Criminal prosecution by the United States against John B. Dodson.

An Information was filed against the defendant, alleging that on or about the 2d day of April, 1920. he did “knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully manufacture, prepare for market, and sell for beverage purposes and not for tbe purposes of export certain intoxicating liquors in tlie manner as follows, that is to say: Said. John B. Dodson did, at said time and place, manufacture, prepare for market, and sell to H. E. Houk, one 5'0-gallon barrel of cider, which said cider so manufactured and sold by said John B. Dodson was not' put up and marketed in sterile closed containers, and was not treated in a manner to prevent fermentation, and to insure the alcoholic contents of said eider to remain below one-half of 1 per cent, of alcohol by volume, and which eider so so,Id by said John B. Dodson to said H. E. Houk then and there contained alcohol in excess of one-half of 1 per cent, by volume.”

Subsequently the defendant was brought to trial before a jury on the information and it was developed therein that defendant was the manager and directive head of a company engaged in the manufacture and sale at wholesale of cider, the expressed juice of apples; that said company regularly added benzoate of soda, in the proportion of one-tenth of 1 per cent, by volume, to such juice so manufactured by it at the time of its manufacture; that this benzoate of soda did not, under normal conditions of heat and exposure to the air, prevent the fermentation of the cider so manufactured and so treated, but tnat it would merely retard such fermentation; that ultimately, in spite of the addition of the ingredient above named, the cider, in the course of a few days, under normal conditions, through the usual processes of fermentation, would develop its usual and normal maximum alcoholic content. The barrel of cider alleged to have been sold by defendant to Houk, a jobber, was finally purchased by a retail vender, and by him sold, in diie course, to counter customers as a beverage. Upon its being tested, some cjays after delivery to the vender, and presumably several days after its manufacture and chemical treatment, as hereinabove referred to, it was found to possess alcohol to the extent of 4.8 per cent., by volume.

The proofs further showed, that apples of the sort and kind used in the manufacture of this particular cider, unaffected by the addition of any chemical agent, would, upon fermentation, develop a maximum alcoholic content of about 5 per cent. Proof was also adduced that in the trade, fresh eider, to which has been added one-tenth of 1 per cent, of benzoate of soda, is known as “preserved sweet cider.” It was also in evidence, and uncontra-dicted, that the eider manufactured by defendant’s company, at the time of its delivery to the vender above referred to, being immediately subsequent to its manufacture, contained less than one-half of 1 per cent, of alcohol. Upon the close of the case, defendant moved for an instructed verdict on the ground that proof had failed to show defendant guilty of any crime charged in the information or known to the law.