The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1922-06-24

in This Matter-Either Destroy
Traffic of Shipping Board BY Lit
eral Interpretation of Volstead Act
Or 1t Can Remove u. S. Govern
ment From Ranks of BootIegging
Activities.
Chairman Lasker of the Shipping
| Board is bitterly resentful because a
st. Louis brewer wrote letter to
President Harding alleging that the
United States government is ''incom-
parabiv the biggest bootlegger in the
world" says the New York World.
Congress is in a state of mind be-
cause Representative Gallivan, of
| Massachusetts, has read into the Rec
ord the wine card of one of the Ship
ping Board liners, which verifes what
the st. Louis brewer said.
To Chairman Lasker The Busch
charges are proof of a desire to re-
habilitate the German merchant ma
rine by injuring the American mer-
chant marine, which seems to be go
ing far afeld for an explanation. The
evident motive of Mr.. Busch was to
call attention to the official hypocrisy
that spends millions in enforcing the
Volstead law on land while openly
violating it at sea for the financial
profit of the government itself.
Undoubtedly the Volstead law ap-
plies to ships flying the American
flag. 1t was so held by the Depart
ment of Justice when Mr.. Palmer was
attorney general, and that is thu OBJ
v:0us interpretation. American. chips
have the legal status on American
territory.
1t was found, however, that the
Shipping Board could not operate
passenger vessels on a prohibition
basis in competition with the British,
French, Italians and Dutch, so the
Board has wisely been following the
advice of its own counsel who null
lifted the Volstead law outside the
three-mile limit. That was the only
practical thing to do. The alterna-
tive was the sacrifice of the merchant
marine so far as passenger traffic
was concerned.
Mr.. Lasker's reply to Mr.. Busch
would have been more impressive if
it had been free from personal vitup-
Grafton and had been confined to the
issue. The United States government
is unquestionably the biggest boot
logger in the world. 1t has been
made so by a cowardly and hypocrit-
zeal Congress dominated by the Anti
Saloon League. A citizen who calls
the Presidents attention to that fact
is not necessarily an agent of German
| shipping interests. He may be moth
| ing worse than logically minded, and
hence incapable of understanding the
legal or moral difference between
private individuals selling a glass of
| beer on land and the United States
| government selling glass of whisky
at sea, both transactions being car
ried on for profit.
In deciding to disregard the Vol
stead law the Shipping Board fol-
| lowed the only line of action open to
it unless it was prepared to tie up it's
ships and let them rust as monuments
to fanaticism, which permitted pri-
vate lobby to dictate legislation. Con-
| sequently we have the extraordinary
spectacle of paid agents of the
United States government chasing
bell boys up and down Broadway for
selling liquor to hotel guests while
| few miles from Broadway other paid
agents of the United States govern
ment are wearing white aprons and
freely selling everything from beer
| to Jamaica rum, with Scotch at 25
cents drink. If that were not
enough, the Shipping Board is COM
PEELED to charge five cents more for
American rye than for Scotch be-
cause all the rye must b obtained by
direct violation of the Enforcement
| Act.
Congress can take one of two
courses in this matteS 1t can destroy
the passenger traffic, Of the United
States Shipping Board by insisting
on literal Interpretation of the Vol
stead law or it can remove the United
States government from the rank OF
out-and-out bootleggers by authoriz-
! ing the Shipping Board to do legally
what it is now doing by notification.
Will it emancipate itself long enough
from the realities of the merchant
! marine?