Brewers are waging a fierce battle against gangdom, which is not willing to give up its profitable source of income. Of course, these gangs have no regard for the law, and due to the police protection which they have enjoyed over a period of several years, they have obviously come to the conclusion that they have the right to claim a lion's share of the legal beer business. The weapons employed in the fight are the same ones which have always been used by the bootleggers in settling their quarrels....

What has been holding back certain authorities who have the power to annihilate gangdom, yet who have made no attempt to rid the city of that menace?

The gangsters' attempt to transform its illegal operations into a licensed and therefore legal brewery business has already been pointed out. To kill such 2ambition once and for all is the duty of the authorities in power. Legal business must be protected by the authorities against such competition....The beer runners must be made to realize that the country is governed by laws by which they, too, must abide.

Much of the outcome of this war depends upon the attitude taken by the States attorney's office. It is to be hoped that lack of prosecution and subsequent punishment is not the result of high political protection.

Of course state legislation and the regulation of beer sales play just as important a part, although the beer sale law has not reached its final phase in the legislature. There is no doubt of the bootleggers' influence in Springfield; they have devoted their energy to the frustration of a law which prohibits their entry into the legal beer business. They are anxious to retain the strongholds which they have built during the past thirteen years. They are especially eager to control the delivery of beer--the transport and carrying trade--in addition to a large profit yielded by the legal beer sale.... If the Capone syndicate is successful it is obvious that the retail beer 3business will be controlled by this unlawful organization.

There is one more thing which must not be overlooked, namely, that beer runners do not intend to please the customer; more over, they dictate what kind of beer they wish him to handle, or vice versa. The disobedient customer is dealt with in the usual manner--by bombings. These terrorizing incidents must be prevented....

It is not at all a question of moral prejudice, but legal business must not suffer because of the hidden operations of gangsters, the most prominent of whom are members of a criminal clique whose lawless activities place them in the category of undesirable citizens shunned by society. Lawless business methods must be stopped once and for all. The doom of gangdom is near, provided that the proper authorities combine their forces to eradicate that evil.... The people are indeed interested and anxious to have legal business emerge victorious from the battle now being waged.