Henderson daily dispatch., 1941-10-18
CRIME AND JAILS

To The Editor:
Who are the citizens committee
who told the pc pie that CRIME has
been reduced in Vance county. by the
enforcement of the control OF the
sale of alcoholic beverages? Tell the
people, Mr.. Citizens committee, II
your statement is true, why did the
county commissioners, spend four
teen Thousand tWC hundred and TWEEN
ty-five dollars and eighty-seVen cents
of the taxpayers money in the last
SIX wears TO build and maintain a
new jail.
If CRIME has been reduced as much
as you would have the people to be
lieve it was, why wouldn't the OLD
Jail be sufficient? Why was il neccs~
! sary to employ a prosecutor IN the
city court, also in the county court?
| Why was it necessary t. double the
police force? If that statement is true,
| and it stands on its merits and from
the source which it sprang, then the
| county commissioners should be m
peached for squandering the taNpay-
| ers money to build a larger jail to
| take care of a smaller criminal elC-
ment. Don't you know that the com
| missioners Wtuld not of spent all OF
| that money if the over flow OF crlm-
mails did not demand 1t? But that
statement is just about as accurate as
some of the others.
Mr.. Citizens committee, nos pay
ing you to push the interest OF large
whisky corporations on the mn cent
people Of Vance county? Who IS the
treasurer of your committee?
l don't think that he is a preacher,
but | do think that he is a lawyer,
and lawyers always accept the lar2-
est fee. 1t makes no difference who
pays that fee. He will fight Just as
hard to turn a murderer loose as he
will an innocent perscn. He will fight
for his friend in one court, and
lagainst him in the next if the grass IS
greener on the other side of the
Tense. Crime has been reduced just
about as much as peoples taxes.
Why do people call the law when
two old DRINKS come along late at
might and start to using profane lang
uage, in front of their htmes? Why
don't they say that is alright, they
can't bother me-, as long as they are
drunk off of legal likker. | don't
care what they say and do in front
of my wife and daughter, because
that is what | voted for, TO get my
taxes reduced, and as Ing as l am
gettin my taxes reduced, l don
care how much legal whisky they
sell them, because the more they
drink the lower my taxes, they can
not constitute a nuisance to me d
any member Of my family, II they
will drink legal likker.
With all Of the balyho that they
| have published about tax reduction
l am satisfied in my mind that there
=, is not a single member of that Cit
zens Committee who would be Will
t ing to forfeit his American citizen
, ship to save taxes, and live IN tn
, German occupied countries Of Europe
f tax free. Now, Mr.. Citizens Com
: mittee, tell the people who you are
and who is paying you to try to make
= the people think that hell would b.
A a good place to live in if the dew
= would reduce their taxes.
E The bootlegger can buy his Whlsk,
on main street, but he cannot sell l
there because competition is to-
strong. Behind the warehouses anf
e in those old stables, Mr.. Citizen
Committee, which you mention
e Vance county's sovereign name lie
u on the ground, on empty whisky bot
ties, and you would have the peopl'
a to believe that we would not hav'
{ any officers, if the ABC store wa
. closed. why Vance county has
sheriff and a full force of deputies
n also Vance county has an officers il
a every township in the county. Wha
e are these officers paid for if the,
e are not paid to catch law violators
e And they are not paid from funds de
+" rived from the sale of ABC whisky
=. JOHNNIE w. BECKHAM.