The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1921-08-12
FISHERIES DOOMED TO BANKRUPTCY
But Loss of Wine Trade OF Ice
land to Spain Is Little; Popu-
lation of Iceland 100000
ICELAND DRYS APPEAL To AMERICA
Call Upon Drys of This Country
to Give Moral Support to
Resisting Demand

The Prohibition law OF Iceland. the
,1rst country in the world to adopt a
national dry policy, is in jeopardy
Iceland enacted her prohibitory law in
1912. 1t forbids the manufacture, sale
and importation of Intoxicating liq-
uors.
There is no desire on the part OF the
people of Iceland to repeal this law.
In fact there has been no movement
launched against it by the remnant OF
the liquor interests that may be on the
island, and yet the national dry law is
in great danger.
Spain Demands Repeal of Dry Law
Spain has delivered an ultimatum to
Iceland and has given her but three
months TO reply. That ultimatum
summarized is an order for Iceland TO
repeal her prohibitory law so that all
wines containing upwards to q per
cent of alcohol may be freely i'm
ported and sold Tbs penalty for re-,
'fusal to comply with this impudeh,
demand is Spains refusal to renew
trade agreement with Iceland. The
cracker in this lash that this larger
country is applying to the back OF the
little country is this; Spain threatens
TO double the duties on Clip Fish from
Iceland and consequently Iceland's
fisheries are doomed to bankruptcy il
the threat is carried out, for Spain is
Iceland's chief market for this product.
The demand puts Iceland in a speci-
ally serious predicament at this time
because the Icelandic Parliament will
not meet until February, 1922, unless
called in special session, and an extra
session means a heavy financial bur
den TO the people. The government
of Iceland accordingly has asked the
Spanish government for an extension
of time for reply until the Parliament
can meet in regular session but at
this writing so far as is known, this
request has not been granted.
Sample of Liquor Interests Idea of
Fair Dealing
The situation presents fair example
of the liquor interests idea of fair deal
ing. The world over they are forever
protesting against what they term
sumptuary legislation. In our country
they are even demanding that the
method of amending the Constitution
be changed and that the Eighteenth
Amendment be submitted to vote of
the people But where they have the
opportunity they think nothing Of
blackjacking whole nation into sub
mitting to licensing the traffic which
Aas been outlawed by regularly enacted
Nw.
A Stab at Prohibition
The act is the more contemplate.
too, in view of the fact that the sale of
Intoxicating wines in Iceland little
island with scarcely 100000 inhabi-
tants, can not mean much financially
to Spain. The feeling persists, there
fore, that this demand comes from the
liquor interests of Europe, not for the
little financial gain that might come
to those interests from the sale Of
wine in Iceland, but for the gain that
would come to them through repeal
ing the Prohibition law in the first
country of the world to adopt such a
law on a national basis. In other
words, they would regard it the first
step towards reaction against the
Prohibition reform in the Scandi-
navian countries.
An Old Trick
1t is not the first time that this
blackjack method has been used.
Similar pressure was brought to bear
in Norway by France at one time.
However. it is gratifying to know that
France just recently set notable cx-
ample in similar circumstance when
she lmade trade agreeemnt with Fin
iaasi. No pressure from France was
Wrought to bear whatever upon this