The times-news., 1937-02-08
NORTH CAROLINA TO BE SOUSED in
ROOZE-TEGAk"A AND ILLEGAL.


The Raleigh News and Observer is oul
authority for the statement that the House
of Representatives passed liquor bill
through three readings in eight hours al
ter il came from committee, that the oil
had not been printed and had not been
printed when last heard from, although II
had been sent up to the Senate. The point
in this is that, as the Raleigh newspaper
saws, the bill was 'railroaded" through the
house. The News and Observer does not
belieye that one in twenty of the members
of the House had ever read the bill, or
were informed as to its provisions.
The bill, which is designed to flood
North Carolina (dry as well as wet coun-
ties) with booze was handled in manner
similar to the county wet law which was
enacted by previous Assembly. 1t will be
remembered that bill was "railroaded''
through the Legislature at the end OF the
session. after a number of dry legislators
had left Raleigh.
The Legislature is refusing to permit the
voters of North Carolina to pass on the re-
peal of a law that was adopted by vote
of the people of the State. The people are
being denied a referendum on this number
one economic, social and moral issue, after
they have voted twice in the past over
whelmingly in opposition to the liquor
business.
The liquor crowd, as this newspaper
pointed out weeks ago, fears Statewide
vote on the issue. The distillers and dis
pensers of booze and their North Carolina
supporters, know that the State would vote
dry in a Statewide election. They know,
also, that there are a number of counties,
in addition to those in which booze is al
ready legally" dispensed, that will vote
wet and that the entire State can be
soused in alcohol by legalizing the liquor
business in these counties.
If the liquor crowd cannot capture more
than a third of the counties, they will be
highly satisfied, because liquor can be
readily sold in dry territory in two-thirds
of the area of the State with one-third OF
the area as base of operations.
Under conditions prevailing 20 to 5O
years ago, county option was worth some
thing as plan for controlling the liquor
business. The illegal transportation OF
LIQUOR was by horse-drawn vehicles or by
bootleggers travelling afoot, over dirt roads
or across the fields and mountains. The
movement of booze in those years and its
distribution in dry territory was slow
process. Likewise those conditions made il
comparatively easy for officers of the law
to control the traffic.
Nobody needs to be reminded of the
conditions existing today which play right
into the hands of those engaged in the
LIQUOR traffic. A truck can be loaded with
booze in Greenville, S. c., and the loac
landed in Hendersonville in little more
than an hour. With booze sold in Ashe
vile, every section of Henderson county
can be literally flooded in from 80 minutes
to an hour; and modern highways and mo-
tor traffic has multiplied the difficulties OF
law enforcement many times. -a, -.t
However, the contention under which
North Carolina is to be raped by the "le'
galized" booze business is, of courses that
it is all to be done in the name of temper,
ance" and control" of the liquor traffic
We. are told that liquor will be econ.
trolled", Temperance" promoted, and the
counties and the State will wallow in
liquor revenue under the plan which is to
be inaugurated.
The fAasitY Of these promises Of the