The argument over the question of modifying the Volstead act so as to permit the sale of light wines and beers has been raging before the senate for 10 days. Last week the “wets” of the country were permitted to present their side of the question. It must be admitted that they made it clear that enforcement of the prohibition law has been largely a failure in some sections of the country, and that it would be hard to make the situation worse. This week the “drys” are having their turn Whatever the ultimate result in national legislation, there is no chance that the prohibition law will be weakened in North Carolina, or in the majority of the states. On the other hand, it makes little difference if the national law is modified in those sections where the law as it stands is disregarded. In the real prohibition sections of the country, the state laws will still prohibit the sale of intoxicants while the situation cannot be made worse in sections where the sentiment of the people does not back the Volstead law. Consequently, like a great many other questions that agitate the public mind, the thing is of little consequence either way it turns out, Yet the thing that should be done, if possible, is to enforce the laws and thus overcome the only real argument that modificationists have.
From the editorial page of the Chatham Record, Pittsboro, N.C., Thursday, April 15, 1926. O.J. Peterson, editor and publisher.
The 18th Amendment to the constitution, which prohibited alcohol in the United States was ratified Jan. 16, 1919, and the 21st Amendment repealed it in 1933. Kansas stayed dry until 1948; Oklahoma until 1959 and Mississippi stayed dry until 1966. North Carolina did not repeal its own prohibition laws until 1937. South Carolina repealed its own prohibition law in 1935.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn85042115/1926-04-15/ed-1/seq-2/
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