Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1921-04-16
SATURDAY. APRIL 10. 1927.
where the Bootlcgecr Wins

NV HEN the saharans were going up ana
NV down the country preaching the doc
Urine of legslating away the national thirst
Through the simple expedient Of the cigh-
fteenth amendment. they rubbed the palms
Eof their hands unctuously and pooh-poohed
1.-THE very idea that the country ever would
imiss the loss of revenue consequent upon
1.-The success OF their propaganda. They were
IgoinE to save to the country in lessened eN-
penses OF jails, penitentiaries, asylums and
poorhouses more, oh! far more, than 1t ever
shad collected in revenue from the accursed
strafic.
i They still pooh-pooh their pooh poohs,
sbut the jails and the asylums and the poor
sllouses still are open and doing business,
the outlawed traffic is unprccedentedly pros
sperous, because it is all profit with no bur
D. sdensome financial obligations to pay in the
Esway of taxes, and the government. lin these
Edays of money STRESS is looking lQngingy
! Eat the rich rewards of the bootleggers which
ssthe Treasury Department has failed to touch
$.But the Saharans should worry, so long as
they have succeeded in transferring the
TRAFFIC from legitimate to illegtimate chan
nels, and cap keep every one thirsty except
such as have the price and the disregard
sof consequences to traffic in dark alleys for
swood alcohol and other dcath-dcaling con-
ecoctions Their financial theories went
wrong, but they are letting the government
lido the worrying
The internal Revenue Bureau estimates
that in the last year bootleggcrs have piled
8up profit OF $1,000, 100000 and that the
government Joss in income and excess prof,
taxes is, perhaps, $500, 900 900 which would
have paid its interest on the war debt. That
lis its loss on liquor witkdrnwn from the
bonded warehouses. No one can even es
ftimate what has been lost through tho
operations Of Illicit distillers No wonder
that the government is becoming peeyish
Rand is casting about for some way in which
sfto force the Illicit traffic to divide it's gains.
TBut the government is in an anomalous no.
sition. 1t is hardly so fatuous as To expect
men so dishonest as to violate tho linuor
laws to be nonest enough TO steD nm and
pay over part Of their profits at tho re-
quest of government that is ready 10
reward their honesty with a term in iail
Not: to proceed against them. I'm the light
OF their confessed criminalty, would he
merely to iesa!ize the traffic. Should such
"a step be taken tho government should go
Jurther and enter into partnership with
The gamblers the burglars, the highway
men, and all others who violate the law 70
their own profit.
III The Treasury Department may as we'll
IBID farewell forever to that source Of revo.
nue. No one wants it to join hands viii,
HE booteggers for a share in their soi,od
money. But the government might VOL,
remove the cause of its chagrin bv stirrinr
=up its division Of law enforcement IN nm
activity that would make bookkeeping ,oo
dangerous to be profitable. That is tho only
course left 10 tho government so long os
tho eighteenth amendment remains nm
amended, or the Volstead law unliberaljzad