Why We Oppose Liquor
The statements below were signed
by hundreds of men and women in
Wake county.
They are based on a critical study
of the facts as carefully obtained from
counties having liquor stores and from
other reliable sources.
1. BECAUSE we believe that legal
izing liquor will increase drinking,
drunkenness, drunken driving and oth
er liquor evils. To sell liquor in attrac
tive stores on “Main Street,” with the
approval of the Government, will tend
to take some of the moral shame and
stigma from drinking, will tend to lend
respectability to drinking and will sure
ly increase drinking. This fact is appar
ent in the Counties that operate liquor
stores. The public records of Wilson
covering arrests for public drunken
ness, drunken and disorderly conduct
and drunken driving, for a period of 20
months after liquor stores were open,
as compared with 20 months before the
stores opened, show that arrests for
public drunkenness increased about 70
per cent, arrests for drunken and dis
orderly conduct increased about 13 per
cent and arrests for drunken driving in
creased about 57 per cent. The records
in other liquor store Counties show r sim
ilar increases in drinking, drunkenness
and other liquor evils.
2. BECAUSE we do not believe that
our tax burdens can be permanently de
creased with revenue or profits from li
quor. A large majority of the money
collected by County Liquor Stores is
sent out of the State to purchase the li
quor; and in the long run the small tem
porary profits will he more than wiped
out by the increased cost of courts, jails,
hospitals, insane asylums, poor houses,
private and public charities and other
damages wrought by liquor sold by the
County stores.
3. BECAUSE we do not want liquor
to control our City and County Govern
ments. We believe that county liquor
control stores will mean counties con-
We appeal to mothers, fathers & other citizens of
Wake county to vote against Liquor Stores
On June 22nd ♦
THE ZEBULON RECORD, ZEBULON, NORTH CAROLINA, FRIDAY, JUNE EIGHTEENTH, 1937.
trolled by liquor stores. The word “con
trol” in recent liquor legislation is a de
lusion. Neither these law s nor the stores
operated under them w ill control liquor.
The enactment of the law' itself result
ed from control by liquor. In 1933, LI
QUOR CONTROL said legalize 3.2 beer
and temperance will be promoted. In
1935, LIQUOR CONTROL said increase
the alcoholic content of beer to 5 per
cent, legalize wine, and establish liquor
stores in seventeen Counties and tem
perance will be promoted. In 1937, li
quor control denied the people of North
Carolina the right of voting in a State
wide Referendum and legalized bever
ges with 24 per cent alcoholic content,
legalized transportation of whiskey into
Dry Counties and attempted to deliver
all of our counties into the hands of for
eign liquor barons. In the 1937 General
Assembly, LIQUOR CONTROL decreed
that any County might vote to operate
liquor stores but only as agents for for
eign liquor distilleries Liquor can be
sold by our Counties but the control
must be by and for foreign liquor ba
rons. Those Counties, that set up liquor
stores, act merely as agents to sell for
eign liquor distilleries. Liquor can be
the liquor distilleries, and with the de
bauchery, the crime, the broken homes,
the drunken driving and the other hurt
ful effects of the business remaining in
North Carolina.
4. BECAUSE we believe that the
evils of liquor that exist in North Car
olina today can be relieved better by the
enforcement of prohibition than by the
establishment of additional sources of
liquor or by legalizing the liquortraffic.
Non-enforcement of prohibition and the
liquor evils resulting therefrom have
been caused by the repeal of the 18th
Amendment, legalizing beer and wine,
establishing liquor stores in certain
Counties and by the propaganda that
has gone along with and helped produce
these LIQUOR CONTROL events. The
fact that an adjoining County might
have liquor stores is no worthy reason
why our County should operate liquor
stores. If liquor hurts our fellow men,
it is w rong to sell it. If it is wrong to sell
liquor, the mere fact that another Coun
ty does wrong can not justify our doing
wrong. Liquor is hurtful to men; prohi
bition of the liquor traffic is right; and
whatever is right should be supported
and sustained instead of repealed and
destroyed.
5. BECAUSE we do not desire to
engage in the liquor business or have
a profit sharing interest in drinking
and drunkenness. The laws against li
quor can be enforced, if public officials
will discharge their duties and our ci
tizens will support them. However, ev
en if prohibition be not fully enforced,
even if a certain amount of liquor is go
ing to be sold and drunk, we prefer that
this business of debauching our fellow
citizens be not operated by our County
Government. The mere fact that prohi
bition has not been fully enforced is no
reason w hy the law' should be repealed.
We have not prevented kidnapping;
but that is no reason w hy we should leg
alize kidnaping. The laws against gamb
ling, prostitution, theft, murder and
other vices and crimes have not been
fully enforced; but this sad fact is no
reason why we should repeal any of
these laws and legalize any of these
vices.
(Who would think of Wake Coun
ty s legalizing and operating houses of
prostitution, gambling and kindred ev
ils for revenue? What is the difference
if we sell liquor to curse and destroy our
people?)
The horrible situation that exists
with reference to liquor has been caus
ed not by prohibition but by the non-en
forcement and the partial repeal of pro
hibition. The remedy for our present
situation is to repeal the laws of legal
izing beer, wine and liquor stores and to
elect public officials who will enforce
the laws against liquor.