The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-02-21
PROHIBITION ON THE DEFENSIVE

The national House of Representatives is now
probing the operation of the prohibition apparatus
and the testimony given before its judiciary COM
mittee to date sheds new and penetrating light on
the situation that exists thruout the country as
result of ten-year effort to abolish the liquor
evil by he prohibition method
In the senate Burton K. Wheeler Junior senator
from Montana introduced resolution authorizing
the senate judiciary committee to conduct another
investigation of similar but possibly more far
reaching nature. Unusual interest has been excit-
ed by the Wheeler move because of the fact that
our junior senator voted dry ten years ago and has
been listed since among the supporters of
Volsteadism.
Senator Wheeler in his remarks when offering
his resolution did not declare that he had changed
his mind on the question but he is alarmed like
millions of others who formerly supported the dry
laws, the appalling conditions resulting from
the attempt to enforce the Volstead law. He wants
to have the conditions reported in newspapers and
magazines by responsible persons, investigated by
the senate, and newspapers have reported him to
say that if it be shown that the prohibition
laws cannot be enforced, they should be repealed
The Producers News welcomes Senator Wheeler's
effort to bring before the bar of congress the
facts concerning prohibition enforcement We
have enough confidence in Senator Wheeler's in
prohibition laws tend TO defeat the aim for which
they were supported by millions of American vot-
ers he will join the ranks of those who favor tenn
perance by persuasion rather than coercion and
will study the systems of government liquor dis
trlbutlon and control adopted by other countries
with view to adapting the best features of them
to the condition existing in the United States
The Producers News is and will be in favor of
any system that shows promise of reducing the
consumption of liquor and other intoxicating bey-
erages on the part of the people We don't pro-
less to see any considerable virtue in liquor eth
er as beverage or medicine We believe il is a
liquid that the human system would be much bet
ter off without. For this reason we are opposed
to prohibition because it has done more to hinder
the progress that was being made in the direction
OF temperance than all the saloons that ever in
tested the land
prohibition should convince every honest citizen
that you cannot change peoples personal habits
10y decree or with shotgun. Even the fanatical
drys now admit that the United States is an ocean
of poisoned booze. Yet we must confess to having
good deal of respect for the honest fanatic who
would make the people sober even at the point of
sawed-off shotgun, but for the grafters and No
lltical yeggmen who have utilized the antinatbv IF
the people to alcoholism as step ladder into Of
flee and graft, we have nothing but the utrnost
contempt. In this category can be found the of
flclaldom of the Anti-Saloon League and their no.
hncal fuglemen, many of whom get gloriouslv
drunk few hours after they pass laws or attach
their signatures to them, that consign men and
women to long terms in jail for having a pint of
liquor in their possession.
Those who still have some illusions left regard
ing the prohibition laws and their defenders should
read Walter W. Liggetts article michigan soused
and Serene" in the current issue of Plain Talk tt
is convincer
Prohibition is on the defensive It's doom is
sealed.