Freshmen Find Way to Get Liquor for Smoker

Thirsty freshmen will get their beer at the March 10 Smoker after all. Ending three weeks of uneasy tension since the beer license was refused, the Smoker Committee yesterday announced a new plan which will enable it to hand out liquor legally.

Cambridge Chief of Police Patrick Ready and John Quinn, members of the local board of License Commissioners which last month refused to grant the committee a one-day permit to serve beer since it would be served to minor's, last night agreed that the Smoker is a private party needing no license.

Retailer Not Responsible

After weeks of studying statutes and regulations pertaining to the sale of beer the committee discovered that if the Smoker was officially considered a private party the beer could simply be purchased from a local retailer. The retailer would not be reluctant to sell the beer, since he could not be held responsible if the beer was served to minors at a private party.

The plan also gets around the one-kegs limit on the amount of beer which a retailer can sell. Since freshmen usually consume over ten kegs (250 gallons) at the Smoker, this restriction seemed at first to pose an insuperable problem. However, the committee this week discovered that certain retailers hold special federal licenses which permit them to sell unlimited amounts of beer.

Florida Vacation

Through a Boston distributor the committee found out that one Cambridge retailer held such a license. He is, at present, vacationing in Florida and cannot be contacted, but the distributor believes that he will be glad to sell the beer.

Both Ready and Quinn last night stated that as far as they were concerned the new plan is completely legal. They persisted in their refusal to grant any sort of a license to a group which would serve beer to minors, but agreed that any other legal manner by which the committee could secure the liquor was all right with them.

Beer Given Away

"Go right ahead and have your party," said Ready. "It's all right with me as long as you don't cause any public disturbance."

Ready emphasized the fact that if the Smoker is to be considered a private party it must not charge for the liquor. The committee will comply with this by charging only for the entertainment and giving the beer away free. The price of the entertainment will be 85 cents.