The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-09-25
BIBLE THOUGHT
WAY. TRUTH, LIFE
LEGAL" AND ILLEGAL LIQUOR

Whore illegal liquor" is sold the prob
lens of control are not lesSened but mus-
+inrted Down in South Carolina, where
'1eqaI liquor" flows freely, the specl&i
State constables, appointed to enforce
LIQUOR control" have been trying to en-
force the law, not only against the moon
sinners and bootleggers but also against
the dispensers of illegal liquor" many OF
whom are as careless about violating the
law as the illicit makers and dispensers OF
Touor. The Anderson Mail brings up this
subject for discussion and says:
The GreenviIe News decries the actions of
stat constable in acting drunk to eaten Vio-
lafol, Of the states new liquor law. "One had
thsuan, that sort of stuff passed out with pro-
hiNi,:on," that paper remarks.
Under terms of the state law, for which The
News pleaded strenuOusy, the illegal selling OF
legal liquor can hardly be stopped in any other
way, as the vioator must be caught IN the act
of receiving money. Does The News favor allow
ing violations to go on unchecked rather than
have officers take the only available course as
the law now stands?
It deplores "having officers of the law become
parties to q violation of it by actually persuad-
ing people to commit unlawful acts in order to
make a case against them" AS if vioators would
sell illegally to officers and not others! And II
they sell to any and all who apply, considering
they think they get away with it, how may
it be construed that officers contribute to their
SIM except to bring them to justice?
Of course violators do not like such tactics
and they will agree with The News The rank
and file of the populace who consider laws are
made to be enforced will see it differently.
The foregoing is proof of several things
one of which is that the dealers in 'lega
liquor" are running true to form and are
guilty of the same sort of conduct thai
characterized the saloon-keepers in pre-
prohibition days. They are violating the
law enacted to control liquor in South
Carolina, and the special officers charged
with the laws enforcement are guilty t
such conduct as was roundly condemned
by the vets when South Carolina had pro-
hibition. In other words, in order to catch
the legal violators of the control law
they have been resorting to some of the
tricks used by prohibition enforcement Of.
fcers to catch illicit handlers of liquor.
That course does not get the approval
of The Greenville News, but as The Ander.
son Mail points out, it is probably one OF
very few methods which can be made eff,
fective in catching violators of the liquor
law. 1t is not approved by the law break
ers, of course, and thereby the Greenvillt
News and the outlaw liquor dealers get to-
gether on the same platform.
The state of affairs in South Caroline
simply offers ample proof of the fact that
legalizing the sale of liquor under so-callet
control policies, does not settle the booze
problem. Those who are supposed to han
die liquor within the law, will break the
law whenever there is incentive to do so
and the illicit makers and sellers go righ-
on with their business. The difficulties u
liquor control are multiplied by having
both illegal" and illegal liquor in Soutl
Carolina.
South Carolina officers, endeayoring IL
enforce the law against legal" liquor deal
els in that State, encounter problems SINH
lar TO those of North Carolina officers whc
try to enforce the prohibition law in thi
State.
The Anderson Mail says that in Soutl
Carolina the liquor dealer must be caugh
IN the act of receiving money in the trans
action which violates the law. In Norti
Carolina citizen violates the law by trans
porting iquor-that is, by hauling or car
rying it around-or by selling it. Their
must be, of course, direct evidence to sc