The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-03-08
Preparing Against the Deluge.
(New York Herald Tribune.)

It would be difficult to exaggerate the impor- tance of the task which group of religious, edu- cational and civic workers in this State have set themselves in seeking a substitute for Prohibition The tide against the present experiment is running stronger every day brings fresh evidence of it's egregious failure The dam erected by fanatics seems more than likely to give way in the not distant fu- ture, with possible consequences which no student | of the liquor problem either side of the con- troversy to contemplate. Now is the time to prepare plans against the orgy of license which is the natural reaction to that of sumptuary dctation l These plans in each should be State plans, since more fundamental than any other objection to the Eighteenth Amendment is it's departure from the framework of our constitutional system And New York whose rebellion against the Prohibition experiment is certainly intensive as that of any other State and the most extensive, thanks to her population figures should be the leader in their formulation. It is highly gratifying that she has assumed this leadership under the spur of citizens about whose disinterested public spirit there be not the slightest doubt
 So far, apparently, they prepared merely to define their objective. This is some form of State control the liquor traffic that the hand promotes temperance and on the other drives the bootlegger and his partner, the Government agent, out of business They recognize their problem as one of limiting the profit to be made from sell ing liquor that neither the od-typa saloon nor the speakeasy can flourish No doubt they will make careful studies of the Government dspensary system in vogue in Canada of the Swedish solution by way of private monopoly rigidly restricted of the new dispensation in Finland and of other models. And doubt too they will realize that not of these systems is applicable in all respects to the cond- tions here For example they will have to weigh the question whether it is feasible with political traditions to intrust the State Government directly with the manufacture and sale of liquor whether la monopoly carefully regulated like public service corporation would not be the better vehicle They will have to consider how best to promote the sale of beer and wine in competition with spirits And they will have to take into account the natural desire of New Workers to express their convivalty in public.
 In other cities people may be content to drink at home when they are allowed to purchase in bottle form from the dispensary store but here for the most part domestic quarters too cramped for other purposes than sleep. The gregarous instinct and normal drinkers indulge themselves ex- cept in gregarious mood-drives out citizens from their cells and to find companonship in restaurant, hotel club. It is no coincidence that New York today is honeycombed with speak easies other town in the country.
 Here then is very special situation to be met, illustrating, incidentally, the folly of any scheme that makes no allowance for local idioSyncrasies We have every confidence it can be met without saloon. but no simple formula however successful elsewhere, will suffice. What is needed is a con- scentious Investigation open mind and the will to fit the resultant program to human nature, and not the other way about, which is merely another way of saying that the problem requires just the sort of approach promised.