Evening star., 1933-12-13
BOOTLEG PROBLEM
FAR FROM SOLVED
Tax Revenue Estimates Ex-
pected to Be Found Exag-
gerated After Year.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

The bootlegger-unfair competitor OF
lawful liquor makers and foe OF the
Governments revenue collectorS-at
last seems to have been recognized as a
fact and not a theory.
For several weeks members of the
legitimate industry, willing and anxious
to pay taxes, eager to win the trade
from the bootlegger if the Government
would only cooperate, have been try
ing to convince officialdom that the way
to drive out the bootlegger was to de-
velop real competition for him.
Mixed and conflicting purposes, on
the other hand, soon cropped out in the
formulation of governmental policy.
Desire to keep the American people
from drinking to excess motivated one
group, who thought that the abandon
ment of one kind of Federal prohibition
could be followed by the establishment
of another kind but still with Federal
control supreme. More attention was
given to methods of circumScribing the
activities Of the lawful industry than of
running the unlawful out of business.
Plead for Low Tax.
All through the discussions the men
who came to Washington to cooperate
with the Government pleaded for a low
tax, especially the first year, and Wig
orouS enforcement of the laws against
tax evasion at all times.
Government officials listened, but
were governed more by a fear of the
evils of drinking excesSes than by the
economics and the marketing problems.
A strict supervision by the Government
has been written into all the codes.
Thus, while there is no law specifically
authorizing an embargo on foreign
liquors, every importer doing business
in the United States must have a
license under the code system and one
Of the conditions that must be met be-
fore a license is granted is a written
agreement that no liquor will be
brought in except with Government
permission. This gives all the powers
of an embargo to the Government and
enables the administration to set up
arbitrary quotas for each foreign
country.
But it does more-it virtually controls
the output of Whiskies and alcoholic
beverages and the quantity permitted
to go on the American market
All would be simple if the Federal
Government were to control the illegit-
innate industry and the Smuggler too.
The men who invested millions of dol
lars in the liquor industry are ready
to accept Government supervision, but
not Government ownership. They are
willing to pay taxes and abide by i'm
port quotas, but they want the boot
logger run out of business
Arrest of All Impossible.
How can this be done? Only by fore
ing the competition all along the line
For the Federal Government is believed
to be incapable, with its small prohibi-
ton force, of arresting all the violators.
1t is true public sentiment did not
assist in prosecuting liquor law Of
tenders under the eighteenth amend
ment, but it is also true that the boot
leg industry is now well entrenched
and will surrender only to one econom-
ic weapon-the retail price. 1t is said
that at present prices the bootlegger
who evades the tax can still afford to
pay tribute to local police for protec-
tion and sell his products below the
prices now being asked by the legiti-
mate industry.
President Roosevelt's Interdepart-
mental Committee made its first blum
der by setting tax so high that it has
brought an unfavorable reaction. The
President now tells the House Ways
and Means Committee to fix its own
schedule and warns that the tax shall