Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1911-07-27

ILLICIT WHISKY MAKING IN ALA.
5AMA INCREASED WHEN "DRY"
LAWS PASSED.
Federal Revenue Officers Find It Diff
ficult to Suppress Moon
shining.

shiLinq.
Birmingham, Ala.-The prohibition
law in Alabama increased the Illicit
distilling industry so greatly that j,
o. Thompson, internal revenue col
lector for Alabama and Mississippi.
has asked the government for an in.
crease Of deputies to cope with the
situation.
During the past year, the deputies
in these two states have made over
four Hundred arrests for moonshining
and have destroyed nearly one thou
sand stills. The industry is growing
in spite of the governments activity
in trying to stamp it out, and Collector
Thompson says tnat without the
states aid, the moonshine business
never can be suppressed. A bill to
give state aid to the government in
stamping out moonshining was killed
in the past session OF the Alabama
legislature.
Reasons For Mconshinng.
There are three reasons why the ig-
norant moonshiner will continue to
make and sell whisky. First, the
profit from the sale of illicitly made
whisky Is enormous. Secondly, there
is a fascination about the business
which appeals to mountaineer and
lowlander alike arising from the COM
blnation of danger and the pitting of
the wits of the moonshiner against
those of the revenue deputies. Third
ly, the moonshiner can see no moral
wrong in making whisky from grain
the earth produces, and selling it for
a living.
Moonshiners make profits averaging
as high as 800 a day. A still was
dest Dyed in thL mountains of Ala
bama recently which cost $50 1t was
turning out seventy gallons of whisky
a day when 1t was captured, and the
product of the still sold for So a gal
lon and was disposed of as soon as
made. a still called the pan and
snake" costs $6. 1t will average five
bushels of corn a day and will earn
about S2j.
Ideal For Distiller.
Winston, Lawrence, Blount, Jack
son, Marshall, DeKalb, Walker and
other mountain counties are the corn
whisky producing centers of the state.
In the lowlands product is made
from syrup scrapings. The geography
of the mountain sections of Alabama
is peculiarly adapted to the business.
Revenue officers know well the danger
nSlt may lurk behind rocks and in the
bp denles and dark hollows of these
siiens .egions.
The loorsniHer is very much the
same in looks as theTarmer Of his re-
sion. Usually he is alert and shrewd
and suspicious of strangers. He is
the soul of hospitality to the stranger
whom he knows is not meddling; but
The stranger must walk straight, talk
openly end be abla to give a good &C.
count Of himself. his business and his
mission in the mountains. The noun.
taineer has hundred ways Of send.
inc messages. He is confirmed in his
ways; he will brook no outside inter-
ference and he is prepared to defend
himself and what he believes to be his
rights.
Made "Dew" 30 Years.
In the mountains Of Alabama there
is n hoary-haired member Of the tribe
who has been making mountain dew
for thirty years or more. More than
a thousand nights he has stood guard
in the lonely hills, resting on his rife
and ready at the slightest sound tc
send the warning to his fellow moon
sinners. He grows wrathy when he
speaks of the governments attitude
toward moon3hining.
Corn is usually worth somewhere
around fifty cents bushel,' the OLE
man says. 1T is a long way to tn,
market and frequently We can't sell /
when we reach there. By running 1
into whisky we provide a ready MAJ
ket for our corn. Good corn whisk
brings about $3.50 a gallon, so we ge
about S6 q bushel II We sell 1t tina
way.
I'VE raise most Of the corn mani
factuced into whisky and feel that W
have n moral right to prepare 1t fo
the market in the most profitable wa!
We concede that the revenue officer
have a right to arrest us, but we
not believe they have a right to d,
stroy and conflscate our property.
is this destruction of property that ha
caused moonshiners to become sue
bitter enemies of the revenue officers
He threw his long range repeatC
over his shoulder and disappeare
among the heights, while a sho,
heard from distant hill and thrC
taps of farm bell in reply from
neighooring valley told that all W;
we'll.