It is bad enough to have to pay an exorbitant price for whiskey that is composed of very little but alcohol, water, and burnt sugar; but when it contains substances that fail very little short of being poisonous the last crushing straw has been added. In New York analyses of "Sam Thompson pure rye whiskey" has revealed that it had in it sufficient diethylphthalate, a denaturant causing nausea, to render the liquor unfit for consumption. This is not merely one isolated case, for I think that most of the cheap so-called blends are not only undrinkable slop but also contain quasi-poisons that give the after effects a peculiarly harrowing quality; many have found that on the morning after even the mildest imbibing their heads were apparently filled with large and elaborate firework displays.
The plain fact of the matter is that repeal has been pretty much of a flasco; liquor is only slighly cheaper, the speakeasies were just as good as the hotels and restaurants that have replaced them, and in many cases the quality of liquor has deteriorated. All this is due to the fact that no real attempt has been made to regulate effectively the liquor industry. With the lone exception of Pennsylvania, no state has in operation a really workable system of control, which keeps prices down and excludes illegal and fraudulent groups; nor has the Federal government been able to do anything despite high-sounding promises. For the most part, this failure to regulate the liquor traffic is due to an unwillingness to impose more than a minimum of regulation, an unwillingness which represents a natural revulsion from the excessive regulation of the Prohibition era. In view, however, of the conditions that have prevailed during the last few months, I think that this attitude must be altered, and it must be admitted that what is needed is a maximum of stringent regulation. The ideal method, of course, would be to have the Federal government in complete control; for the machinery is ready in the form of the Code Authority, and national regulation would be both more effective and efficient than that of the states. That Mr. Roosevelt has not done this before is due, I think, to the simple fact that he has not had time to investigate the matter and has been forced to leave it for solution in the future. Signs that the President is aware of what is happening and contemplates action soon are by no means lacking; perhaps Mr. Roosevelt will bestir himself and step on the liquor industry as thoroughly as he did on the aviation companies. God knows they need to be stepped on. NEMO.
