The times-news., 1937-02-08

| liquor business is we'll illustrated by con
ditions throughout the United States today
| The same promises were made on ma
tional scale in order to secure the re-estab
lishment of the booze business in the ma
tion Similar promises were made in order
to secure the establishment of the booze
business in 18 North Carolina counties and
in South Carolina. The incontrovertible
evidence, after two years of trial in the ma
ton and in the Carolinas, is that the prom
ises of the liquor crowd are false and the
promised control" has absolutely failed.
Strenuous efforts have been made by
the liquor crowd to prevent the truth about
the business in 1S North Carolina counties
from becoming known throughout the
State, but in South Carolina press that
is wet by large majority has had the de-
cency and the courage to tell the truth as
to that States experience with the legal
lied" booze business and it is generally
agreed that the system is a failure, either
for control or the promotion of ITEM
perance". In the nation conditions are rap
idly becoming intolerable.
This fact is admitted by many wet news
papers and the fact that the liquor busi-
ness is getting out of hand and is rapidly
arousing sentiment favorable to the re-
enactment of prohibition, is admitted by
brewers and distillers.
An opponent of the liquor traffic who
is ulled into inactivity by the promises OF
the liquor manufacturers and dealers and
their North Carolina supporters, is indeed
an artless and trusting person.
That liquor will be controlled in North
Carolina by a law enacted at the behest
of the manufacturers and retailers OF booze
and their wet supporters, is the largest
dose of bunk ever sought to be admins
tered to our people.
Under this law liquor will be sold "le-
gally" and it will be sold illegally. That
is the way it is sold now in 1S counties and
in South Carolina and in the nation. For
the privilege of spending $5 to $40 for
booze at retail, the wet counties and the
State will be baited with one dollar or less
of LIQUOR revenue. The moonshiners ana
booteggers will continue to do business.
The latter will sell not only moonshine
liquor but LIQUOR on which the revenue has
been paid, as they are now doing in this
and AZ other States; and in selling the last
named wet goods they will violate the laws
of States, as they are doing today in North
Carolina.
Only a few days ago in Henderson court
man was convicted of hauling tax paid
booze from Greenville, S. c., to Asheville,
in violation of the law of North Carolina.
Exactly" shout the vets, 1--WE want to
enact law that will wipe out the illicit
liquor traffic in dry North Carolina and
make the whole business strictly law abid-
ing"
One small weakness of the idea is that
it will not work. In Greenville county, S.
c., where there are 25 to 80 legalized
liquor stores, both moonshine and stamped
liquor are being sold in great quantities by
bootleggers. That is true all over South
Carolina. 1t is true in Is North Carolina
counties and in the nation at large.
Therefore, what the vets are proposing
to do in North Carolina is to establish the
"legalized" booze business in all counties
that can be carried wet in local option
elections, and use these as base of opera
tions for carrying On the illegal traffic in
dry counties. In the wet counties there will
be both legalizend and illegal liquor traf-
fic and in the dry counties there will be
the illegal traffic, which our wet friends
assure us they are eager and anxious to
stamp out.
A radical is one who believes in radical
treatment-eXcept of himself.