New Zealand Business Man

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2500, 31 October 1922, Page 5 (Supplement)

New Zealand Business Man

A well-known Christchurch business man, Mr A. L. Cropp, recently toured the United States, visiting San Fran- ‘ cisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, -Washington, Now York, and Chicago, land other centres. On his return to New Zealand, Mr Cropp was interviewed by the “Press,” of Christchurch. Here ia an extract from that interview, published on June 20th, 1922: — . Asked to talk abont his experiences, Mr Cropp said that the statement hel Would make would not be made in the interests of the Liquor Party, but would be an unbiased view oft what he had observed and learned. As to getting liquor in the United States, Mr Cropp said that one could get anything one wanted, from beer to champagne. “I consider it rather interesting,” he said, *to read our prohibitionist advocates the wonderful success of prohibition in America. If my experience in this direction is what we

may expect in New Zealand if it goes ‘dry,’ then, God forbid that we should have prohibition I The United States is not ‘dry,’ and never will be ‘dry.’ All that has been done has been to make it a little more difficult for the poor man to get liquor; the rich man can get what he likes and as much as he likes. TEe quality of the stuff got by the poor man from the ‘bootlegger’ is very questionable. “Heads of industries told me that, whereas, prior to prohibition, absentees from work through drink causes Were negligible, they are now faced at times with as mugh as .17 per cent, of their employees away from, work from drink causes-—due almost entirely to the bad quality of the liquor that is being manufactured all over the country. y ln pre-prohibition days any employee who brought liquor on to business premises waa liable to instant dismissal; nowadays it ia the common practice for the manager to ask callers to have a drink in hie private office—-

and if the manager happens to run short and the junior clerk happens to have a bottle, he is likely to have his salary raised. “As to the means of getting liquor, here is an actual experience I had: I was having a, meal in a certain place, and asked the waitress for a whisky and soda; she said that she was sorry she could not supply mo, but asked me if I had a card. I gave her one of my cards, on the front of which she wrote an address; on the back she wrote: ‘These are my friends; give them anything they wish,’ and signed her name. Later I went to the address, and found that ‘anything I wished’ ranged from champagne to beer 1 Prohibition agents, the police, and the ‘bootlegger’ are all malting good money out of prohibition. During my visit to San Francisco seven prohibition agents were before the courts charged with netting over 50,000 dollars (say, £10,000) out of falso removal permits—that is, in issuing permits for the removal of liquor from warehouses er bonds for other purposes than the law allows. Before prohibition became nation-wide in the States the Government received millions of dollars from excise duties; now it has not oniy lost that revenue, but has to spend an equal amount in its attempt

fo enforce prohibition; revenue that ought to have gone to the Government is going into the pockets of the individuals engaged in ‘bootlegging,’ and other illicit methods of dealing with liquor—a section of the community that is becoming immensely rich.. In New 'York I had a man, who waa driving a Packard car, pointed out to me as a retired ‘bootlegger’; he had been, I was informed, two years in the business, and was now settled for life.”

Sees Prohibition at Work in US,A.