The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-11-14
LEACH TAKES A LICK AT
LOOSE ENFORCEMENT OF Law
CLeesburg Commercially


ton as foundation for jest. 1t is al
joke-a CHASTITY joke.
1t is not the citizenship known as
the "wet" element that has made the
joke but the dilettante methods Of the
enforcement officers have made joke
CO Volsteadism.
Federal enforcement officers trick
restaurant keepers into furnishing a
little liquor and then arrest the de-
fenseless proprietor or waiter or
both. Half a dozen thimblefu1s have
been sold, the seller believing that he
is doing something to please a patron
or friend.
Meanwhile in the swamps or woods
outlying, there are big stills guarded
day and night by men who might be-
come desperate. Their force, as op-
posed to the mighty army of Volstead
law enforcement officers, is puny, but
it is force and some officer might risk
bodily injury. So the moonshiner
fourishes and his little shotgun
daunts the nine million dollars worth
of enforcement army. And the moon
sinner makes poison stuff that de-
stroys the health of those who drink
it while the restaurant keeper usu-
ally tries to get something like his
patron used, possibly from childhood
to ripe and healthy middle age.
There is too much CUFF about this
prohibition business. We have let a
sentimental and hypocritical air of
"sacredness" enfold the word and
have refused to look facts squarely
in the face.
Not far from Leesburg there is
moonshine being manufactured. We
know it merely because it appears
from time to time and our own county
officers sometimes find it. But those
little tidbits of hangers-on who are
absorbing the immense sum of money
set aside by the federal government
each year for payment to those poll
ticians of small caliber who make up
the rank and file of the enforcement
Amy, do not beat the woods and find
these stills. If they were serious
purposed men they would form a
band big enough to overcome any
force that was brought to bear upon
them by moonshiners and they would
raid the stills and put these prisoners
where they belong, in the chain gang.
| Please understand us-we believe the
place for every home brewer or moon
sinner who makes liquor for sale is in
the chain gang; as for the home
brewer who makes the stuff for him
self, if his conscience lets him do it,
that is his business.
| But some of these agents go even
further in the easy way than picking
up a few restaurant and hotel men
who can't pack up and leave. We were
told the other day of a scheme that
was worked whereby bootlegger OF
imported liquor was "bunked" out OF
his wares, not as a punishment or In
the name of the government, not tt
en- force the law, but merely that some
illegal profits might be "whacked up.
In league with one of the regular Gus.
toners of a certain bootlegger who
was en- route from the east coast with
a Cargo" prohibition officers got ii
behind him just before he reached the
city where this customer has a place
of business. They rode him pretty
hard and he ran to the establishment
where he sometimes sells his stuff anc
asked that his "cargo" be taken of
his hands quickly. The proprietor
parleyed; said he didn't have the room
to store it where it wouldn't be found
said he was short of cash, and finally
bought the whole cargo for little more
than a couple of cases would sell fol-
at retail
Such thing as this cannot help but
bring enforcement into disrepute and
so much that is not right and not in
accordance with the tenets of proper
law enforcement are happening right
jalong in this detestable business that
it cannot help but become a CHASTITY
Joke. And the citizen who drops his
dollars into the outstretched pot fol
the fund to assist in enforcing the Law
IS simply encouraging a lot of easy
llvers who can get higher wages doing
less work that way than any other
There are some serious minded and
sincere prohibitionists working fol
salaries under organizations that beg
for funds, but they are made ridicu-
lous by some of the weak vessels upon
whom they depend for final results
The farce is pitiful
To show our readers that we are
in earnest in what we have to say
lalong this line we will make this
|