The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-03-28
THE LIQUOR BUSINESS THE ENEMY
OF ALL OTHER BUSINESS

., The liquor business is the inveterate and
most destructive enemy of every other
kind of business. As the liquor business
grows all other kinds of business decrease,
for the very simple reason that the liquor
business completes with every other bust
ness in the country for the money of the
people; and dollar spent for liquor is re-
moved from the channels of legitimate
trade and cannot be spent for food, cloth
ing or other necessities.
The competition of the liquor business
with legitimate business has been greatly
lessened in this country during a decade
and a half of prohibition. Despite all
propaganda to the contrary, the country s
bill for illicit liquor has amounted to only
a fraction of the country's bill in pre-pro-
hibition days for alcoholic drinks that were
manufactured and sold under the sanction
of law. All informed citizens, wet and
dry, know this statement to be a state
ment of fact.
The sum total of results has been very
substantial contribution by prohibition TO
the general welfare and progress Of the
country General business in this country
has been in the past decade and half
much better than it would have been if two
billion dollars or more of the peoples
money had gone to distillers, brewers and
retailers of alcohol instead Of going into
the regular channels of trade. The de-
crease of the demand for alcohol cut the
country's liquor bill from more than two
billion dollars annually to fraction Of
that amount. The money spent in pre-prO-
hibition days for alcohol went into the reg
ular channels of trade under prohibition
this money was spent by the people for the
necessities and Injuries of life.
Can any intelligent and informed citizen
believe that if the country had continued
to spend billions of dollars annually for
alcohol, as was done in the pre- prohibition
era, the country could have reached the
pinnacle of good business, of commercial
expansion and prosperity attained in the
years between 1920 and 1880? Of course
the breaking down of the legalized liquor
traffic was not the only cause of this CX-
pansion, development and prosperity. The
Times-News makes no such claim; but it is
clear to intelligent and informed citizens,
whose thinking is not controlled by their
appetites for alcohol or who are free from
prejudice on the subject, that a most sub
stantial and far-reaching contribution to
this period of development and prosperity
was made when the United States outlawed
the liquor business.
Now-one thing is certain-and that is
that legalizing the manufacture and sale
of alcohol in any form, in all or part OF
sumption of beverage alcohol. The beauti-
full theory of the liquor crOwd-cOncOcted
for circulation among those men and wonl-
en- of the country who are honestly OBJ
posed to liquor, but who lack information
or the moral courage to fight the liquor
business-that beautiful theory is that I'M
der legalized manufacture and sale there
will be no illicit manufacture and sale, that
illicit makers, mOOnshiners, bOOtleggers
and speakeasy operators will all be sud-
denly converted and transformed into
good, law-abiding citizens; and that the
alcohol now made and sold illicitly will
then be made and sold under sanction Of
law and the government will get the ''reve-
moo
THAT is not merely a theory of the dis
tillers, brewers and prospective handlers