Morning journal and courier., 1882-04-15
Saturday Morning, April 15. 1882.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS PLEA.

THE ENIOONSHINER'S'' PLEA.
 Representative Cox, of South Carolina, ex- plained the other day how his ''moonshiner', constituents look upon the attempt to prevent
 them from manufacturing whiskey without paying the tex which the government has laid upon this industry. They cannot under
 stand why they should be taxed for turning
 their corn into whiskey any more than into
 pork, and they look upon the internal reven- ue tax as an infringement upon the rights of freemen. They do not understand that there
 is any thing socially morally wrong in the
 distilling or drinking of whiskey any more
 than the northern grocer or householder does
 in the sale or use of tea, and as for the habits
 of the majority, a fair example is presented
 by the mountaineer who said that he consid-
 cred barrel of whiskey fair allowance for
 a week for a large family without any cow." With these feelings and habits, the inhabitant of the mountain farm who de- sires to make his corn into whiskey or his peaches into brandy for his own use or to supply his neighbors, regards the interfer- ence of the United States authorities as an intolerable oppression. The tax which is de- manded of him is one calculated for the rich disti1leries of the large cities with all the ad- yantages of wealth and elaborate machinery, and if he could pay it, which would frequent ly be doubtful, it would deprive him of all profit from the sale and compel him to pay roundly for his own use of what be thinks should be as free as the native. growth that produced it. Then, too, frequently the
 ''moenshiner's" only way of realizing any thing for his crop of corn is to turn it into whiskey. His only method for trans porting his corn to market would be by horseback, and he could hardly get out bushel by days journey, for which, in the ordinary market, he might re- ceive about fifteen cents Something more might be realized for pork, but for that also the market would probably be overstocked, and the price exceedingly meagre, to say nothing of the difficulty of it's transportation What presents itself to the occupant of the mountain farm as by all odds the easiest and most profitable, and oftentimes the only way in which he can realize any money from his crops for the purchase of his few luxuries, is to set up still and manufacture his corn into whiskey, few gallons of which would bring him in all the ready money he would need for year.
 These are some of the reasons why it is so hard to enforce the collection of the internal revenue tax in parts of the South. It is probably true, as Mir. Cox claims, that the illicit distilling is not hindered so as to have any effect on the temperance of the people and that the tax does not pay the cost of col lection, while the violation of the law and all it's concomitants of vice and crime exercise very demoralizing influence. But admitting all this, and also that it is impossible for the 'moonshiners" to get along without whiskey,. and very convenient for them to make it as they do there does not seem to be anything for the government to do but to keep up the fight with those who persist in violating the law. The ''moonshiners" are behind the times, and they will have to suffer for it.