Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-11-19
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

A law enacted by Congress to permit
control of milk marketing Is coming to
the rescue Of a Government up against
! the immediate problem Of whisky mar
keting and gin marketing.
If in a mood to exerices its fun
powers the Federal Government today
can impose upon the liquor industry a
model system Of control, built along the
lines of the system already effective IN
| a number of areas for milk.
| And if the distillers are IN mood to
join in working reforms in their buSi-
ness they can contract with the Gov
eminent to outlaw practices that in the
| past brought disrepute to the industry
and prohibition to the country, just as
the milk industry is agreeing to correct
its abuses.
All of this can be done without the
| intervention of Congress, because at
hand is that powerful instrument, the
marketing agreement, coupled with the
| code of fair competition, made possible
| by the agricultural adjustment act.
In the case of liquor, fast action is
necessary. Barely three weeks of ma
! tional prohibition remain. After that
! nearly full month will elapse before
Congress meets, and Congress may be
I IDOllLllS III OH u
form of liquor control
/ Until now the A. A. A. has not been
noted for speed. 1t struggled for five
months and just this week produced its
! first code of fair competitions code
| for the So ,000, 900 date industry In the
same time the N. r. A. turned out ITO
codes, including bevy Of billion-dolar
| industries.
On December there win remain %
, dry States to be protected, there will be
/ taxes to levy and collect, there will be
production of liquor TO be policed and
! multitude of problems will invite solu-
I ton.
Into the breach Is being thrown the
code Of fair competition and the mar
keting agreement.
/ r
The distilling industry, wholesale and
/ manufacturing has made its offers
| The industry first of all. asks to be
licensed under the agricultural adjust
| ment act. The terms Of the license re-
! main to be worked cut. But it also
! agrees that into a code Of fair compe-
tition shall go group of trade practice
requirements, including an agreement
/ that no manufacturer shall own an in
| terest, directly or indirectly. in any
place where liquor Is sold for consump-
| tion. This would outlaw the dist'llery-
owned saloon.
I Also agreed to is a requirement that
would place upon the distillers some re-
sponsibility in seeing that intoxicants
are not shipped into dry States. This
/ helps meet a major problem of the
Federal Government. In addition, the
only American grain, to pay pay parry tS"
| prices for that grain and TO limit the
use of blackstrap molasses in the max
| Ing of alcoholic drinks
+ X
! But the Federal Government, util-
izing the marketing agreement, can go
! even farther In imposing requirements
| It could fix both maximum and mini
mum prices at which liquor would be
/ sold at Wholesale and at retail
/ 1t could require as n condition OF OBJ
/ tanning a license to do business that
! LIQUOR BE- l@beled so that the purchaser
7 viii know its ege and the exact in
gradients
/ 1t could require manufacturers to
/ corf1ne their sales TO retailers who were
/ properly licensed and insist upon any
manner of reform that may be con-
! sidered necessary in controlling the
/ new traffic.
| Then since there are no present re-
/ tail outlets for hard liquors, the Federal
! officials could write q code for the re-
/ tail trade that might outlaw the bar.
or make it Illegal to sell drinks for
! credit or to resurrect many of the old
appurtenances of the saloon. It even
could write the end to the saloon or
tavern" as retail outlet for liquors.
x
| With those requirements embodied in
a marketing agreement the Secretary
! of Agriculture could impose a license
On the entire industry.
This is q license to do business. II
it is violated end violation is proved
| at hearing before the Secretary he
may cuspend or revoke the license,
! Should q manufacturer or q wholesaler
or a retailer operate without a license
| the Secretary could go to court and efi-
! join him for operating. This Woulo
mean putting the violator out of bust
/ ness.
While seemingly a drastic admins
| trative power, 1t has been upheld by
Federal court in California. There
the Government acted against peach
Gamer. Just this week it revoked the
licenses of two milk dealers in Penn
! sylvania.
The liquor industry Is asking impo-
| sition Of a license as means of exer-
| cising control Within a few days
! action on this type of control is ex-
pected In the Agricultural Adjustment
| Administration, where the problem has
been under study for several weeks.
Outside the problem of marketing,
the new liquor industry is most con-
cerned with the prospects Of taxes
In its first price schedule the dis
tilling industry indicates that the best
liquor win sell to wholesalers at $40
case of "a pint bottles If 50 tax Is
| added and profit tackled on to that
] the retail sale price is expected to ap-
proach 81 quart. This Is q higher