The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-05
REPEAL OF
 PROHIBITION g YEARS OLD
Nv HENRY PLATT

My HENRY EhAAI
 tunieea Press stan Correspondent
 New York, Dec, s, (up)--Four out oe every five Americans today begin their tenth year of restored freedom to buy their liquor law fully. It was on December 5, l9SS, that the Twenty-iirst Amendment No the Constitution, repeating Pro- hibition, went into force. The an- niversary finds Americans drinking lQuor at the-theoretcal--per capita rate of 4;s quarts year, with domestic whiSkey production stopped but reserve stocks plentiful
 Ali of which means little to the Afth of every five Americans who lives in local prohibition areas, They Include three entire States-KansaS and Oklahoma, permitting the sale of beer only, and Mississippi, per mitting beer and light wines only and thousands of counties, cities, townships and even precincts whose combined population at the last count made up l7,9 per cent ot that of the United States.
 Still an Issue Locally
 This situation is by no means static. The liquor problem has re- mained live issue locally, as Wit messed by the fact that during the nine years since repeal more than i2O00 local option elections nave been held of which the "dryS" claim to have won almost 5000, admitting however that perhaps half of these victories were in areas which were dry prior to prohibition. Due to the sweeping defeat of the Eighteenth CProhibition) Amendment many communities which had been cry for many years turned wet TOT a short time but soon reverted to normal condition.
 This year, local option elections continued at the rate of twenty week but their practical effect was chiefly to confirm the status quo in soS esuch elections, 46S dry areas remained dry. 295 wet areas re- mained wet. Only 30 turned to local prohibition while l5 abandoned It. The Nov. 3 vote increased dry strength in Arkansas through ap- proval of a bill which facilitates dry efforts to bring up referenoa In counties and cities, In Chicago four out of six precinct voted cry. Few other large cities have Vo,ed on the liouor questions since repeal, and definite figures on nattohal basis are lacking However, lt lS known that more than two-thirdS of all counties in Alabama, Georgla, North Carolina and Tennessee are now dry. ard more than half the counties in eight other states, ln- cluding Kentucky which with GU distril,eries was by far the largest Nhisly-producing state before the indutry was converted entirely to the production of alcohol for gun powder, synthetic rubber, ard other war uses.
 OPA Recognuizes BoOtlegging
 Continued existence of bootleg ring was reported officially recog- nized when it was placed unoer OPA price ceilings a few months avo. Price Administrator Rex A. Hayes issued a ruling that March prices on bootleg whiskey and other ; forbidden products must be posted in illegal establishments.
 x Leading wet" front organiza- tion is the Conference of Alcoholic Beverage Industries which, II course, is to the Womens Christian Temperance Union and tke Anti Saloon League what a bottleneck is to war production, Tn fact, among the more recent arguments O 1the drys is the claim that the liquor traffic wastes man-pcwer, materials, { and transportation facilities other ' wise needed in wartime; that 1t in lures the physique and lowers the resistance of war workers and service men alike, and that it saps money from the consumer that , ought to go into war bonos.
 Most Americans take their aIco- holic beverages the cheapest way, and the most moderate. through beer and wine. whose combined per capita consumption is about 60 : quarts a year. in contrast to the 4.8 . quarts of liquor. Any such theore- . tical figure, however, much be way . below the actual consumption of the regular drinker since it makes no 2 allowance for about 25,0oo,0oO chil- iren, for the dry areas, for teeto- talers, and for those adults who drink only occasionally"
 A recent indication of national sentiment. as reflected in Congress , ,ional opinion. may be seen in the to vote of the Senate Military Affairs Committee rejecting the so- .alled Lee Amendment which would . have imposed prohibition within q reasonable distance Of all military establishments, 'hereatening, in the opinion Of it's opponents, re- sumption of World War i prohibi- tion.
 At the present rate or corsump- ton the 50O.OOO 900 gallons of liquor supplies now in storage will do for as1nfher f0ur years