The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1912-1984, 1915-07-09
Where Kentucky Comes In.

Where Kentucky Comes In.
The houor interests are appealing
through tne advertising columns Of the
press 10 the pretended self-interest OF
Kentucky Taxpayers, urging them for
their own pecurjary benefit, TO ep-
nose statewide prohibition. Such an
appeal more than suggests, 1t asserts
partnership in the liqsor traffic
existing between the commonwealth
and the distillers and brewers.
Kentucky distileries do some $780,
coo. 900 the year business, according
to their own reckoning; the whole
liquor trade pays into the State for
licenses and taxes S57l .254.15; and
the upkeep of the lunatic asXlums
and prisons of Kentucky and the eX-
'penses Of criminal prosecutions total
approximately 100000 Here's the
industry that produces lunaticS, pau
pers and criminals, what we get out
of il and what it costs us ~ take care
OF the ultimate consumers Some
how, when the minions of the eastern
syndicate. which controls the whisky
output i'm Kentucky, or the foreign
brewers put it up to US on partner
ship basis we are dimly conscious of
feeling that we are being subsidized
and that on "piker" basis.
To he conservative, Wen say three
fourths the pauperism, crime and lu-
macy is due directly to the use of al
coholic stimulants. It's really more
than that: but we'll Ne moderate. Thus
a glance suffices to show that the al
stimulants pay in revenue to
the State only sufficient to meet one
third the actual expense they occasion
by reason of the evils, which flow
from the traffic, TO place no financial
estimate upon the deaths it produces,
the sorrow it inflicts, the suffering il
engenders, the corrupting influence IL
exerts upon the electorate and the
courts of justice, and the outrages 1t
erpetrates in the secret manipula-
lions of its legislative lobby.
But the partnership does exist.
Now, let us see what they put into it
and what tae Commonwealth of Ken
lucky contributes toward the prosperi-
ty of the concern. The most valuable
asset of the whisky business is the
name Kentucky" Without it the
liquor would not be worth as much as
the barrels that contain it. 1t is a
grand old name, a historic name. an
honorable distinction. Kentucky gives
the whisky a name and takes there
fore a meager half million dollars
that does not by a third pay for the
damage the business does. Against
this name the eastern syndicate has
pat in four walls and roof to house
the barreled goods, distilling plant,
the raw material to make the liquor
and the price of comparatively cheap,
common labor for a part of each year.
We get nothing but the worst of IT
out of the partnership, and yet the
crime and misery and deterioration
of our citizenship at home are not all
the evils we suffer. What of the name
of "Kentucky" associated with the
liquor traffic? How is Kentucky ad-
vertised in our sister Commonwealth
by this partnership in the liquor bust
ness? What is statewide prohibition
but a quarantine against liquor, and
the Webb-kenyon act Of Congress but
the denouncing of it as a contraband
of commerce and the traffic as nefari-
Gus?
Would any Kentuckian like to have
the San Jose scale, for instance.
known as the Kentucky scale" or the
Foot and Mouth Disease" known a.
the Kentucky diSease?" The worst
that could happen would be for other
States to quarantine against It; yet
here we have two border States quar-
antined against Kentucky whisky,
and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Nilsson
ri in addition have described severe
ly restricted areas. Eight more States
are TO vote this year on such quar-
antine. and whatever the quarantine
is established, the name Kentucky
stands for n contra band article, seen
by respectable people only as the label
on a bottle standing on the table Of
the prosecuting attorney as evidence
in the trial of some low brOwed boot
logger. The bootlegger also becomes a
partner along with the whisky trust
and the Commonwealth Of Kentucky
in This nefarious business.
The spread Of statewide prohibit
ton may well give Kentuckians con
Germ; for the very name of their be-
loved Blue Grass II dragged in the
filth Of infamy by il, to become rec
ognized as the home of the social
curse, a parish among States, the Bar
barry Coast of America. whence the
traffickers in rum are made secure
through the pittance they pay for the
privilege to carry on their Illicit trade,
like the pirates who once infested the
northern coast of Africa.
If we are to continue this partner
ship, let's not be "piKers;" let's make
the whisky trust split fifty-fifty with
US on the profits and offset our re-
sultant crime, poverty and lunacy
with nice treasury balance. Then
we may look the rest of prohibition
America in the face, at least and say
we may be wicked, but we're not
fools.