PROHIBITION’S DECEASE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 17977, 3 January 1933, Page 10

PROHIBITION’S DECEASE

FREE HAND IN LIQUOR TSflMjfcT; HARVEST TQR BOOTLEGGERS NEW YORK, Nov. 13. An extraordinary and paradoxical position has arisen out of the United States election results which swept the “di-ys” out of power on the tide of revolt against the Eighteenth Amendment. The liquor trade is still illegal, but prohibition enforcement —already a farce in most of the gteat” been virtually nullified over the greater part of tjie country by the majorities for repeal of the State laws which punish offenders under the Volstead Act. Powerful racketeers who have established bbOtleggiing as onl? of t)ne major industries of the country are t|ireatehed with eventual extinction by’ thf.'pitfonwide demand for fhd legalisation Of the liquor traffic: Hut rncantimf they ’ will be able to. reap a mote gulden harvest than bver before, while the outqqmp of the public outcry ptebiWion may even hnVe the staggering ftnij unforeseen effect of allowing them fb indiease their strangldfio|j(! Oh tile nation. TWO YEARS TO WAIT

_ . * r :* lV V'.fT That will undoubtedly be ffee case if thf attempt to sqd'pre thp’lpptHghf ippeal of prohibition it is geiierallv conceded that repeal wilf take at least twi? years in the most favorable circumstances. Before the elections the bootlegging

industry was able to operate with comparative immunity in only a few States, Such as New York, which repudiated the prohibition law and left the entire burden of its enforcement on the Federal Prohibition Bureau. States with a total population of more than 50,000,000 have now followed suit, and scrapped their “dry” laws, virtually giving bootleggers a free hand until such time as the liquor traffic is legalised. This has opened up a new and rich field for 'bootleg enterprise. Racketeers have not been slow to take advantage of a “heaven-sent opportunity,” and have already gone to Canada in trains and airplanes, to flood the country with unprecedented quantities of bootleg liquor. Six of fhe most notorious New York gangsters were recognised arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they are known to be making arrangements for a great rum fleet to land a record cargo in the United States in time for the Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday Week. CHRISTMAS CARGO

-5 Ilf , Another sword cargo will be landed to supply Christmas holiday requirements. These consignments have heel) obtained lit 1 bargain prices because quotations for iimibr from St. Pierre, Miquelon, and other ram-running bases bad slumped sharply on account of the fear of Prohibition repeal. Gangsters aro not worried by any immediate prospect of repeal, because they know that there must inevitably bo a lona’drawn out procedure before threefourtps of the States ratify the vote which must, he carried liy a two-thirds majority in both branches of the Congress: The prospect of a swift enactment to legalise the tax on beer clous not greatly

concern them either, because they de- I pond on the “hard” liquor racket for I niosfc of their fabulous profits. Gangster 1 “beer barons’’ hre planning to switch to the other branch of the illicit industry, hud the underworld generally is looking forward lo at least two years of quasiofficial recognition for bootlegging. Far-seeing observers aro beginning] to fear that the gangsters will become almost an ineradicable dement in American life if the minority of the nation succeeds in blocking repeal. GAOL EXODUS The bootleg army will probably soon be reinforced by thousands who are now inmates of gaols convicted of prohibition violation offences and whose release is being demanded as a “measure of justice” in those States that abolished “dry” laws at the elections. The result of the election will give the “bootleg barons” still greater freedom—if only temporarily—to enlarge their dominions find divert to the underworld hundreds of millions of dollars that might la; going into the national Treasury. Bucli is the sorry state of affairs developing out of America's desperate at--tepipt to overthrow prohibition. Well* intontiohed reformers are clinging to their faith in a “noble experiment.’ Nothing now stands between the bootleggers and complete immunity over a large area of the United States but the Federal Prohibition Buteau. This department lifts only 2000 or 3000 agents scattered throughout this vast country, and is powerless to suppress violations of the law without the active support of the local authorities. This has not only been withdrawn in many territories where the “drys” formerly had the upper hand, hut respoii-

silile officials in a number of the “wettest” communities are openly encouraging people to set the law at defiance.