The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-08-18
POURING WHISKEY INTO DRY
STATES
Literary Digest)

Literary Digest)
Thirsty jewellers in prohibition
states and local option territory ar
ordering by mail and receiving
promptly by express some 10000, 90,
gallons of whiskey each year, accord
ing to press summaries of recen
Interstate Commerce decision.
Mail order liquor houses mainl
located in the south, several in dr..
territory, are growing prosperous il
supplying this rapidly increasing de
mand, while state authorities hav'
their hands tied by the interstat,
commerce clauses of the national con
,stitution. This means, say sucl
thoughtful papers as the Springfield
Republican and the Ri hmond Times
Dispatch, that the only way prohibl
! tion can really be made to prohibit
will be for the federal government
to step in and repress or regulate the
interstate traffic in intoxicants.
The startling facts mentioned came
out in the course of an inquiry start.
ed at the complaint of the Southern
Mail Order Liquor Dealers associa-
ton about year ago, that they were
being Disseminated against by GER
tain regulations of the express COM
,panies. Commissioner McChord wrote
the decision holding that the express
companies may require liquor pack
ages to be shipped in corrugated pa
per cartons, but forbidding a trans
portation charge based on arbitrary
weights and discrimination against
stone jugs. He went on to say:
1T was the spread of the prohibt-
ton movement that gave vitality to
this character of traffic in liquor.
With statewide prohibition came the
interstate traffic in liquor. The de-
cisiOn of the supreme court that the
traffic was interstate, and therefore
superior to interference by the state
governments, gave the industry a
tremendous impetus and established
the express companies as the carriers
OF practically the whole of this traf-
fic.
THE movement is much more ac>
tive in the south than in other Sec
tons OF the country, partly because
of the large quantities of very cheap
manufactured there for con-
by the negro population.
The opinion closes with the signif-
cant statement that while it is not
the function of the commission to
pass upon the moral aspects of the
case, it is nevertheless considered
that this traffic has an evil effect
On and is one of the important fac
tors in the race problem in the
SOUTH This is the way it seems to
The Springfield Republican:
lone of the main reasons for the
laws in the southern
states was the desire to separate the
negro from whiskey. The south was
ull of villianous low-type saloons
'atronized by the blacks, and they
we're nurseries of crime in the mos,
sinister sense of the phrase. White
'entlemen,' it was understood, woulc
till find a way to decanter it in their
ZONES, hotels and clubs, but reform
vas necessary for the black brother.
Immediately stepped in the mail or
Ter whiskey house located in some
leighboring state, with it's license
lnder federal court decisions to do
Interstate business in the Original
package" 1t is amazing how the
groes have made this trade prosper.
the traffic continues to develop
nd we must remember that it now
as record of 100000 gallons
year-the question of federal sup
ression or regulation of the trade,
4 spite of the constitutional difficult
les, may become an issue which con-
ress can not ignore"
In Richmond, a city exporting half
million gallons of whiskey annual
Z, the Times-Dispatch comes out in
n editorial welcoming federal inter-
ention as the ultimate solution Of.
lie prohibitory problem. We read:
1T is an entirely new feature OF
ne whisky question that the mail
rder houses have been doing bust
ess with the colored people of the
'uth in the prohibition states; and
lis is a feature which will go a
ing way toward federal legislation
pom the subject which will make
criminal offense for express COM
anies and other public carriers to
'ceive or transport or deliver pack
ges containing intoxicants to any
lrchasers."
1t Is even more surprising to be
formed that Aug, sta and Savan- I
IN, Ca, both important towns in
'ohibition state, are engaged in the
all order whiskey business, the
rmer to the extent of 215,150 gal
ms and the latter to the extent of
10000 gallons the year. 4
There is something radically wrong
It'll the law or with it's administra-
IN, when such thing as this is I
ssible, and it is as certain as any
ing can be. that the law will be
heightened and it's administration $
forced even If it shall be necessary !
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