Evening star., 1934-04-29
After Repeal-What?


The article by Joseph H. Choate.
jr.. director of the Federal Alcohol
Control Administration, which is
displayed prominently elsewhere in
today's Star, is one of the most i'm
portant and arresting documents that
has issued from official Washington
in some time.
With plain words and blunt facts
Mr. Choate rudely skaters some of
the pleasant illusions regarding con-
ditions under repeal, which have sue
ceeded conditions under prohibition.
Drinking is increasing. and the
amount of consumption is enormous.
Bootlegging. which always represents
other criminal alliances and ramifi-
cations of the underworld shows no
sign of decrease. Illegal stills are
boiling away as merrily as ever be-
fore and. as Mr. Choate remarks, the
bootleggers are not distilling for their
health or pleasure" Bootleg liquor
Is finding its way into the trade.
already supplied by legal distillerieS
running full blast. All this means,
says Mr.. Choate:
That the drinking habits of the
people have increased more than has
been imagined, even by the pessimists:
that the existing demand, if only it
could be confined to the legal manu-
facture, is great enough to absorb at
least all that the legal industry can
supply; that the Government is los
ing more taxes than it gets, and that
a colossal criminal industry. neces-
sarily highly organized, still exists,
and still exerts its debauching ten
denotes on every Government agency.
This criminal industry Mr.. Choate
says, must be destroyed" if there
is to be any progress in either control
or temperance or the collection Of
Federal revenues. Revenue laws can
be enforced"
Our prisons have been emptied of
convicted bootleggers, legally trans
formed almost overnight into heroes
with slightly tarnished halos. En-
forcement agencies have been slashed
in funds and deprived of personnel
In the excitement over the boon of
legal liquor, generally pictured as a
beneficent nectar that makes old men
young and young men stronger, the
bootlegger and his criminal allies
have made the pleasant discovery
that wonders never cease and there
Is as much gold at the end of the
repeal rainbow as they found during
the halcyon days of prohibition.
Mr.. Choate submits a program of
action, which includes more appro-
priations for enforcement; a continu-
ing campaign by every organization
interested in temperance" demanding
strict enforcement of the laws, and
measures to cheaper legal liquor
which is still sold in competition with
bootleg.
The administration Of which he is
q distinguished member is, of course,
morally bound to meet the situation
described by Mr.. Choate vigorously
and effectively. The Democratic
party helped sell repeal to the
people with the pledge that it would
urge enactment of such measures
by the several States as will ac-
tually promote temperance, effec-
lively prevent the return of the
saloon and bring the liquor traffic into
the open under complete supervision
and control by the States
In proclaiming repeal, President
Roosevelt called on the citizens for
their whole hearted cooperation ito
the end that this return of individual
freedom shall not be accompanied by
the repugnant conditions that OBJ
tanned prior to the adoption of the
have existed since its adoption" And
he outlined, as follows, the policy Of
the Government:
The policy of the Government will
be to see to it that the social and
political evils that have existed in
the prohibition era shall not be
revived nor permitted again to exist.
We must remove forever from our
midst the menace of the bootlegger
and such others as would profit at
the expense of good government, law
and order.
The time apparently has come to
put that policy into effect.
Dillinger has managed to mortgage