The many movements afoot to induce Congress to amend the Volstead Act in such a way that either beer alone or beer and wine should be allowed as non-intoxicating, will, in my opinion not bring the desired result. Most of the promoters evidently are not in possession of that knowledge which is necessary in submitting propositions for changing the Volstead Act or they have been misinformed when looking for the real facts.

The Eighteenth Amendment states that, from the 16th of January, 1920, "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exporting thereof from the United States and all territories subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."

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The National Prohibition Act (the Volstead Act), passed to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, states that all beverages containing one-half of one per cent or more of alcohol by volume are intoxicants.

It is important to note that neither the Eighteenth Amendment nor the Volstead Act defines beer, wine, distilled liquor, etc., hence they should not be mentioned either in any petition to Congress for changing this paragraph.

If Congress should pass an Amendment permitting the legal manufacture of beverages containing up to three per cent of alcohol by weight, then beverages such as beer, wine, etc., can be produced, provided they do not contain more than three per cent of alcohol by weight.

There exists in the United States no official definition of what constitutes an intoxicant or an intoxicating beverage, except the arbitrary statement 3in the Volstead Act that intoxicating liquor shall be construed to mean beverages which contain one-half of one per cent or more of alcohol by volume.

The figure one-half of one per cent was evidently picked from an early ruling by the Revenue Department, which upon suggestion by American Brewers' chemists in 1906, stated that fermented liquors containing traces of alcohol up to 0.5 per cent by volume shall be considered alcohol-free for taxing purposes. Whether such beverages were intoxicating or not did not come under consideration.

The figure 2.75 per cent, which from time to time has been mentioned as the alcoholic limit for non-intoxicating beers, was very likely taken from Scandinavian revenue regulations. In these countries prior to the war, all beers were tax free if they contained less than 2.75 per cent of alcohol by volume equivalent to 2.18 per cent by weight. Beers with more than that amount of alcohol were taxed.

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In this connection I want to mention that the members of the Danish Temperance Society took a pledge not to drink any intoxicating beverages, and an intoxicating beverage is defined as one containing more than 2.18 per cent of alcohol by weight.

Tests made in various countries show that beers with about three per cent of alcohol by weight could not be considered intoxicants, and it is my firm belief that if today a committee consisting of representatives of the American Medical Association and the American Chemical Society should propose a standard, it would set the limit of alcohol by weight at three per cent.

In May, 1919, Mr. William D. Guthrie, in the Federal Court of New York City, proposed the following definition: "Intoxicating liquors are those which are intended for use or capable of being used as a beverage and which contains alcohol in such proportion or per cent that, when consumed in 5quantity which will practically be drunk by an ordinary man, or in any quantity which the human stomach will ordinarily hold, will produce a condition known as intoxication or drunkenness. Drunkenness or intoxication is an abnormal mental or physical condition manifesting itself in the loss of ordinary control of the natural faculties or of bodily functions to an appreciable or material extent."

Under this very clear definition, a beverage containing about three per cent of alcohol by weight can not be considered intoxicating.

The government has established a difference between a non-intoxicating beverage and non-intoxicating in fact. This is hard to understand for the average mind.

The Volstead Act clearly states that all beverages containing 0.5 per cent of alcohol by volume or more are intoxicating liquors. Section 29 of the Act states that the penalties in this Act shall not apply to a person manufacturing 6non-intoxicating cider and fruit juices used exclusively for home use.

Mr. Woodcock, the Prohibition Director, tried to give an explanation in this testimony before the Appropriations Committee last December as follows: "I tried the Hill Case (Congressman Hill permitted nature to produce a twelve per cent wine in his home), and the court decreed that non-intoxicating means 'non-intoxicating in fact.' If a person made wine, cider or other fermented fruit juices for exclusive use in his home, the burden was upon the government to prove that they were intoxicating in fact."

On the other hand, the United States Department of Agriculture in its regulatory announcement of August, 1930, gives the following definition:

"1. Fruit juice is the clean, unfermented liquid obtained from the first pressing of sound, ripe, fresh fruit, or its pulp, and conforms in name to the fruit from which it is obtained.

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"2. Grape juice is the clean, unfermented juice of sound, ripe grapes. It is obtained by a single pressing of the fruit, with or without the aid of heat, and with or without the removal of insoluble matter."

Hence, if a fruit juice has undergone the slightest fermentation it is no longer fruit juice.

This shows clearly to what extent the Government has to go in order to explain the inexplicable. To me a non-intoxicant, and a non-intoxicant in fact, are identical.

To every unbiased mind it is clear that Congress made a fatal error in arbitrarily setting the alcohol limit at 0.5 per cent by volume. It should be brought home forcibly at the next session of Congress that it is the duty of Congress to correct this error by changing the figure 0.5 per cent of alcohol by volume to three per cent by weight, which would be in accordance with scientific opinion. This can be done without violating the Eighteenth 8Amendment or interfering with the balance of the Volstead Act. The American Congress should be anxious to correct a serious mistake, as long as its attention is called to it.

The paragraph which should take the place of the old definition of an intoxicant would read: "Under this Act all beverages containing three per cent of alcohol by weight or more are intoxicants."

If the amendment is carried, it simply means that all beverages containing less than three per cent of alcohol by weight are soft drinks, hence can be sold in all places where soft drinks now are offered for sale, such as restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, drug stores, etc. No saloons will be brought into existence in this way; on the contrary, many speak-easys will close.