The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-09-20


commission for everything. Among
these was a commission on the
causes of crime, with especial re-
ference to the prohibition law. Vic
kersham, head of your crime COM
mission, had the temerity to sug-
gest that the enforcement of the
noble experiment should be left
more largely to the States. That
raised a row. The professional
prohibitionists roared like a lion
everywhere, and poor Wickersham
subsidized, and has not been heard
from since. Now the enforcement
of prohibition goes on with sawed
off shot guns, as usual.
Wickersham was wrong in his |
suggestion. If the matter were
left to the States there would be
everything, from NO enforcement
to enforcement with shot guns as
the matter now stands. What the
country needs is a sane system of
handling the liquor traffic, admin
istered by the central government
itself so that there will be the
same system prevailing everywhere
on continental US
We have tried prohibition. We
thought-most of us-that it might
work. At any rate theer was a
demand to get rid of the saloon.
That institution created drunken
ness because the saloon keeper
made money by selling more and
still more booze. He had to pay
big rent, light bills, bartenders,
music, and above all, heavy IL
cense which the community inflict-
ed upon him. The community made
moral face against liquor but
the community was willing to toll
crate the saloon keeper if he would
submit to being highjacked for the
benefit of the public treasury.
Thereby taxes were lowered. That
suited the moral forces which look
ed the other way and gave quiet
approval as the saloon keeper,
paying for his monopoly to peddle
booze, resorted to all srts of evil
tricks to get people to drink more
than they would drink if let to
their own devices.
Even the drinkers themselves got
tired of the saloon and TO them
must be glen the credit for wiping
that institution out.
Then we adopted prohibition.
Very few people realized what the
result would be. Few understood
that when you make a thing hard
to get you create an immediate
demand for it. That is human ma
ture. 1t operates in everything,
Men have been accustomed to drink
wine and other spirits for thous-
ands of years. Christ served wine
and invited his Disciples to drink
it on the night of the last supper
Up to very recently there was
no thought that the moderate use
of spirits was harmful, much less
criminal.
When the country woke up tx
what had been done there was {
natural resentment among a very
large section of the population
THE DEMAND FOR LIQUOR IN
CREASED. Where there is a de.
mand for a thing there will always
be found somebody who will take
any chance to satisfy that demand
NO MATTER WHAT THE HAZ.
ARD MAY BE. Put up a large
enough prize and there will be g
volunteer. We placed a large prize
upon liquor by attempting to dc
away with it, and Immediately we
created a new kind of liquor mer-
chant, known as the modern boot
logger.
You know what he is. But the
bootlegger, like the saloon keeper
is a product for which we, as q
community, are responsible. There
would never have been a saloon
keeper if we had not made it pro-
fitable to sell liquor. In the days
preceding the civil war when whis-
key could be bought for twenty
five cents a gallon, every grocery
store kept a barrel on tap. Any
body could help himself to what
he wanted, just as the grocers lat
er, kept a "poor box" where their
customers loaded their pipes with
cheap tobacco. Then the govern
ment, seeking revenue for war
purposes, taxed whiskey a dollar a
barrel. That was the first step to
make it luxury and people will
pay for luxuries. Later we began
the license system, and the price
went up. AS the price went up
more and more found it profitable
to sell it. It was the PROFIT they
wanted. If there had been moth
ing to be made selling whiskey no.
body would have sought monopo-
ly to sell it.
1t is useless to stick our heads
in the sand and try to make our
selves believe that we can stop the
sale of this stuff by making it
harder to get, or more dangerous
to handle. The contrary result has
been demonstrated. We made the
old saloon keeper, by passing IL
cense laws. We made the boot
logger by passing the prohibition
law. We are responsible for the
crimes of the system as much as
the bootlegger, because we GRE
ATED THE CRIME-BREEDING
SYSTEM.
We created system that is de-
bauching the youth of the land
both boys and girls. We created
a system that will undermine the
entire moral fabric of the nation
and cause its complete downfall
unless we make, CHANGE Give ~,