Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Why Should Bootleggers Be Punished When Well-To-Do Are Ignored, Asks Editor, May 22, 1924

Is this not a disgraceful state of affairs, that a man of wealth, who knew full well what he was doing, escapes imprisonment, while these men, handicapped in life by poverty and ignorance, are run down and severely punished? With such facts laid out in the public prints, is it any wonder that people have little belief in the justice of the law? All over the land today, these miserable bootleggers and moonshiners are being hounded onto the roads as convicts, while alongside these very roads dwell well-to-do people, clothed in respectability and quite safe from the intrusion of the police, who have bought and are consuming the product which these unfortunate fellows were caught making. Of course it would be well if all laws could be effectively enforced; but no enforcement of the prohibition law would be vastly better than this inequality in enforcement which exists today.

From page 2, the editorial page of the Chapel Hill Weekly, Thursday, May 22, 1924; Louis Graves, Editor.

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