The Daily Independent

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 193
G-Men Move On Georgia To Curb Whiskey Rebellion

Atlanta, Ga., June 22—(U.P.)—The federal government tonight moved in a corps of alcohol unit investigators to mop up Georgia—the state where drys have prohibition, the wets have liquor and nobody is satisfied.
The "whiskey rebellion" in major Georgia cities which declined to observe the prohibition mandate in the June 8 repeal referendum, still was in full effect.
Nobody in Georgia who felt the need for a long one in a frosty glass to offset the midsummer heat, was being forced to fall back on iced tea.
But outraged drys claimed the repealists, who were defeated in the referendum, were finding prohibition better than no liquor at all and threatened to demand troops to dry up the state.
The arrival of the federal men, the clamor of the militant drys and threats of action in Georgia's major cities—Augusta and Savannah—gave indication the summer yet may become a long and dry one for Georgians who returned an 82,000 majority vote for prohibition and then took a few drinks to forget about what they did.
The federal men who came through Atlanta were moving quietly.
It was hinted they were heading for Augusta where liquor is dispensed openly under a city license system in defiance of prohibition.
The group, it was understood, had completed extensive investigation of wholesale shipments from legally-wet Charleston, S.C.
One of the agents, who refused to allow his name to be used, said an inquiry into liquor sales in dry Georgia has been under way some time.
He hinted charges might even be brought against unnamed city officials who have sponsored licensing systems in nullification of the state prohibition system.
Federal intervention to halt the Georgia "whiskey rebellion" was asked last week by state revenue commissioner T. Grady Head. The federal government, by filing charges of falsification of government alcohol records, conspiracy to falsify such records and revocation of basic alcohol permits, can take positive action.
A storm of protest from outraged drys raged in Augusta where police Supt. Co. R. Chambers said his department motto is "more liquor, better business and cheaper liquor and abolition of the bootlegger."