The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-04-03
WEDNESDAY. APRIL :. 1912
WHrIsT CRIME Il INJECTED.

II is a half-les; that, sooner or later. dry
North Carolina will drink wet Virginia dry ,
This assertion arises. of course. from the I'm
rnense quantities Of Intoxicating liquors which
are annually shipped from Virginia to North
Carolina cities. 1t ceases to Be any sort of
Jest when the money which flows in from the
corruption Of neghboring State Is made the
means of perpetuating the traffic in whiskey
In this State Unless such a process of reasoning
stops. Virginia can contemplate the future time
when she will be providing the unlimited supply
which half dozen other commemorative will be
engaged in the futile effort to consume, Such
basis of prosperity will. Of course, find its own
answer In its greed
That 1, has already commenced 10 find It Is
psrtially evidenced by the regularity with which
Taited States courts indict distllers for fraudu-
lent practice. Only Monday sixteen indictments
were returned against large local distillery.
This is firm which has capital and business
standing Yet the indictments charge not only
: violation of the legal agreements which 1t
enters into with the government but the cor
rnption of government officer party TO
the fraud Worse than all. the of this dis
tiIiers Is a case that lis bnt Of part with a
cynical understanding in the trade Everybody
who has 10 do with liquor knows that it ia, that
It must be crooked to succeed in any OF
It's larger manifestations Among government
officers and others these lapses on the part of
institutions financially responsible and quoted as
financial assets are understood 10 be based on
fraud With them the eleventh commandment
Is the only one. When they break that and are
found out. there is a scurrying TO make sure
that they escape in the courts for the sake Of
wealth and prestige what the small offender OBJ
tains with sickening regularity.
There has been aroused by the Allen Il
number OF honllies the more or less romantic
business of "Inoonshining Go TO any typical
term of Federal criminal court, and you will see
one or more of these ignorant and misguided men
sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta,
D: ELSEWHERE, You will them rooted up from
a primitive life, BE- made aware of the ex-
treme majesty of the law. Listen at the same
term to the case of some distiller who has been
caught in consistent and longcontinued frauds
agains, the government Do you witness de-
psrture for the penitentiary Of some one Of the
defendants with a diamond in his shrtfront?
Emphatically. You do not Instead, you hear a
trial something like problem in double-entry
bookkeeping In the course OF which Govern
fnent experts endeavor TO show that the defend
ants stole SO much. and the attorneys for the
defense that they stole much less After the
Judge has passed upon the equations. the mat
ter as a rule is compromised by fine TO cover
estimated costs of the peculaton and the cost of
the Government ascertaining. well as IL might,
how much 1t was
j, All sog Which sheMss the Responsibility Of the
Government, of the people, of the Courts for
condition that IN worse than any liquor problem
the condition of doublefaced law. shifting
standard with money as the weight that turns
the scale. That II appears more frequently in
the case of whiskey is due solely to the fact that
whskey Is so much Of an outlaw that not
It's best friends and defenders expect to find It
either without concealed weapons, or shooting
from ambush.
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