LIQUOR FOR AMERICA

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 30 April 1934, Page 5

LIQUOR FOR AMERICA

IMPORT WITHOUT LIMIT EXTENSION OF THE PERIOD PLAN TO CHECK BOOTLEGGERS ' t—em Association— By Elecirio Teletrrapb Copvrignt.) WASHINGTON, April 2s. A further two months’ extension of the unlimited liquor importation period was announced by the Government today. The new order sets aside the quota arrangement until August 31. President Roosevelt announced the lifting of liquor quotas on March 9 to permit unlimited entry for an experimental period of 30 to 60 days in May and June in order to lower the prices of domestic liquors, which he regarded as too high. The order provided also for a further allowance of domestic manufacture of spirits which would add to the supply of whisky at the rate of 44,000,000 gallons annually. The decision on both heads came, it is understood, as a result of findings that bootlegging still flourished because of the high prices of legitimate liquors, with a resultant diminution of tax-reeei) t-i. A sensational .statement by Senator Choate was also, published tonight indicating the continuation of illicit distilling m the United States on a grand sscale. “The country is living in a ‘fool’s paradise,’ ”. he declared. “Bootleg production continues on so huge » scale as to constrain us to 1 the conclusion that our people must now be consulting igreater quantities of spirit than thev did in pre-prohibition days. “Illegal industry has used and is using in greater capacity a product which the public is presumably buying and consuming. Since the beginning ot 1934 until now, despite the crippled enforcement of the law. seizures of illicit stills have increased. Federal seizures totalling 1988 during the first quarter, including many large plants of the most modern description, with an annual capacity of 67,000,000 gallons. “Illicit distilleries are, moreover, replaced as fast as they are seized. A colossal criminal industry still exists and still exerts its debauching influence on every governmental agency. This criminal industry must be destroyed.”