The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1959-02-26
East Side
in eupot She summed it up follows THE Baptsts vote
it dry and US Catholics drink it wet"

it dry and US Catholics drink it wet"
Very truly your,
Isl H. S. Cave
AT first glance it seems the answer to Ikes question is
simply ITS the law that makes the difference And the law
is an expression of the will of the people of the State of Mis-
sisspp it would But then Mr. Caves reference to
licensed black market liquor points up the contradiction in
that pat little theory.
To believe that for every action in this universe there is
cause or reason gives some touch with sanity or reality
at least And for each act we Witness believe there
son or cause But I'm frank to admit that fail to understand
he liquor situation in the state The whole thing is tdrce OF
contradictions from beginning to end There are numerous
theories as to why it's the it is not one OF Which
will hold up by itself.
Personally I'm not at all sure the reason or is of
any great significance The effect is what have with US
at the moment And the effect in part? Well actually the
State of Mississippi is in the booteggng business by virtue
of the black market tax item that doesn't exist under
laws Too the percapta consumption OF liquor IN MIS-
sissppi exceeds that in Alabama, wet state The black
market tax on illegal liquor sales amounted to we'll over one
million dollars last year. ten percent of which went to the tax
collector This was Just KNOWN liquor sales. Who can
guess what the total von was? Who say what the loss
of tax revenue was to the schools of the state?
wonder whose fault it is? The elected public official
who takes bride from the bootegger? The booegger him.
self? Frankly doubt it, The actual blame has to be accepted
by the population as WHOLE It is your fault and mine
for voting to create situation climate in which such
mess can arrow and spread corrupng law enforcement
officers from top to bottom We the people of Mississippi
have asked for breakdown of law in this respect And dis
regard and dsrespec for the law on one point lends itself to
dsrespect and disregard for the law on other points.
And what is the ultimate solution? The simple facing OF
reality I'd say People are going TO drink liquor And that's
that And insofar as learn the percentage of chronic
alcoholics is no greater any single state which sells liquor
than it is in dry Mississippi would seem sensible TO me TO
egaze liquor collect the tax money spend it on education
in the hope of educating the population TO the point that they
can stand the harshness Of reality and face without having
TO resort to the bottle The preachers preach until hell
freezes over and it won't do any good at all The church can
preach prohibition until dooms day and prohibition won't
exist People are here to stay SO booze And somehow
the Two lust seem always to get together
And what would suggest? Simply this: Let's all go vote
WEI lust as soon as we sober up enough to drive TO the
polls
Golk, didn't intend to preach sermon on the letters
from Ike and Mr. Cave But TO me its serious matter the
foosness of lying to ourselves about the matter land Just
in case anyone is interested to know it. personally don't
drink except an occasional beer have no objection to the
use of LIQUOR but to the Misuse Of have serious oo-
lection It's one of those blind spots with me- Actually dis
like very few things just people and drunks and drunk
people is something can't take)
IF haHf