OF whis-
ky many times by blending" it with
alcohol and water. This blended liquor,
he said, would be no better than q lou
of the liquor which has been sold by
bootleggers during prohibition days.
"A barrel of properly made and aged
whisky was mixed with Is barrels OF
alcohol and distilled water to make
some of the best brands of blended
whisky in the days before prohibition.
The barrels were rolled over once q
day for 80 days and then the mixture
was bottled and sold for consumption. 1t
takes four years to age good whisky
and to get the poisons out Of 1t. The
blended variety retains the poisons
found in a lot of bootleg stuff. The
people of America should be protected
against this so-called blended or recti-
fed whisky"
Fight of Dr. Wiley.
Back in 1907 the late DR.. Harvey
Wiley undertook to rout the whisky rec
tifiers and blenders, insisting that pure
whisky should be sold to the American
people. The late President Theodore
Roosevelt finally took a hand in the
row and issued an Executive order that
straight, blended, compounded and imi-
tation liquors must be correctly labeled,
and the order was later confirmed by
the late President Taft.
It has been reported that there will
be about 15,000,0 900 gallons Of whisky
in the country when the eighteenth
amendment is repealed and the predic-
ton has been made that this will be in
creased many times by blending" and
"rectifying."
DR.. Buck admitted that If Congress
should undertake to prohibit blended
liquor, the country would have to de-
pend to a large extent upon imported
whisky for some time. But he added
that the protection Of the people would
hn uorft II