Dear Editor,
Who is this guy Rick Holmes ? The Santa Rosa Press Gazette published a guest editorial on August 26, 2015, “Remembering Prohibition, and Learning From It.” Like many media persons, he repeats false, negative, deliberately-deceptive tales about the failure of National Prohibition. Albeit, he does make a couple sensible remarks: 1) We need to learn from it. But, and there’s always a big one in the mix, we do not need to learn the misconceptions and contrived lies perpetrated by the media.
Virtually every column, editorial, etc., about Prohibition will never quote from these reliable sources:
The Amazing Story of Repeal, Fletcher Dobyns, (1974).
Alcohol: Servant or Master, Lindsay Curtis, MD (1972).
The Reminiscences of Neal Dow, 1898.
Prohibition, Then and Now, Deets Pickett, 1953.
Deets writes that gangsters and criminals warred with each other, and existed before, during and after Prohibition. He cites from the Sen- ate Committee of the Judiciary (66th Congress): “The Committee is of the opinion that the record clearly establishes the following facts: (A) United States Brewers Assn, and allied interests, have furnished large sums of money for the purpose of secretly controlling newspapers and periodicals.”
The report continues with Items (B) through (M) with similar charges. Can you imagine the huge loss of liquor revenue periodicals would lose if they were to speak favorably about National Prohibition? The likes of Holmes are abundant, perpetrating the lie that National Prohibition failed. It did not. It was deliberately sabotaged by federal, local agents and agencies, news media and the alcohol industry. Honest people must read the Deets Pickett booklet “The Truth About Prohibition, Then and Now.”
It is well documented from industry and government reports. Facts do not lie. Liars do. Too many people remain ignorant of the facts because they are too busy or too lazy to research the truth. The likes of Holmes will not give you the facts or the truth.
Bill Bledsoe
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: ‘Remembering Prohibition’ column reports deceptive information