Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-20
.MORGENTHAUASKS|
.F.A.C.A. RETENTION
Choate's Plans to Resign
Revealed to Committee
Studying Bill.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the ASSOCIATED PreSS.
Continuation of the Federal Alcohol
Control Administration as a separate
agency was advocated today by Sec
rotary of the Treasury Morgenthau.
cit has done a splendid JOB" he
said at a press conference. Our job
is to collect and protect liquor revenue;
F. A. C. AS job deals with the social
aspects of the situation. They are
not related"
He was commenting on proposals
that liquor control be placed under
the Treasury. This was opposed last
light by Joseph H. Choate, F. A. c. A
chairman, who indicated he intended
TO resign as soon as possible.
Morgenthau also opposed any legiS-
lation that would permit the sale Of
liquor in bulk.
Says Views Are Presidents.
aft we go back to the sale Of liquor
in barrels, I would need an army to
enforce the alcohol revenue laws" he
said. Furthermore, the President
feels exactly and just as strongly
about the matter as I do"
Choate went before the House Ways
and Means Committee last night to
criticize a bill creating a new control
agency.
He said putting the agency In
Treasury Jurisdiction was a fatal
defect" that would destroy efficiency"
and prestige" When Representative
Fuller, Democrat, Of Arkansas, asked
him if he wasn't more worried about
prestige" he answered, I'm not
worried about prestige for myself be-
cause I won't be here long"
Later, he said his resignation SIS
subject entirely to the Presidents
convenience"
Independent Agency Favored.
Choate advocated an independent
control agency, and Harold N. Graves,
an assistant to Secretary Morgenthau,
said the Treasury head favored that
plan too.
Choate and Graves also criticized
the committees proposal to permit
sale of liquor in bulk--in kegs and
barrels-saying it would be a boon
to bootleggers.
Arthur j. Mallott, deputy Internal
Revenue commissioner in charge of
the alcohol tax unit, joined Graves
and Choate in opposing the COM
mittees bill providing for bulk sales
of liquor and for placing alcohol reg
ulation in the Treasury.
The deputy commissioner said his
bureau felt it essential that the regula-
ton of the liquor industry should be
carried on as near as possible to the
present set-up of F. A. C. A.
The r. A. c. A. draft was revised
by the Democrats to provide that a
single commissioner be put in charge
of the distilling, brewing and other
beverage industries under the Secre-
tary of the Treasury. The F. A. C. A.
had urged the creation of a separate
commission.
Questioned by Crowther.
In opposing the committees revi-
sion, Choate was asked by Represent
alive Crowther, Republican, of New
York whether he was for or against
the bill.
''It is not the draft we sent up"
Choate said, adding, however, that it
contained much that was In the orig
inal proposal.
Through the nearly two years Of his
administration of F. A. C. A., Choate
said, his only difference with Secre-
tary Morgenthsu was on the volume
Of taxation" Choate has urged lower
taxes as a means of driving out the
bootlegger.
He contended, however, that the
Secretary knows nothing whatever
about regulation" of the liquor In
dustry or suppressing evils In it. The
purpose Of the F. A. c. A., he said,
was to prevent evils that had brought
about prohibition.