Valdez daily prospector., 1916-11-03
Supreme Court UphoIds
 Liquor Business as Lawful

"If Prohibitiou does not prohibit, why do liquor men fight its adop- tion?"
 This Is the query continually hurl- cd forth by dry" writers and the an- swer is found in the fact that under license, regulation and control legit- innate business can be conducted. while under prohibition this whole industry becomes illegal.
 The presence of nineteen dry" atates means absolutely nothing in-so- far as prohibition is concerned for the annual reports of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue show that the av- craze consumption of liquors is not Affected by the presence of these dry" states. No one would offer the 2sinine suggestion that this consump- ton is due to the fact that the licensed :tates have agreed to consume what the prohibition states may decide to forego. The truth is that beer, wine and whiskey are as popular in Maine, Tennessee, Georgia, Kansas and other dry" territory as they are in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and other states where the right to drink or not to drink is respected and left to the individual.
 1 As to the question, "Why then fight prohibition if it does not prohibit?" there are many distinct reasons for opposing the doctrines of this quack nOstrum.
 The liquor industry with it's many millions of invested capital is a legiti- mate business. The Supreme Court of the United States in the famous Warehouse Receipt Case, decided Jan- uary 26, 1914, used the following language when speaking of the liquor business: But we know of no ground for thus condemning honest transa = tions which grow out of the recogniz- cd necessities of lawful business
 The distiller and liquor dealer de- sire to defend the legal status of their business. They want the people of the country to know that the men in the business desire to conduct their affairs in a clean and legal manner rather than have their goods fall into the hands of lawless element, ever ready to defy all laws.
 The liquor dealer in favor of li- Cense. regulation and control is natu- rally and necessarily opposed to the encouragement and necessarily op- posed to the encouragement and pro- lection of the bootlegger. blind tiger and moonshiner. Without directly saying so, "dry" propaganda encour- ages these three criminal products following the enactment of prohibit ton law.
 People who think intelligently know, from conditions in "dry" states that the illegal and unlawful manu- facture of liquor under prohibition would flood the country with wave of vice and crime There would be no license to pay and no regulation of hours during which liquor could be sold. because the prohibitionists di- rect their strength against the manu- facture of liquor for sale. Thinking people realize that prohibitionists could never make regulation against it's use. any more than they could regulate our consumption of tea. cof- fee or milk.
 When state is voted dry" which is usually by very scant majority, it is easy to see that the demand for li- quor does not cease. but the demand for the higher, better and purer grades of liquor such as are used when sold in legitimate channels, ceases and the demand begins for the bootleg, speak-easy trash. the selling of which is detrimental to the legiti- mate liquor business in every way.