Man from Maine

Maine has been a Dry State for 75 years. Arthur Robinson Gould was elected in 1926 as one of its Dry Senators. Last week Senator Gould, 72-year-old Yankee, was involuntarily shown to be not so Dry as many of his constituents had supposed. The revelation came during a legal squabble between two grape juice companies in Federal Court in St. Louis.* A distributing company was suing a producing company on the ground that its product was inferior, that it spoiled in customers' hands before turning to wine as guaranteed. To defend itself the producing company exhibited testimonials from satisfied purchasers. One testimonial was from Senator Gould. From the U. S. Capitol in 1927 he had written: ". . . After a good deal of bother I got some very fair results. . . . The case of cordials . . . was very much appreciated, especially by the feminine side of the fam ily. ... As you know I come from a Prohibition state and I am supposed to be a prohibitionist but I am about as loyal to the Prohibition element as some of these Southern Democrats are to the Democratic party. . . . While I find it is not policy to be too outspoken as to my sentiments, I don't mind telling you and the world that I believe a license for light wines and beers would be a great improvement over the present Prohibition laws. ... I find a good many of the members of Congress feel just about as I do but lack the moral courage to stand up and vote as they believe." Three weeks later Senator Gould reported to the company his progress as a winemaker: "It [two kegsful] was working quite lively. In fact the pressure was so great that the head of the kegs was bulged. I worked the gas off gradually and finally got the bung out and was surprised to find so much gone. But what there is, is in fine shape and I have it horsed up with a gooseneck tube and it is working fine. ... I know I shall have some fine wine out of this shipment. I may have an opportunity to do you people some good in Washington and if there is anything I can do, I shall do it with pleasure."

The legality of the sale of unfermented grape juice was admitted by Prohibition Commissioner Doran. But he was much less sure that Senator Gould had not violated the Volstead Act by making it into wine under the company's instructions, though it is not the Prohibition Unit's policy to raid winemakers' homes where no sale has occurred. Superintendent Francis Scott McBride of the Anti-Saloon League repudiated the Maine Senator as a Dry, characterized him as a "Wet-Wet," predicted his defeat this fall.

Retorted Senator Gould, unabashed: "Everybody who knows me knows that I have always favored light wines and beer. The people in my section make wine from elderberry flowers and grapes. God Almighty put those flowers and vines on earth and He intended them to be used."

*Mergered last week were seven large California grape products (unfermented wine) companies into a $30,000,000 Fruit Industries, Inc. A potent Eastern competitor: Taylor Wine Co.