The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-09-28
7O,714 PERMITS ISSUED
UNDER u. S. DRY LAW
DRY AMERICA HAS $4,000 DOC
TORS AUTHORIZED TO GIVE.
WHISKY PRESCRIPTIONS.
100000 GALS.IN BOND
More Than $50 Warehouses Filled
With Liquor Alone; Supply Gets
to Trade, and the Thirsty W'ayfar-
er May Yet Buy a Drink.

er May Yet Buy a Drink.
WASHINGTON. D. C.-There
were in full effect on September 1
grand total of 70,714 government
permits for the sale or use of intoX-
icating liquor in one form and an
other. That amazing figure was con-
tanned in statement made by DIR.
A. B. Adams, head of the division of
technology of Commissioner Kra-
mer's Office, who passes upon and
actually issues the liquor permits.
There are $1,000 doctors, in dry
America, who possess government
permits to write prescriptions call
ing for not more than pint of
whisky to a patient at a time.
Of the 70,714 government permits
of one kind and another, through
which the holders are authorized to
import, export, manufacture, distill,
buy or sell whisky and other intoX-
icating liquors there were, on Sep
TENDER /, total of 3,846 wholesale
permits. The wholesale permits COM
pose the spigot of the big booze bar
rel, and all the other permits, far
greater in number but less potent
in meaning, form merely the trail of
the red herring across the real
tracks.
Ninety Per Cent Not Necessary.
Ninety per cent of those wholesale
permits are not necessary, Doctor
Adams declared.
"Those wholesalers are the buga-
boos of the adequate enforcement
of the prohibition law. 1t is through
them that the whisky flows unre-
strained. Those wholesalers are sup
posed to sell liquor only to the hold
ers of other permits-holders of per-
mits authorizing sale and possession
of liquor for various purposes.
But by Juggling of books and 9TH
er ways that are dark, and tracks
that are vain, the law is sidestepped
Some idea of the reasons why the
thirsty wayfarer may buy a drink
with ease, or carry home a quart of
whisky in such cities as New York,
Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Bal
timore, Chicago and San Francisco is
revealed by the number of those
wholesale permits effective in these
particular cities.
New York state leads the list, with
the astounding total of 1879 whole
sale permits for wholesale traffic in
whisky, regardless of several thous-
and other permits which authorize
possession" In Pennsylvania there
are 767 wholesale permits; in Illinois
3O6; in Kentucky 206; in California
1853; in Massachusetts, co. and in
Maryland GA.
There are now in bonded ware
/ houses-more than $50 of them
throughout the United States more
than 5O,000,000 gallons of whisky,
that is "known" whisky-whisky OF
which the internal revenue depart
ment has a record. That immense
stock of liquor is whisky alone; 1t
does not include rum, gin, brandy
and other such "hard stuff, )" nor does
it take into account the vast stocks
of wines, foreign liquors, cham
pagnes, etc.
Access to Ocean of Liquor.
By virtue of their permits those
3,S46 wholesalers have free and easy
access to this ocean of liquor, osten-
siblv for lawful "non-beverage" pur-
poses, but actually majority OF
them are serving as the great, spe-
cially privileged underground pipe
line to the bootlegger, the saloon
that still thrives under its near
beer" camaflouge, the gay cabaret
and the circumspect baron, who sells
| in 1OO-case lots only.