H. R. 13,312

For the first time in the 13 years of national Prohibition a committee of Congress last week took the historic step of proposing to relax the stern mandates of the Volstead Act. To trie Flouse from its Ways & Means Committee was reported a bill (H. R. 13,312) legalizing 3.2% beer--a product about as strong as that sold currently in good speakeasies. After long hearings and solemn consideration the committee had concluded that no one could get drunk on such a beverage, that therefore it was a non-intoxicant under the 18th Amendment. Ostensibly H. R. 13,312 was put forward as a new tax bill to raise additional budget-balancing revenue. Its real purpose, however, was to carry out the V. S. electorate's Wet mandate of Nov. 8--a mandate more potent to Congress than the Constitution.

The arrival of H. R. 13,312 before the House was an awful moment for the U. S. Drys, Consolidated. To them it marked the end of an era during which their power over Congress and the country had been practically supreme. The great dam they had built against the "liquor traffic" had cracked, they were helpless to stem the ensuing flood. Their six-vote victory over Repeal in a nominally Dry House was a portent of defeat in the coming Wet one. The Wets, on top for the first time as a result of the election, did not exult too loudly. Responsibility was sobering even the most rampant anti-Prohibitors.

Because it was revenue legislation the beer bill was given right-of-way in the House this week. Speaker Garner promised both sides ample time to debate it, ample opportunity to amend it. Its passage by the House was confidently predicted--but not by any such vote (272) as Repeal got the first clay of the session. The predominantly Dry Senate's action remained highly uncertain. And at the end of the legislative lane appeared to loom a veto by President Hoover who. unlike the Ways & Means majority, is known to feel that Beer before Repeal is Nullification.

H. R. 13,312, in effect, amends only those parts of the Volstead Act which today limit the alcoholic content of "beer, lager beer, ale, porter" to 1/2%. Whiskey, gin, rum, wine and the like are still left legally taboo. Untouched are the scale of penalties for Prohibition violations. As large and complex as ever are the restrictions on industrial alcohol. H. R. 13,312, with many a change in definition, does nothing more than set up a complete legal exception for 3.2% beer from the 18th Amendment. To raise revenue it taxes the new beer $5 per bbl.--the brewers' chosen figure--thus wiping from the dead-letter revenue law the old $6 rate. Brewers must pay $1,000 for a Federal license, wholesalers $50, retailers $20. By legislative silence distribution is left entirely to State control. The interstate shipment of 3.2% beer into Dry territory is punishable by $1,000 Federal fine, six months imprisonment.

Author of the beer bill was Mississippi's "Lame Duck" Collier. Ways & Means chairman, longtime Dry. On it the committee held a fortnight's hearings which in vehement arguments, loud controversy and ardent pleadings resembled many another Wet & Dry set-to at the Capitol. There was, however, this important difference: the committee's mind was made up in advance to act on beer. Thus, with their case already won, the Wets restricted their testimony to a minimum. Brewers supplied trade facts, avoided rhetoric. Eminent scientists were called to show why light beer was non-intoxicating. Industrialists offered opinions as to the fillip beer legalization would give U. S. business--$25,000,000 for delivery trucks, $320,000,000 for electrical equipment, $20,000,000 for refrigerators. $40,000,000 for wooden boxes, $50,000,000 for rail transportation.

The professional Drys made their last stand before the committee an emotional show. They fought with all their old ardor--but political magic had gone out of their threats and theories. Even oldtime Drys on the committee dared to heckle them.

Mrs. David Leigh Colvin, wife of the Prohibition Party's national chairman, began by dumping out a suitcase containing a bottle of milk, a doll, a bunch of grapes, an orange, a pair of baby shoes, a baby's coat, a pair of bedroom slippers. Flourishing a small Christmas wreath, she exclaimed: "If father gets his glass of beer by Christmas, the family will have to give up these things."

Passionately cried a Mrs. Johnson of Ohio: "Europe's beer-soaked brains got them into the World War and dragged us into it!"

Bishop James Cannon Jr. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, thought beer legislation would be "a stab in the back for every other legitimate industry." Asked how he, if a Congressman, would balance his conscience against his constituents, he replied: "I'm not a balanced or reasoning man. I'm a fanatic. My conscience would never permit me to vote contrary to my convictions."

In the Bishop's opinion speakeasies, because of their prohibitive prices, are less harmful for the working man than the old-fashioned saloon, and "beer won't be served by your high society people at their evening teas."

Screamed a Dr. William M. Hess, who called himself a "physiological psychologist": "Not even God Almighty Himself can convince me that 2% beer isn't intoxicating!"

Deets Pickett, researcher for the Methodist Episcopal lobby: "The liquor interests are planning to expand their trade by exploiting boys and girls, particularly girls. They are planning to fasten their grip upon the nation by secretly controlling the newspapers, paying the private debts of men in influential positions, subsidizing writers, boycotting manufacturing concerns hostile to them, infiltrating their agents into public and private organizations, misleading the foreign born and working in close agreement with the disloyal, the vicious and the criminal." Researcher Pickett described himself as "a reasonable man."

From the Treasury, Secretary Mills was summoned to give his views on the revenue-raising features of the beer bill. He estimated it would net only $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 per year whereas more than twice that amount was needed to balance the Budget.

Asked Representative Rainey: "Will President Hoover sign the bill?"

Replied Secretary Mills, shrugging: "Oh, you know no one can speak for the President. I'm not here to give the Administration's attitude."

Off the record Secretary Mills said of the proposed beer: "People who have tasted it tell me that you couldn't drink enough to get anything more than a bellyache. If that's right this bellywash won't raise as much money as my estimates."

Hearings over, the committee pondered its course. Representatives of California vintners wanted naturally fermented wine included in H. R. 13,312. Such a proposal the committee rejected (14-to-9) for two reasons: 1) the alcoholic content of wine cannot be precisely controlled as in beer; 2) inclusion of wine would reduce to an absurdity the committee's contention that what the bill authorized fell outside the 18th Amendment as non-intoxicants in fact. Finally the Ways & Means made liquor history by voting 17-to-7 to report the Collier Bill to the House with these conclusions:

"There has been a considerable change of sentiment on the part of a majority of the people with reference to Prohibition. . . . Congress may permit the manufacture and sale of any alcoholic liquor which may reasonably be said to be non-intoxicating in fact. Your committee believes that 3.2% beer is, on eminent authority, non-intoxicating in fact. . . . The alcohol is so diluted that it would require considerable effort on the part of an average person to drink enough to become drunk. . . .

"Estimates by brewing interests place the probable consumption at 40,000,000 bbl. within the next two years. On this basis the revenue would be in the neighborhood of $200,000,000 annually. . . . The committee was informed that brewers could produce a barrel of beer and deliver it for $6.26, exclusive of taxes. . . . The legalization of beer will give employment to 75,000 men in breweries, about 225,000 in its retail distribution. . . .

"Bootleg beer is offered for sale at prices ranging from $40 to $60 per bbl."

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