The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-10-30
THAT NEW AND BETTER
WAY


A young newspaper editor IN
one of the towns in Western
North Carolina, who is waging a
fight in his county for the vets,
asserts with a great showing OF
determination that The friends of
temperance who are now fighting
the battle of the brewers and dis
tillers, are going to repeal the
18th Amendment and the State
prohibition laws and are going to
find NEW and better" way to
control the liquor traffic.
Poor fellow! l do not question
his sincerity, but | cannot have
much respect for his judgment.
He thinks the brewers and distil-
lers are going to find way to
control the liquor traffic that will
ultimately annihilate it. He prob
ably thinks, also, that a manufac-
turer of cotton goods, for exam
pie, devotes all his time and eff
forts to campaign to decrease
the use of the stuff he makes and
markets.
The young editors position,
however, is the same as that OF
many good citizens who are, in
this repeal campaign, unwittingly
doing the bidding Of the brewers
and distillers and serving them.
They are not sufficiently familiar
with the ramifications of the IS
sues involved in the present fight
to clearly understand what they
are doing. The young man is, no
doubt, entirely sincere in believ-
ing that the crowd that passed
the beer bill in the last session
of the legisl. ture and that is now
engaged in the campaign to re-
establish the legalized hard liquor
business in North Carolina, IS
truly friendly to the reduction OF
the consumption Of alcoholic bev-
erages in the State.
If the young editor was as IA
miliar with The records of the
leading spirits in that crowd as
some are, he would Immediately
have the wool removed from his
eyes and would be able to see. He
would then realize that all of the
irreconcilable and radical friends
of liquor in North Carolina are
lined up on the side he is sup
porting - men like the Hon.
"Pete" Murphy, head Of the re-
peal campaign, who, according to
the record pulled on him by The
Greensboro News, mas opposed
every effort made to control the
LIQUOR traffic in North Carolina in
the past thirty years.
But back of these friends OF
the liquor traffic here in North
Carolina is to be found the real
reason for this repeal fight and
effort to restore the legalized
liquor traffic to power in the Uni
ted States. 1t is merely the pro
gram to put the great brewing
and distilling interests Of the
country back into business.
Judge E. Y. Webb, who served
many years in Congress, severa.
terms before national prohibition
was established, who is probably
the best informed man in North
Carolina in regard to the nation
wide aspects of the liquor traffic
is going through the State warn
ing his people against the DANCE:
that confronts the country in per-
hitting this crowd to come back
to power. In his speeches judge
Webb points out that foreign
liquor interests, deprived of a
liquor market in this country
worth hundreds of millions an
nually, melted the brewers and
distillers Of the United States, put
out of business by national pro-
hibition, to unite with them in a
fight to restore the legalized traf-
fc. As a result the Association
Against the Prohibition Amend
ment was organized in this coun-
try, financed by eX-brewers and
ex-distillers and rabid vets, rein
forced and aided by millionaire