PROHIBITION REPEAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1933, Page 4

PROHIBITION REPEAL

PROBABLE NEW SYSTEM LONDON. September 3. When prohibition is. repealed what will happen to the drink trade in the. United States? Twenty States have already voted for repeal of the Eightcent!) Amendment, with majorities ranging from a narrow 51.46 per cent, iu Tennessee to SS.'.H per com. in New York. Twenty-eight States have still to vote, and the greater number arcc.onfidentlv expected to vote “Wet,” so that, the requisite majority is practically assured. In fact, in the “Literary Digest “mirror" poll, which showed an amazingly accurate forecast of lhe actual results in the States which have already voted, only two of the States still to vote are shown as likely to remain “Dry”—Kansas and North Carolina. Indiana and Alabama, regarded as strongholds of Prohibition, both showed “Wot” majorities, and with the defeat in those States Prohibition is regarded as dead. If (he Twenty-first Amendment is passed, the only remnant of jurisdiction over the drink traffic that lhe Federal Government will retain, ex-, cept in the matter of taxation, will i be the. obligation to prevent the im-

port. of liquor from “Wet” into “Dry” lerritory. The question now is not whether repeal is coming, but what will follow it. How, asks William Morris Houghion, in a review of the position, will the Slates discharge this renewed responsibility thrust on them after fourteen years? Probably with as many variations of method and policy as there are States. Some, no doubt, will cling to Prohibition, but each in its | own degree'. Of I lie thirty-two that had adopted some form of State-wide prohibition before the Eighteenth Amendment became operative, no two obeyed an identical law. These dif- 1 ferences will survive, they will very L likely be enhanced. I 1 SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION 1 < The search for a solution will find 1 encouragement in the development 1 since the war of the Canadian and 1 other systems of control which steer * a middie course between the two ex- * tremes of Prohibition and a thoroughly commercialised traffic. Sweden, , Norway, Finland, the various pro- I vinces of Canada, and even England, with the restrictions imposed in her] Defence of the Realm Act and with I a her Carlisle experiment, offer models 11 now for the regulation of liquor which c were lacking when the anti saloon movement reached its culmination. * Though a State here ami there may 1

slip back into the old groove in which the chain saloon nourished, and little or nothing was done to check the liquor profiteer in his exploitation of a dangerous appetite, there is little room for doubt that the popular determination to avoid a relapse of the sort is quite as strong as the demand to be rid of the evils identified with Prohibition. There will be stout objection to “putting the Government in the liquor business.” More to the American taste probably will be State control through private limited dividend corporation-'. This is the method employed in Sweden. It is founded on a i private corporation which, with its I subsidiaries, enjoys a liquor monopoly covering the entire kingdom. In return the Spritcentralen, as the monopoly is known, is limited to dividends of 7 per cent.; half the members of its board, including the chairman. are appointed by the 'Government, which also supervises, all its accounts, and all of its excess profits flow into the public treasury. TAXES MAY KEEP OUT BEER British whisky firms and breweries are ready to quench America's thirst, and already contracts have been signed. Mr. T. Herd, managing-director of the Distillers Company, the £10,000,000 British whisky combine, arrives home

ilthis week-end from the United States, e having "been instrumental ’in securing 3 an arrangement wit-h Canadian disf tillers, by which the United States mar--3 ket will be virtually British. Representatives of othei* whisky 3 firms —Mr. T. Wilkinson, of John Haig, I and Messrs. R. C. Cumming and Mr. E. i G. Johnstone, of John Walker —have already returned, well satisfied with > the results of their trip. At present there are more ■ than L 120,000,000 gallons of whisky in bond [ in Scotland, a fairly ample provision . for America's immediate demand for mature Scotch whiskies, while follow- , on-orders will mean that scores of stills in the Highlands—on Speyside and elsewhere —will be put into renewed production. The Americans want gin. too, and English firms anticipate a large proportion of the orders to be for the London spirit. Brewery companies are not so enthusiastic about their prospects. An official of the Brewers’ Society told a “Sunday Times” representative yesterday that the Customs duty levied on beer was prohibitive. The tax of £S a barrel is too excessive for much trade to be done —it ‘mean's that the U.S. tax is greater , than the price of beer in this country.