Evening star., 1934-07-29

covered an old statute providing for q
beer inspection fee of $3l0 a barrel
and now we have told the brewers To
take their choice, either to withdraw
their opposition to the gallonage tax
or pay the inspection fee. Maybe this
will bring them to time"
The opposition to Col. Scullin Is
charging him with operating his
department for the benefit OF the
small number of properly licensed
places and with laxity in ENFORCING
the law against them. There Is basis
for this charge. in that the IL O'Clock
closing, prescribed by the State law
is not being enforced. When they
found that their beer saloon CON-
petitors were staying open without
any restraint. the legally constituted
places protested violently against IL
o'clock closing. In his effort TO in
duce more saloons to take out licenses,
Scullin has ignored the closing re-
striction and all saloons in st. Louis
are operating virtually as they please
Col. Scullin is receiving an aver
age Of 80 complaints a day from par
ents. charging that the beer saloons
are selling hard liquor to their minor
children. There Is no restriction
against sale of beer to minors.
Anti-Liquor Sentiment Grows.
Under the beer law, also, local
communities have no recourse. BY
paying $40 anybody in small town
can get beer selling license. The
result is that liquor sale is as extern
sive in the rural communities as in
the cities, and there is a growing
sentiment in favor Of putting ali
liquor selling out
Attorney General Roy McKitt Tex
described the weaknesses of the Mis-
souri, law:
"The State liquor statute was writ
ten to restrain the licensed dealers,
he said. 1T tells the holder of a
license what he must not do. But II
falls down when it comes to handling
the unlicensed dealer, which is thf
real problem, after all.
Violation of the law against un-
licensed sale Is only q misdemeanor
That means 1t may be cheaper fol-
the bootlegger 10 sell liquor openly
without State license, and to stand
an occasional arrest and fine, than
to pay the license fee. A lot Of them
are proceeding on that theory now
and aren't even having to pay the
fines so far.
THE only effective way to deal with
such places would be to make an ar
rarf Atray.xy dou Nv tr,yn that 41a ,,Io "a /,
open. That has mot been done, SC
far as know. If 1t were done, there
probably would be an injunction pro-
ceeding to delay things for time al
least"
The remedy, all agree, is repeal oi
the 80 beer law and the placing oi
the sale of all alcoholic liquor under
the excise commissioners, but it is ap-
parent that this will not be accom-.
pliShed, even when the Legislature
meets next year, without the hardest
sort Of a fight. The brewers arr
against any tampering with the beel
law, and there also is a strong popu.
lar sentiment the same way, arising
from the belief that the forcing of all
liquor sellers to obtain licenses woulc
cause sharp increase in price o.
intoxicantS.
The politicians frankly are afraic
to interfere with the situation. Re-
gardless of party, they have become
as wet today as they once were dry
Any sort of liquor restriction is re-
garded as inirnical to the politica
prospects of the official who makes 1t
The bootleggers and the brewers pos
sess more political power than tht
licensed dealers.
In Indiana the situation Is essen.
TALLY the same. There, as in Mis-
souri,, the beer saloons operate vir'
tually without restraint. The fac
that in Indiana only the drug store.
are permitted to sell hard liquor ha'
played into the hands of the boot.
leggers. Bars are operating in all o
the larger cities of the State without
any interference from the police. A!
in Missouri, the liquor laws art
| loosely drawn.