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diff --git a/old/60617-0.txt b/old/60617-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e6ae89d..0000000 --- a/old/60617-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6305 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Charles Hanson Towne - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition - The Human Side of What the Eighteenth Amendment and the - Volstead Act Have Done to the United States - -Author: Charles Hanson Towne - -Release Date: November 2, 2019 [EBook #60617] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE AND FALL OF PROHIBITION *** - - - - -Produced by ellinora, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - THE RISE AND FALL - OF PROHIBITION - - - - - [Illustration: (Publisher’s logo)] - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS - ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO - - MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED - LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA - MELBOURNE - - THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. - TORONTO - -[Illustration: I have seen hulking men enter a shop at nine in the -morning, hastily tear off an ice-cream soda containing I know not what -flavoring and dash out again into the world of business. No habitual -drunkard could show a worse record. The soda-fiend is a sensualist, -knowing nothing of the healthy ecstasy of comradeship. He is a solitary -drinker of the worst sort.] - - - - - THE RISE AND FALL - OF PROHIBITION - - THE HUMAN SIDE OF WHAT THE EIGHTEENTH - AMENDMENT AND THE VOLSTEAD ACT HAVE - DONE TO THE UNITED STATES - - BY - CHARLES HANSON TOWNE - - New York - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 1923 - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - COPYRIGHT, 1923, - BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - - Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1923. - - - Press of - J. J. Little & Ives Company - New York, U. S. A. - - - - - TO MY FRIEND - JOHN M. DENISON - - - - -AUTHOR’S NOTE - - -The chapter from Mr. John J. Leary, Jr’s, book, “Talks with T. R.,” -entitled “On Prohibition,” is used in this volume by permission of, and -by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized -publishers. - -Thanks are also due the editor of _Harper’s Magazine_, for his kind -permission to include portions of E. S. Martin’s article, and to the -Rev. W. A. Crawford-Frost, for his consent to reprint extracts from his -sermon. - -Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls have been most helpful in permitting the use -of their files of _The Literary Digest_; and Mr. William L. Fish, Mr. -Frederic J. Faulks, Mr. Thomas K. Finletter and Mr. Herbert B. Shonk -rendered much assistance in the preparation of this volume. - -Two chapters are reprints of articles which originally appeared in the -New York _Times_. - -I must also thank Mr. Markham, Mr. Le Gallienne and Mr. Montague for -the use of their poems. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I THE PHENOMENON OF PROHIBITION 1 - - II OUR GREAT UNHAPPINESS 10 - - III OUR ENDLESS CHAIN OF LAWS 17 - - IV TOO MUCH “VERBOTEN” 26 - - V MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DE-MOCKERY-CY 46 - - VI THE INFAMOUS VOLSTEAD ACT 62 - - VII A TRIUMVIRATE AGAINST PROHIBITION 83 - - VIII “THE FEAR FOR THEE, MY COUNTRY” 88 - - IX DRYING UP THE OCEAN 109 - - X THE MULLAN-GAGE LAW, THE VAN NESS ACT AND THE HOBERT ACT 120 - - XI BOOTLEGGING AND GRAFT 129 - - XII “DON’T JOKE ABOUT PROHIBITION” 138 - - XIII HOW CANADA HAS SOLVED THE LIQUOR PROBLEM 150 - - XIV CRIME AND DRUNKENNESS 156 - - XV THE LITERARY DIGEST’S CANVASS 163 - - XVI LITERATURE AND PROHIBITION 176 - - XVII AMERICA TODAY 183 - - XVIII OTHER REFORMS 194 - - XIX IS EUROPE GOING DRY? 202 - - XX WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 208 - - - - -THE RISE AND FALL OF PROHIBITION - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE PHENOMENON OF PROHIBITION - - -The strange phenomenon of Prohibition, after an appearance amongst us -of over three years, is still non-understandable to the majority of a -great, and so-called free, people. It is one of the most astonishing -manifestations the world has ever witnessed. It came upon us like a -phantom, swiftly; like a thief in the night, taking us by surprise. Yet -the Prohibitionists will tell you that no one should be amazed, since -for years--for almost a century--quiet forces have been at work to -bring about this very thing. - -Most of us can remember how, not so many years ago, when we wished -to throw away our vote, we cast it for the Prohibition ticket. Some -unknown “crank” was running for office on a dry platform. “What a -joke,” we said, “to give him the weight of our affirmation, to enlarge -his pitiful handful of white ballots! It will be a good way to get even -with the arrogant Mr. So-and-So.” - -And into the box we laughingly dropped the bit of paper which might -cause a mention to be made of the crank in the next morning’s news -columns. Delightful, insincere flattery, which could not possibly do -any harm. How well, how thoroughly, how consistently we gave it, never -dreaming that the solemn hour would strike when our gesture would no -longer be a joke. - -The morning came when the headlines in our newspapers proclaimed -the fact that State after State was following the road of Kansas, -Washington, Maine and Oregon, to mention only a few States which -for some time had elected to make laws that were almost blue. Local -option--yes, we had heard of it in the effete East. There were -districts, we knew, which chose the path of so-called virtue; and -they were welcome to their sanctimoniousness. In our hearts we rather -approved of them for the stand which they had taken--particularly -when we learned, on an occasional visit, that it was mighty easy to -give a dinner-party with plenty of liquid refreshment. All one had to -do, it seemed, was to lift the telephone receiver in Bangor, and ask -that Boston send over a supply of whatever one desired. There were no -restrictions against the transportation of liquor over the State line, -though it was impossible to purchase wines and spirits in the holy -community itself. - -Our national insincerity began right there. The hiding of the ostrich’s -head in the sands--that is what it amounted to; and we all smiled and -laughed, and went on having a perfectly good time, and we told one -another, if we discussed the matter at all, that of course the worst -could never, never occur. What rot even to think of it; what idiocy -to take seriously a state of affairs so nebulous and remote. It was -like predicting a world war--which eventually came about; it was like -dreaming of the inconvenience of a personal income tax--which also -came about; it was like imagining that man would be so uncivilized as -to break all international law--which, only a few years later, he did. -Who foresaw the use of poisonous gas in the most frightful conflict of -history? Who had vision enough to tell us that noncombatants would be -killed, as they were in Belgium, though treaties had been signed which -forbade such wanton cruelty? Who could foretell the bombing of cities -far beyond the firing line? Yet these atrocities occurred with singular -regularity once the world entered upon that stupendous struggle which -began in August, 1914. We came to take such happenings for granted. We -grew accustomed to terror, as one grows used to pain; and all that we -had built and dreamed went crashing to dust and ashes. - -Prohibition, I venture to say, was the last thing in the world the -American people expected to have come upon them. Though temperance -advocates were thick through the country, the brilliant bar-rooms held -their own; and we came to look upon them as an essential part of the -pageant of life, especially in cosmopolitan cities, with Salvation Army -lassies entering them to pass the tambourine. Men in their cups gave -generously; and I often wonder if the revenue of pious organizations -has not seriously diminished, now that there are no haunts of vice -for holy workers to penetrate. Surely they must miss this casual -liberality--the coin or the bill cast with a grand and forgotten -gesture into the extended hand. - -But do not imagine I am holding a brief for the corner saloon. The sins -of an enforced Prohibition are many, as I shall seek to prove; but the -passing of the common drinking-place cannot be deprecated. No sane, -thinking citizen wishes to see a return of promiscuous debauchery. -A glimpse now of the London “pubs” in the poorer districts of the -English capital is enough to convince any American that he should -thank his stars--if not his three-stars--that one phase of our social -consciousness has vanished forever. If we could have sensibly rid -ourselves of these rum-hells, without punishing a vast multitude of us -who knew how to drink wisely, much good would have been accomplished. -But, American-like, we had to go the whole gamut; we had to make -ourselves ridiculous before the rest of the world, in order to bring -about a check upon the gross appetites of a scattered few. - -There is no doubt in my mind that there will be a reaction. The -pendulum has swung too far, as any observer must admit. The present -conditions throughout the country are so disgraceful that something -must be done to remedy them. Our personal habits became a matter for -federal investigation; our daily conduct is now given to the scrutiny -of the authorities--to our everlasting discredit. We are a nation of -self-appointed law-breakers, rejoicing alike in our secret and open -wrong-doing. We are the laughing-stock of Europe; we are the jest of -Canada and Mexico, our neighbors, and decent Americans feel that a -stigma has been put upon them. We stammer explanations to visiting -foreigners, who, confused and confounded, ask us what it all means; -we are confused ourselves at the muddle our Government is making of -the whole wretched business; and yet, being Americans who tolerate all -kinds of injustices, we meekly submit, the while we complain, and are -too lazy, most of us, to lift up our voices, to utter one word publicly -in derision of this monstrous foolishness. - -What is to happen to us? Are we to become a race of machines, supinely -submitting to autocratic mandates? We have always allowed ruffians to -rule us in our civic politics; and though once in a while we bitterly -cry out, the ruffians, knowing our weaknesses only too well, pay no -attention. We are like the worm that turns; but who cares, since no -change is evident when the worm shows its other side? - -One of the great troubles with America is that only in rare instances -will the finer type of young manhood enter politics. We leave the high -business of running the Government to men of inferior caliber, whereas -in a land like England, a political career is a distinction, as much to -be chosen and sought as the Church. Until we come to a realization of -the peril that confronts us through our spirit of _laissez-faire_ we -shall deserve, as Plato says, exactly the kind of Government we get. - -With all our recognized national gusto and verve, there can be no -denial of the tragic fact that we are mentally indolent when a -political cause is in the balance. I have known men of worth in the -professions and in the world of business to neglect the polls on -Election Day in order to indulge in a game of golf; yet these are the -first to cry out when the low-brow politicians triumph. We permit our -jury-boxes to be filled by incompetent German-American grocers and -butchers, clerks with little imagination, played-out failures and cab -drivers and chauffeurs who are morons. Even the women, who were so -anxious for equal suffrage, find, in many cases, that civic duties are -a burden, and avoid their obvious responsibilities. We let George do -everything which we find in the least unpleasant. - -Well, there is a price for such lethargy. It is terrifying to read -over the names of the judges and magistrates on the American Bench, -and see how many are of foreign origin. Listen to the roll-call in -any court-room. The Poppelfingers and Morinos and Sauerkrautzers -predominate. Where are our first American families? It might be well to -ask, indeed, where they will be in another generation or two. - -You and I walk along the streets and see a man suddenly stricken. -A crowd quickly gathers about his pitiful form, stares into his -countenance. A policeman calls an ambulance. A gong rings, and he -is carried off to a hospital. You and I go our way, with perhaps a -momentary tug at our heart. But it never occurs to us that the man in -the street might have been ourselves. Such things happen to others--no, -they could never, never happen to us. The lightning may strike a -neighbor’s house or barn--but not our own. Death or disaster may come -to the other fellow--never to us. - -“It never can happen” might be our national slogan. Thus has a stupid -Pollyanna optimism penetrated our civic thought, our political -consciousness, our spiritual being; and the false doctrine is screamed -from every housetop from Manhattan to Gopher Prairie. Pretty little -poems, printed in neat frames, greet us wherever we turn. They urge us -to cheer up, that it is not raining rain, but only flowers, and that -God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world--forgetting that -Browning, when he penned his immortal line, referred to a particular -morning for a particular man of vision, and by no means intended to -be quoted out of his context, as a basis for the silly “gladness” of -hoards of people who think they think. Our music-halls are crammed -with comedians who sing, in loud voices, something about what’s the use -of worrying, it never was worth while, and bidding us smile, smile, -smile. And we clap and giggle and stamp our easy-going feet, and go -out into the night, and are shoved and pushed into an over-crowded -subway train, and still fondly cherish the delusion that we should -keep on smiling, though a brutal train-guard’s boot is jammed into our -reluctant back, so that we may become one more sardine in the steel box -he is so expert in packing. - -It would all be very amusing were it not so serious. Sinclair Lewis, -who is becoming the best photographer this country ever produced, has -not given us a false picture of our towns and cities. He tells the -brutal truth, bravely. But we read him, smile, and say that of course -it’s all very well, and such localities may exist, but they are not -those in which we dwell. And all the while, about us, are the very folk -his deft pen has drawn. _Babbitt_--what a stupid old fool he is, and we -may have seen him in smoking-compartments; but we never will admit that -he is our next-door neighbor. - -The day may come when we will have to admit that he is our very self. -We have the superiority complex. Which of course is nothing but a -confession that we are inferior. And in allowing restriction after -restriction to be put upon us, how, in the name of common sense and in -the words of the man in the street, do we get that way? We are the -most governed people in the world today. There are plenty of laws, but -little order; and the millennium that the Prohibitionists promised with -the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment is farther away than ever. - -Let us wake up, and face conditions as they are. Let us not try to -delude ourselves into a state of false happiness, when, at heart, we -are the most unhappy nation now breathing the celebrated air. It is -high time we did some solemn thinking. The writing is on the wall. It -is our business to read the words inscribed there in letters of fire. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -OUR GREAT UNHAPPINESS - - -Are the American people any worse than other people, that they should -be put _en masse_ upon the water-wagon? Who is it that sits in judgment -over them? What unseen Kaiser, Czar, autocrat passes sentence upon -their morals? We fought a War to get rid of such leaders and rulers; -and now, ironically enough, we find ourselves under the domination of -far stronger task-masters. - -I have recently been traveling through a great portion of this great -country. Everywhere I found a curious unhappiness. People may not be -articulate about their sorrows, just as the poor may not speak of -their poverty; yet the canker is there, the worm i’ the bud is eating -away the heart of the flower. Perhaps I should use the word discontent -rather than unhappiness. Or restlessness. Or resentment. At any rate, -the feeling, whatever it is, exists; and there is a new menace over -our days. The placid reformers, resting between reforms, smack their -lips in sadistic glee. In the face of repeated and open violations of -the law, they give out interviews to the effect that all is moving -serenely; that the people are under beautiful control--though they -have to admit that they squirm once in a while. Here again it is a -case of stupid optimism. They _want_ all to be well, and they fondly -imagine that all _is_ well. They will have a great awakening; for this -smoldering discontent and anger is bound to rise in a great tide one of -these days. - -[Illustration: At the trial, the package in evidence was placed on a -large green-covered table, in the presence of the jury and the court. -The prosecuting attorney worked himself into a fine fury of eloquence. -The majesty of the law must be upheld.] - -Listen to a lady reformer in Chicago, speaking after a church league -meeting, in September, 1922. Evidently she is out of touch with the -world, secure in the sanctity of a liquorless home. She has never -attended a real dinner-party, poor dear; and somehow my heart goes out -to her. - -“The law is being enforced, and the results are more than satisfactory. -The brewers are skulking opponents. What are they doing now?” she -inquired blandly of her audience. “Some are making candies, some soft -drinks, some other things; but they are all making money, and are -happy. Prohibition is a wonderful thing, and I am proud to be a citizen -of the country that has adopted it.” - -How sweet and cheerful! But as she spoke, I wonder if she knew that -almost around the corner real beer and whiskey were easily procurable. -That as she uttered her oracular words, men with hip-flasks passed the -door behind which she was speaking, on their way to joyful occasions. - -The law was never less effectively enforced, dear lady. You are living -in a world of dreams and fancies. You should get about more, and meet -the flappers and _jeunesse dorée_, who could tell you and show you a -thing or two. Your rhapsodies are all very well; but your smug delight -in conditions has a note of pathos to one who has observed the country -as it is, and not as you would have it. Alas! you are but deluding -yourself, and my heart goes out to you in your simplicity. - -Is the law being upheld when, at a dinner-party at a certain country -club, two policemen in uniform were sent by the local authorities -to “guard the place” while much liquor was poured? These minions of -the sacred law were openly served with highballs, and they laughed -at the Constitution of the United States. I saw them and heard them -myself. They came to get drunk--and certainly succeeded. Everyone at -that party deplored the company’s behavior, was loud in denunciation -of Prohibition and what has come in its wake; yet went on eating -and drinking and dancing with the casual remark that it was of no -consequence whether or not they broke the law, since everyone was doing -it. - -Is there any veneration for the law of the land when advocates of the -Eighteenth Amendment, men who sponsored it publicly, in private deride -it, and, at the mention of Mr. Volstead, sneer and jeer, and purchase -cocktails in New York restaurants at a dollar apiece, gulping them down -openly? - -I asked such an advocate--a politician who would like to be called -a statesman--why it was that, if he believed in the Volstead Act, -he continued to consume his daily quota of Scotch. I don’t believe -anybody had ever ventured to put such a frank question to him. His -wife, on my left, blanched--she, by the way, never touches a drop; but -her exalted husband is fond of the cup that cheers--and inebriates. -He has held high office, and has been loud in his advocacy of -Prohibition--for the other fellow. He glared at me when I rashly put my -question to him, lifted his glass high and cried out, intending to be -witty (I thought him merely disgraceful, and drunk, as usual), “I drink -as much and as often as I can, in order to lessen the supply!” And then -he had the effrontery to add: “Of course I mean to see to it that the -law is upheld, when liquor cases come up before me.” - -Yet I had read a statement of his in the newspapers when he was running -for office, declaring that wine was a mocker, and that whosoever was -deceived thereby was not wise. Oh, yes, he could quote Scripture with -a vengeance, this minion of the law. My lady friend in Chicago, seeing -him on the street, would count him as among the holy band who have put -their O. K. upon Volstead, Anderson, et al. Yet behind closed doors -he is a Mr. Hyde who takes a fiendish pleasure in his dual nature. I -like him not. The lady in Chicago is at least consistent. Were I a -W. C. T. U. worker or an Anti-Saloon member--or even a judge who tried -bootleggers--I think I should strive for a similar state of holiness, -and always be willing to let my left hand know what my right hand was -doing. - -The truth is that laws of intolerance defeat their own ends. The -instant you tell people not to do something, they have an irresistible -desire to do it. There cannot be laws greater than the people -themselves. And that law is the most insidious and dangerous of all -which discriminates between the rich and poor. - -I am, by temperament and training, a Conservative; yet I confess that -were I a workingman deprived of my beer, I would find it hard to remain -calm, when, returning from my day’s labor, I was forced to go to an -arid tenement, passing the homes of those who possessed well-stocked -cellars--and who replenished them at will. - -Those who labor ceaselessly for the cause of Prohibition will tell you -that it will not always be possible to obtain liquor; that the rich, -too, will come to a state of drouth; and I have even heard some of them -say that, after all, there are many things the rich have always had -which the poor could not possess, and drink is but another symbol. - -For such light arguments I have no use. I could only say to so profound -a student of human nature and the humanities that he, along with his -kind, is sowing the wind, and will reap the whirlwind. With money, we -seem to be able to purchase anything we desire in this land of lost -liberty. One of them is a wine-cellar. Mr. Volstead did not quite dare -to make it illegal to drink in one’s home. There might have been a -serious exodus from the country had such a drastic law been passed--or -even seriously considered. Since Magna Charta a man’s house has been -his castle; and an invasion of the sacred precincts would cause -unlimited chaos. Yet in certain of our States, John Doe search-warrants -may now be obtained, and officials may enter one’s dining-room to -ascertain if drinking is going on. It is unthinkable, but it is so. -But, then, there are many foolish legislative blunders made from year -to year, and a placid and long-suffering people pay little attention -to them. I have heard men complain of the laws in their community, who -would not lift a finger to see that they were changed. - -In the Far West recently, learning of a certain intolerable mandate, I -could not resist asking a lawyer why his State stood for it. His only -reply was that they gave it little thought--until someone from outside, -like myself, came along and drew its horrors to their attention. Then, -with the going of the stranger from their midst, they settled down -once more to calm acquiescence; or else they openly disobeyed the -law, and, when they thought of the possible consequences, roared with -laughter. For no one had ever been put in prison for a violation of -the statute--and of course no one ever would be. Then why have it on -the books? Oh, well, what difference did it make? The women wanted it -there, but of course they didn’t mean it, and it was a joke anyhow, and -it wasn’t worth worrying over, when you came to think of it, and maybe -the Legislative body had to earn its salary, and how about a little -game of golf to forget it? - -I suppose we have come to be such a hodge-podge nation that we are -losing sight of all the old ideals our forefathers fought for. The -passage of the Eighteenth Amendment may have been the best thing -that could have happened to us, since it has, in a sense, aroused -us to the point of anger, whereas piffling restrictions put upon -our liberty have left us cold and indifferent. But here, at last, -is something big enough to cause most of us inconvenience--and the -American people do dislike to be inconvenienced. We could get together -on this burning subject, where we would fail to dovetail on lesser -questions. Our heterogeneous citizenry is inflamed, as one man; for -the German-American wants his beer, the Italian-American his red wine, -the Irish-American his grog, the English-American his ale and port, -the Russian-American his vodka, the Swedish-American his punch, the -French-American his champagne and light wine, and so on down the line -and through the maze of races that go to form our vast Republic. - -Is it too late to get together? Here again we may fail to act in -concert; for the foreigner within our gates, feeling the contagion of -our national slothfulness in a Cause, and waiting to get his cue from -us, sits back and wonders why we do not act. - -And many an American waits and wonders too. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -OUR ENDLESS CHAIN OF LAWS - - -When we sit back and rail at the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead -Act, we lose sight of other laws equally tyrannous which, however, do -not happen to affect us. - -Is it generally known, for instance, that in the State of Utah there -is a statute which makes it a misdemeanor to purchase, sell or smoke -cigarettes? One may not puff in a public place; yet one may do so -in private, the law contends. The Mormon Church is opposed not only -to drinking and smoking, but to coffee-drinking as well; and as the -elders in that church are the big property owners in Salt Lake City, -controlling the hotels and other public buildings, when I went there -not long ago I wondered if I would be permitted to light a weed. - -With soda-fountains gracing the lobbies of the smartest caravanseries, -I had my doubts; but when I casually asked where the cigar-stand was, -I was directed to a garish counter, and beneath gleaming glass cases -I saw, to my amazement, all brands of cigarettes on sale. I asked how -this could be. - -“You don’t take this law seriously?” a native said to me. - -“I am getting so that I cannot take any law seriously,” was my natural -answer--as it undoubtedly would have been yours, dear reader. Yet you -and I call ourselves perfectly decent, God-fearing American citizens, -do we not? - -I hadn’t the slightest trouble in purchasing everything that I wanted; -yet a new fear possessed me. After dinner, would it be possible to -smoke in the main dining-room? - -To make a long story short--it was. Everyone was doing it, just as -though a law had never been heard of; and I saw Mormons consuming -coffee, too. Think of it! - -For almost two years now the farce has gone on. No one thinks it -curious any more that the mandate is not obeyed. - -They told me of a case recently tried out there. A small tobacco -merchant--an Italian, if I recall correctly--was arrested for selling a -package of cigarettes to a detective. (To remind people of the august -legislature and to give the tax-payers another reason for being taxed, -a minion of the law must go about now and then, on a fat salary, to -investigate conditions.) At the trial, the package in evidence was -placed on a large green-covered table, in the presence of the jury and -the Court. It was all very incriminating. The prosecuting attorney -worked himself into a fine fury of eloquence, denouncing the pitiful -little culprit in high-faluting language that the wretch on trial -could not possibly understand. The majesty of the law must be upheld. -This was terrible; it was atrocious--though nothing was said of the -fact that down in the heart of the city, every hour of the day, this -same law was openly violated. The judge solemnly charged the jury--and -hastened out to luncheon. - -But the twelve good men and true were out only a few moments. They -brought in a verdict of not guilty. - -“How can this be?” cried the Court, in wrath. And the counsel for the -people tore his hair, metaphorically, if not literally. The detective -looked blank. Then the foreman arose and said that the jury had had -no evidence presented to them that cigarettes had been sold, as the -package covering the alleged malignant little weeds had never been -opened. - -And so the money of the good citizens of Utah is being spent on such -opera-bouffé trials--and they continue to stand for it. - -A delightful state of affairs, my masters. Such incidents should get -into the papers more frequently. For we can all stand anything but -ridicule. And when the law is thus made ridiculous, it is to laugh, -isn’t it? - -Or should one remain serious in the face of such nonsense--as of course -the reformers would have us do. - -Well, I am afraid they will have to pass laws against smiling before I -can be brought to terms. And even then I may break another law--and go -to jail for it. Or more likely remain peacefully at home, as I do now, -breaking so many that I have stopped counting them. - -I fear that I break the speed laws--as do you. I am afraid that most -of us do. Yet I am not conscious of good ladies of any N. S. L. S. -(National Speed Law Society) giving up tea-parties that they may get -out on the highways to watch us, and report us, and, if need be, arrest -us themselves. Yet when you and I dine at a restaurant in a city like -New York, we are apt to note a policeman in uniform standing in the -doorway, his eagle eye upon us, to see that we do not take flasks from -our pockets. I wonder what would happen if, under the very nose of this -representative of law and order, one should pour from a bottle some -harmless iced-tea. Alas! I fear that the law is not to be trifled with -in that way. The dignity of our jurisprudence must not be disturbed. -One might be hauled up and arraigned for disorderly conduct, or for -some such trumped-up charge. - -But it _is_ a pretty picture, isn’t it, to see perfectly good -tax-payers watched and spied upon while they eat their meals? Ye gods! -and in a supposedly free country! How our ancestors must turn in their -graves--they who wrote something, didn’t they, about “life, liberty, -and the pursuit of happiness”? - -Who shall define that last phrase today? I wonder what it means--what -anything means--in these topsy-turvy times. - -Not long ago, in solemn conclave in an eastern city, a holy body of -men and women aroused the whole country to its first volume of fury -by suggesting that gatling-guns be used to enforce obedience to the -Prohibition law. In their fanatical zeal, they were seriously for -murdering a number of us, and they saw no humor in their announcement. -What were a few lives, if the LAW was upheld?--a law, by the way, -which millions of thinking people do not believe should ever have been -put upon our statutes. No more shameful resolution was ever made at a -public meeting; yet I would not have been surprised had it been passed, -to such a state of imbecility have we come. Why stop where we are? Let -the digging in go on; let the teeth of the law sink into your flesh -until we groan in agony. Let the busybodies and the cranks become as -thick as flies and locusts in time of pestilence. Let them gather in -battalions around us, sting us, flay us, torture us--until at last the -vestige of manhood which is left in us may cause us to turn upon them. - -I fear that the law which makes it illegal for a minor to be admitted -to a theater or a motion-picture palace is broken every day in every -city of our broad and beneficent land. Yet I do not find pickets from -Children’s Societies, standing about to see that the letter of the law -is obeyed. We pretend to be deeply interested in the welfare of the -coming generation--so interested, in fact, that the present generation -is forced to give up its harmless toddy, that the children of tomorrow -may be robust supermen and superwomen. - -The fact is that, to the fanatic, no law is sacred except the -Eighteenth Amendment. - -The Fifteenth? Oh; why talk of it? The South knows its problems, and -can cope with them. Besides ... well ... Ahem!... That’s another -matter, and has no bearing upon the issue at hand. - -Why hasn’t it? Yet if you ask ten people in the street what the -Fifteenth Amendment is the chances are that only one will be able to -tell you. - -If the negro was enfranchised, he was enfranchised, and should be -permitted to vote. That is the law of the land. It is part of our -glorious Constitution. - -But do you hear anyone raising a row over the fact that no one pays any -attention to it in certain parts of the South? Few zealots work for -the rights of negro voters--none, I should say. It matters little to -us that they are denied that privilege which belongs to every citizen -here, whether he is black or white, or what his previous condition of -servitude. - -Why should we respect one Amendment to the Constitution, and be allowed -to hold in contempt another? - -Truly, the logic of the fanatic is hard to follow. If one of them reads -these words, he will merely smile and pass on, and do nothing at all -about it. For just now he is fearfully concerned over Mr. Volstead and -the carrying out of his policies. One thing at a time, please. - -His interest may keep him busy for so many years to come that he will -have the excuse of no free moment to study the Fifteenth Amendment. But -all the Amendments should be enforced, or wiped off the books. - -Riding in a train once through the sanctified State of Kansas, where -long they have refused to let you and me buy a cigarette, I asked for a -package in the dining-car. - -“Can’t let you have ’em,” was the answer of the steward. “We’re on -Kansas soil.” - -“Then why don’t you inform passengers before we cross the State line, -in order that they may stock up?” I inquired--humanly enough, I thought. - -“They should look out for themselves,” was his rather unkind reply. - -I thought a moment. I did want a smoke, and I was determined to have -one, despite all the laws in Christendom. I told my feelings to the -steward. He saw that I was in earnest. In fact, he came to see the -justice of my suggestion that passengers, unaccustomed at that time to -so many restrictions (this happened in the halcyon, prehistoric days -before Prohibition) should be given some hint of the approach of the -State line. - -He came over and whispered in my ear, first looking about him--as we -are all doing nowadays, the while we laugh at Russia and Prussia: -“Say, if you’ll drop a quarter on the floor, I’ll pick it up; and -there’ll be a package of cigarettes under your napkin in a minute.” - -Thus was another holy law disobeyed. - -And it is done every day, O proud fanatics, who think you are cleaning -us up. And it always will be done. For poor old frail human nature is -just what it is; and spiritual reformation can never come, as you would -have it, from without, in. We must all work out our own destinies, -from within, out. Somehow we like the little battles with our souls. -They add a piquancy to life. They give a spice and zest to the level -days. Our appetites are our own affairs. The moderate drinker is not -a drunkard; and to place restrictions upon him, in order to cure the -ne’er-do-well is as unjust as it would be to put the petit larceny -prisoner in the death chair along with the murderer. - -Gertrude Atherton, who is wise and broad-minded, once wrote an article -against Prohibition, which began with these sharp, incisive sentences: - -“I am a woman. I never drink. But I am against Prohibition.” - -My own sentiments, exactly. - -Temperance--yes; but never absolute restrictions. And if we continue to -place them upon the people, we shall have nothing but broken, shattered -laws all down the line; and finally something else will be broken and -shattered. - -I mean the dream of this great Republic. I mean the illusion which all -of us had that we were not to live under despots. I mean the hope of -a race which believed in democracy, and finds itself suddenly in the -grasp and under the domination of bitter tyrants, who seek to chain us, -and imprison not only our bodies, but our very souls. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -TOO MUCH “VERBOTEN” - - -One hears a great deal about the way the Volstead Act and the -Eighteenth Amendment were “put over” on the American people. It is -true, as I have said, that the legislation came upon us suddenly; -but everything was done in a perfectly legal and orderly manner. The -people did not realize how far the Anti-Saloon League, and kindred -organizations, had gone in their work. Also, deny it as they will, the -advocates of Prohibition used the War as an excuse, as a cloak for -their propaganda. It was perfectly right for the Secretary of War and -the Secretary of the Navy to forbid the sale of liquor to our men in -uniform after we got into the conflict. We were at War; and it would -have been as foolish for our boys to get drunk as it would be for an -actor to go on the stage intoxicated. Moreover, in the heroic glamour -of those now happily vanished days, it was so easy for soldiers and -sailors to be “entertained” by any and everyone. Better, then, to clamp -the lid on tightly. It was a time for efficiency; and no one is so -foolish as to contend that the consumption of whiskey in large doses -makes for a hardier race. One believes, with St. Paul, in “moderation -in all things.” Youth, in a period of stress, needs direction, just -as children do. Having arrived at an age of reason, man should be -permitted to go his own way. But just as we needed discipline in the -ranks--physical discipline--we needed spiritual discipline in wartime. -There can be no real argument about this, I think. - -But even here we failed, partly. Liquor _was_ sold to men in uniform. -And men in uniform wanted it, and found many ways to obtain it. The -forbidden apple is always the sweetest; and the more we restrict and -preach and restrain, the more eager certain natures will always be to -achieve the very thing we decry and withhold. - -The war, of course, was responsible for many upheavals. We could not -enter such a fiery conflict without feeling its bitter after effects, -any more than one can drink immoderately and not feel ill the next -morning. That we fought to make a weary world safe for democracy is now -nothing but a joke--a Gilbert and Sullivan joke worthy of a deathless -lyric. Indeed, a short time ago, had a librettist put into a comic -opera some of the happenings between 1914 and 1918--only some of them, -mind you--his book would have been hissed off the stage. - -There are some things that are true to life, but not true to fiction. -For instance, think of the irony of our boys being sent across the seas -to shoot guns at the Prussians and begging them to free themselves -from an autocratic Kaiser, and, during their necessary absence, being -deprived of a glass of beer when they came back home. - -It would be the most laughable farce comedy were it not the deepest -tragedy. I can conceive of a brilliant first act, wherein some -doughboys, parched and thirsty, arrive in a German village and for the -first time in their lives taste real Münchner beer--the beer of their -enemy--learn to like it, decently enough, get the recipe, and decide -to take back to their home town the one good and harmless thing the -enemy country gave them. Then, as a climax, they arrive, wounded and -depressed, a tatterdemalion battalion, glad that the filthy war is over -and done, and ready now to drop back into calm, blissful citizenship, -with their young wives and families. - -But no, say a delegation of legislators on the pier (a charming comic -chorus this!), with palms extended upright, - - “You are all wrong, bo, - And you really ought to know, - That we’ve rearranged the show, - And it’s bone-dry you will go, - And though honors we bestow, - Now, alas! no beer will flow! - For we’ve put one over on you-- - Pro-hi-_bi_-tion!” - (Curtain, amid general consternation.) - -Now, if a libretto with this plot development had been offered to a -Broadway manager six years ago, it would have been turned down at once -as impossible. I can see the first reader’s report: - - “A great deal of whimsical imagination is shown by the author; but - the American people are very sensible, and even Barrie and Gilbert - could not be allowed to take such liberties with life as it is. - Isn’t it too bad that writers do not know the public better? What a - pity it is that they cannot evolve plots that will be a revelation - of life as it is, not as it might be in a mad, whirligig world of - fancy? This is not good, even as satire, for the situation could - not exist, even in a realm of dreams.” - -But see what has happened! This plot would have proved a prophecy and -made several fortunes for the author and the manager. - -“What!” I hear some character saying in the course of the first act, -just before the curtain descends, “do you mean to say that the boys -who fought for this democracy stuff had no voice in the passing -of the law that made it a crime to sip a glass of good beer?” And -the answer would be, “Of course not! How behind the times you are! -America is a free country, you know. The people who dwell in it -boast of their superiority of intellect, and rejoice in their form -of self-government--though they abrogate their votes to a pack of -politicians who are--well, to put it bluntly, dishonest. For they drink -themselves, while they bow to lobbyists who don’t believe in drink--for -the other fellow. America, my good sir, is the land of the spree no -longer; it is the home of the grave.” (Business of laughter. Solemn -music is heard, and the entire chorus of legislators pass with stately -steps to the Capitol, dressed in heavy mourning.) - -But nothing is being done about anything. The American people, whipped -into obedience, as Prussians were never whipped, take their medicine -(from which all but one-half of one per cent of alcohol has been -extracted--and why this modicum should be permitted to remain is only -another joker in the whole stupid business) and obey the law. - -Only, they don’t. They go out and break it to bits, as I have shown; -and our legislators wonder why they have so many bad children on their -hands, and isn’t it a strange world, and why is it that folks won’t be -good and do as they are told, and what are laws for, anyhow, and this -disrespect of the law is awful and must be punished, and someone has -got to go to jail, and why is Bolshevism growing when we are all so -happy? - -Ah! there is the answer in one word! We are not happy--every one is -decidedly, unequivocally, wretchedly, miserably, gloomily, stonily, -fearfully, terribly unhappy! - -And why? Because one has to fight so hard for his fun nowadays. A lot -of laws have been passed, and more are threatened, which blast one’s -hopes of the simplest kind of good times. These laws are based on a -complete misunderstanding of poor old human nature, which needs, every -now and then, say what you will, an escape from the dreariness, the -tedium of life. The harmless diversions which in childhood take the -form of playing ball and cricket and tennis experience a metamorphosis -as we grow older--a perfectly natural metamorphosis; and we crave just -a tinge of excitement after the harsh, unyielding day’s work. Most -Americans work hard--there is no doubt of that. Except for a Cause. -But, seriously, American business is a strenuous, glorious thing--a -delightful game, if you will; but it is also a serious note in the -scale of our national consciousness. - -We need relaxation after eight or nine hours at a desk; and the lights -of a great city are the lure that lead us forth--not to get drunk, God -knows, but to get just that fillip the weary body and brain need when -an honest day’s work is done. - -The people who don’t understand this, and who are trying to rule and -run America, are in a class with those who fail to understand the -psychology of Coney Island, or any other simple pleasure resort; who -are unable to distinguish between a happy sobriety and filthy gutter -intoxication; who never heard Stevenson’s line about Shelley, “God, -give me the young man with brains enough to make a fool of himself.” - -How a glass of light wine or beer is going to hurt a fellow is more -than I, for the life of me, can see; and if he takes his wife along, as -he usually does, or wishes to do, there is precious little danger that -one will ever fall over the terrible precipice of intoxication and go -down into the bottomless pit of complete disaster. - -One might say to the reformers that for the most part our ancestors -imbibed a bit; and here we are, thank you, and doing very nicely. - -There has never been a particle of evidence presented to prove that -teetotalers live longer than moderate drinkers; indeed, one doubts if -they live as long. And it is well known that those races which refuse -absolutely to drink do not produce anything of importance in the way of -art; and surely they contribute nothing to the cause of science. Take -the Mohammedans. Name one great artist among them, if you can, known to -you and me. - -Had Americans been a race of drunkards, I could understand this sudden -drastic legislation against booze. But we were far from that. Drink was -beautifully taking care of itself. It was _infra dig_ to consume too -much; and the young business man who made it a practice to indulge in -even one glass of beer at luncheon, lost caste with his employer--yes, -and with his fellow workers. He soon discovered the error of his ways, -and no longer found it expedient to feel sleepy in the afternoon, when -others were alert and thoroughly alive. It was only honest to give to -the concern for which he worked the flower of his brain and heart; and -so he passed up the casual glass, with little if any reluctance, and -joined that great army of temperate men--and women. He did not wish to -be left behind in the race for glory; and where he had taken, without -a qualm, four cocktails before a dinner-party, now he took only one, -and sometimes left a drop or two of that in the glass. - -I can recall the time, not so many years ago, when everyone drank like -a glutton. Country clubs were but excuses for dissipation, locker-rooms -were nothing but bars, with waiters running in and out with trays of -refreshing drinks. (Alas! they are worse than that now, thanks to our -reformers!) But this brief era passed--through the common sense of the -people themselves. We did not require legislation to cause us to see -whither we were drifting. Out of our own consciousness we knew--all but -a few congenital drunkards--that “that way madness lies.” And so we -quit, of our own volition, this heavy and stupid drinking. The “society -fellow,” worthless from the beginning, was cut out; the man of sterling -qualities and action took his place. The “lounge lizard” became a -deservedly abhorrent creature, unfit for the companionship of decent -men. We came, as I see it--and I have observed American life in many -spheres--to a sense of our own foolishness. - -Big Business didn’t want the toper. Big Business scorned the young -clerk who followed the gay lights along the gay White Way--the fool who -sat up all night, taking chorus-girls to lobster palaces. With that -alertness for which the American is famed, our young men realized that, -to succeed in the realm of business, they would have to turn over a new -leaf. - -And they did it. I ask the reformers to deny this if they can. There -has been no menace from drink in this country for many and many a year. -We never drank as the English laboring man drinks--or even as the -Germans consume beer. We were, as the whole world is aware, a race of -moderate drinkers--omitting always those few and necessary exceptions -which only serve to prove the rule. - -Yet, as a nation, we were indicted, held up to ridicule and scorn. -We were told that we could not control our appetites, and so our -benevolent Government would control them for us. And this in the face -of the fact that we _had_ learned to control them. - -I can likewise recall the time, not so long ago, when crowds of -children would follow some forlorn drunkard being hauled to the -station-house. Even though the corner-saloon continued to flourish long -after you and I grew up, how many years is it, I ask anyone, since we -have seen this sorry spectacle? And as for seeing a man lying prone in -the gutter--that seems a prehistoric incident to me. Yet such incidents -ceased long before national Prohibition became an outrageous fact. - -Taking care of ourselves, still we had to be taken care of! Ah! in our -frenzy to become too pure, let us remember the dangers of benevolent -autocracies. The State has one definite function, the Church another. -The mingling of Church and State--is not that one of the pitfalls we -have long sought to avoid? If the former looks after our souls, the -latter should be satisfied to see to our bodies--and that would be -duty enough. - -Let us do a little figuring. - -There are, approximately, 110,000,000 people in the United States of -America. Of these, let us say that 40,000,000 are men and 40,000,000 -women. Of minors there are perhaps 30,000,000 more. Among the last -named there would be very little drinking. I imagine that of the male -population, a considerable number do not imbibe at all. I would rather -err, giving the opposition the benefit of the doubt; and so I will say -that 20,000,000 males drink in moderation, and that 10,000,000 females -do the same. This gives us, out of a total population of 110,000,000, -only 30,000,000 people who care anything at all about liquor. Of that -number, how many, do you think, are what might be called immoderate -drinkers? Five million? That, it seems to me, would be a fair -estimate--more than fair. But let us be generous to a fault. - -Of that five million, how many are congenital drunkards? A million? -Perhaps; though I doubt that even that number have sunk so low. But let -us say that two million have done so. - -Then it has become necessary to deprive 30,000,000 people of a simple -form of pleasure because 2,000,000 do not know how to manage their -souls and bodies. It would be equally ridiculous to put an end to -connubial bliss because there are a few libertines in the world. - -I remember, as a boy, an unjust teacher who kept the whole class in -because one pupil whispered--and she could not discover the culprit. I -never could understand her perverted sense of justice. We were guilty -along with the disloyal little rascal who had violated a rule. We must -suffer because he would not declare himself. - -But drunkards cannot conceal their wickedness. We know them. We spot -them. They are obvious in any community. “The town drunkard” was as -well known as the town pump. It has always been on our statutes that -intoxication in public constituted a misdemeanor. The penalty for a -misdemeanor is arrest, trial, and, if found guilty, imprisonment or the -payment of a fine. - -Few would get drunk if they knew they would be arrested. We had that -law; we failed to enforce it. Hence the present inelastic laws--heaps -of them--which only complicate matters, and make public morals no -better than they were before. - -No better? Worse. For drunkenness is rampant in the land, as it never -has been. Prohibition does everything but prohibit. The very thing it -sets out to do it fails to do. That is as self-evident as the misery -in crowded tenement districts in great cities. There is no denying it. -People who never drank before, drink now--in enormous numbers. - -Why is this? Because it is perfectly human to wish to do what one -is told not to do. You know the story of the woman who, just before -leaving the house, said solemnly to her children, “Now, my dears, -while I am gone do not play with the matches.” When she came back the -house was on fire. - -All the emphasis having been placed on _not_ drinking, people are -thinking of nothing _but_ drinking. Public bars have been transferred -to public coat-rooms, and we have the spectacle of numerous “souses” -before a banquet, premature roisterers who become so tight that they -can hardly get through a course dinner. It is disgraceful, but I fear -it will never stop. For impositions breed contempt for all law and -order. - -Passive content finally breeds active rebellion. Our lawmakers should -have the wit, the vision, the common sense to realize that. For a whole -nation to be forced to be moral by statute and mandate is so ridiculous -that it must make the gods laugh--particularly the goddess Hebe when -she brings in the flowing bowl. She must almost spill the contents of -her famous cup which she has been carrying these many cycles. - -There is always a reaction against enforced goodness--against enforced -anything. But no sour-visaged sarsaparilla drinker ever realizes that. -He puts over his “reform” and imagines that all is well. He cannot hear -the shuffling of feet, the movement of armies in the dim distance. If -he does, he mistakes it for applause. - -The fact that Americans were taking care of themselves, so far as -the drink question was concerned, makes the sudden appearance of the -fanatics all the more non-understandable. They came upon us with gusto. -They are pathological--any doctor will tell you that. And the American -people, who believe, I am told, in life, liberty and the pursuit of -happiness, permit themselves to be governed by a pack of pathological -cases who, themselves, should be in wards, if not in padded cells. - -And they are not content with this initial victory. As the Irishman -put it, “If this is Prohibition, why didn’t we have it long ago?” -And a visiting Englishman exclaimed, looking our country over, -“Prohibition?--When does it start?” - -They are going after our tobacco, our golf and motoring on the Sabbath; -and they are going to dip into our cellars and rob us of that which -we used to keep there, oh, so seldom, but now have in great and wise -abundance. - -It never occurred to any of us in the old, halcyon days when one could -loll on the back platform of a horse-car or trolley with the glorious -multitude, and smoke there, to keep a supply of liquor in our homes. If -we were giving a dinner, and wished to oil the social wheels just a bit -to start the machine going, we may have sent to the corner and bought -a bottle of gin and a little vermouth, and perhaps a quart of simple -California claret, and let it go at that. No one disgraced himself. It -was all very quiet and serene and sane and nice. We hurt no one; we -did ourselves no injury (any physician will tell you that; he needs -whiskey in his practice, if he is the right kind of physician), and a -pleasant time was had by all, as the country newspapers say. - -But from that undramatic drinking what, because of Mr. Longface, have -we leaped to? To the hip-flask, the sly treating in coat-rooms--and -other places I need hardly mention--long before dinner begins, so that -one may be sure of a sensation which no decent man should care to -experience. - -A nervous tension is in the air, putting us all back twenty years. I -assure the reader that never once in my life did I carry a flask of -brandy, even when I was going on a long and dusty and tedious journey; -yet my dear mother was as certain that I should take one as that I -should wear rubbers when it rained; and I let her believe I did both, -for the sake of her peace of mind. - -Was my mother a criminal, for her quiet advice? Not then; but she -would be considered so now, with Mr. Volstead’s act on the records of -my beloved land. Actually, I am a criminal if I take a sip outside -my home--in my club, in my travels. If I transport a little of that -whimsical stuff of which poets have sung so beautifully and often, I -can be dragged to jail--if I am caught. Boo! What a mockery of personal -freedom it all is! - -I heard a fine citizen say not long ago--a man of wealth and position, -a publicist, a man of affairs (I am using the word in its proper -sense!), a man who loved, very definitely, the great America that -used to be--that for the first time in his life he had the despicable -thought that he would like to withhold something, if he could, on his -income tax. He felt little compunction for the base thought. Why should -he hand his hard-earned money over to a Government which deprived him -of so much of his personal liberty and held over his head the dire -threat of further deprivations? - -What was this man getting out of America? he asked me. Just a dull -time, to be truthful. He was but one more waffle from the great -national waffle-iron. When he wanted diversion he must pack up and -fare to other lands, where living is still living, crave a passport, -swear that he had paid last year’s tax, produce a receipt he had never -received, and promise to pay this year’s, and either not stay away too -long or see to it that his lawyer attended to it for him. - -Everyone is ticketed, docketed, labeled, put in a card-index. This -tabulation of citizens--how we smiled at it when the Prussians carried -it to the extremes they did! Poor creatures, we said of them, to stand -for such arrant nonsense. - -A jolly state of affairs! It makes one feel so loving toward one’s -Government, doesn’t it? We are all children, and Uncle Sam is no longer -a symbolical old figure, but an avuncular autocrat who goes about, -nosing everywhere, almost invading the sanctity of our homes (ah! he -may do it yet!) in his senseless quest for this and that. But just as -Santa Claus could never get down every chimney in the world, one feels -certain that Uncle Sam cannot pry into every wine-cellar, and examine, -if he had all eternity, every tiny bank balance. Moreover, my friend -will not cheat on his income tax. He, at least, is decent. - -Let us not delude ourselves that we are living in a democracy any -longer. Laws were passed from time to time in the history of our great -country, without the people’s vote; but they were laws that served -our best interests and did not interfere with our personal liberty. -When our rights as citizens were molested, we got up on our hind legs -and yelled. “What is this?” we naturally inquired. “Why, it is what -has always been done,” came the answer from the bar of injustice. And -that was literally true. Only we didn’t know it. “You can’t break the -Constitution,” was a further argument. “Once a Federal Amendment, -always a Federal Amendment, you know.” - -And why, pray? If the good old iron Constitution cannot be tampered -with, it is high time that it was. If our forefathers who framed it -meant it to be an utterly inelastic document, they didn’t count on -the elastic minds of the American people. “New occasions teach new -duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,” said the wise James Russell -Lowell once; and nothing is more certain than the fact that the moment -has come when the people should be heard, and not a handful of -legislators, who rushed madly to lay in a stock of wine and spirits -when they saw which way the wind was blowing their straws. - -It grieved me, as a good American, to hear an Englishman say the -other evening before a lot of my fellow-countrymen that his idea of a -complete life would be to spend nine months of the year in England as a -British _citizen_ and three months in the United States as an American -_subject_. There was much mirth; but somehow I could not laugh and I -hope these Constitutional Amendments, coming so thick and fast, are not -causing me to lose my sense of humor. - -It was a statement in which so much of truth was compressed that I -shuddered; and I thought of all the forms of _verboten_ that have -lately been foisted upon us. I recalled how, ten years ago, a friend -of mine had returned from Germany and told me, laughingly, how the -poor subjects of the Kaiser were eternally forbidden to do this -and that. It was _verboten_, _verboten_, _verboten_ everywhere the -eye turned--in the parks, in restaurants, in the galleries, in the -theaters--everywhere. Always some petty restriction, some tyrannical -interference with the masses. And he said then how contrary to the -broad American spirit was this constant stress on “Thou shalt not.” We -both smiled over it, and pitied the much-ruled and controlled Germans. -“What a glorious land we live in,” we said, in unison, lifting our -glasses, “and how proud we are of our freedom.” - -But could we honestly say that now? Do not let us be hypocrites. Before -foreigners, we bravely and loyally uphold our form of Government, -because one does not like to cleanse his soiled linen in public or -reveal a family quarrel; but deep down in our hearts--I hear it -discussed everywhere I go--is a feeling of apprehension; and the -everlasting question is being asked, “Whither are we, as a people, -being led?” - -If the political machinery is being clogged with too many foolish and -unnecessary laws that are merely jokers and venemous restrictions, why -do we not speak out in meeting, call together groups of citizens, as we -are privileged to do under the Constitution (unless another Amendment -has been added since this was written), and protest against this -extravagant misuse of power? - -The reason England has always been such a comfortable country to live -in is because of the spirit of constructive criticism that has filtered -through the nation. If a Londoner does not like the service on the tram -roads, he writes to the _Times_ about it, and the matter is adjusted. -He has the backing of all his neighbors--and ten to one they have -written, too. But how many Americans, insulted in the subway or by some -public servant, will sit down and write a letter of complaint? - -We stand meekly like droves of cattle behind tapes in motion-picture -“palaces,” pressed by eager little ushers endowed with a momentary -authority, until released and permitted to fumble our way down dark -aisles to such seats as we can find. We allow grand head-waiters to -hold us in check when we enter a smart restaurant, not indeed behind -tape, but behind a silken cord--which does not mitigate the insult, -however; and we humbly beg them to see if they can get us a table--and -some of us slip them a greenback to gain their august favor. - -We allow ticket speculators to buy up all the best places in our -theaters, adding what profit they demand, and say nothing--though there -is a statute forbidding such extortion. “Ah, we’re here for a good -time, and we don’t care what it costs us,” is the answer of the average -visitor to the metropolis when he is asked why he does not protest -against such unjust measures. I have known only one rich man to refuse -rooms at a fine hotel, simply because he felt it wrong to pay seventeen -dollars a day, no matter what his bank balance. It is people like that -who help the rest of us to a return to normal conditions. He thinks of -someone but himself. - -Yet we talk of Prohibition as though we were manfully trying to save -the next generation from the perils of drink! We are doing nothing of -the sort. We are merely bowing our craven heads to a mandate because -we have neither the courage nor the energy to speak loudly against a -stupid law foisted upon us by an organized minority. Our altruistic -purpose is not apparent, for it never existed. - -“Ah, but,” someone whispers, “the majority want this and that; so we -must give in to them.” - -Even so, why should we give in to them? The majority of people prefer -flashy, meaningless movies and Pollyanna and Harold Bell Wright and -chewing-gum and cheap jewelry and Gopher Prairie and slapstick humor -and loud laughter and a crowded beach on Sunday, and hideous neckties -and shirts and summer furs, and a hundred and one other things entirely -foreign to my desires; why, then, should I walk in their path, jump -over the hurdles that the multitude puts in front of me? - -Arnold Bennett once said that the classics were kept alive, not by -the man in the street, but by the passionate few. He was dead right. -In the words of your beloved majority, he said a mouthful. Now, -because my neighbor and my neighbor’s neighbor have a weakness for the -best-sellers (not the best cellars), and find a robust pleasure in -never thinking of anything beyond baseball, I do not see why I should -be forced to indulge in a stupid Pollyanna optimism and forget and -neglect my Keats and Shakespeare. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DE-MOCKERY-CY - - -What psychological effect will this constant contempt for the law of -the land have upon us as a people? Surely something dire and dreadful -is seeping into the national spirit, and we are in grave danger of -coming to a human dislike of all laws, in consequence. - -We talk of Prohibition as a good thing for the generations to come; -but how about disregard for the law as it will affect our children and -our children’s children? Drunk, they might not be responsible; sober, -to their higher selves they are accountable for their shortcomings in -regard to our statutes. A lack of veneration for an orderly carrying -out of a mandate is a serious thing. But to hear the young people -talking these days about the sanctity of the Eighteenth Amendment is -not a heartening experience. They jeer at it, and openly roar with -laughter when it is mentioned. - -No one wishes danger to overwhelm us; but it will, unless something -is done to remedy the present abhorrent conditions, which, I repeat, -are making most of us unhappy. We are entangled in too many legal -nets; and it is not pleasing and edifying to see an ex-Judge or -jurist who came out strong for Prohibition sitting night after night -in a certain restaurant, imbibing his cocktail, creating scandal in -a more than crowded room. He is not in his cups these days--only in -his demi-tasses. I wonder if he knows what an example he sets to the -flappers down the room, and with what derision his high-and-mighty -public utterances are now greeted whenever he opens his mouth to speak -between drinks? - -I hear men and women saying all the time, “America is no place to live -now. The streets of our large cities at night look like villages in -some remote district. Dull, dull, and drab, drab. One more tyrannical -law, one shadow of that deep blue which imperils us, and we will go and -live abroad--anywhere but here.” - -Is that pleasant talk to listen to? Does it make one proud to be an -American? It is not well to have such feelings fomenting in the hearts -of those who honestly and sincerely love their native land--love it so -much that during a terrible war they were proud to offer to die for it, -or allow their sons to die for it. - -But this is not the time to desert the old Ship of State. Now, as never -before, the United States needs its best blood, its best workers, its -best citizens, to put the country back where it belongs. - -It is because I love America so, that I do not wish to see her make -a complete fool of herself--as she is doing every day now. And I say -it as loudly as I can, that these pernicious laws, this spirit of -_verboten_, is only making the world safe for De-mockery-cy. - -It was Montaigne who said that he was “of the opinion that it would be -better for us to have no laws at all than to have them in so prodigious -numbers as we have.” And that was how long ago? What would he write and -think of America if he could live among us today? - -And further he said, knowing human nature as few of us know it: “There -is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions -to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.” - -Yet the silly law-makers go on with their silly codes, piling Pelion -on the top of Ossa, till all sight of man’s frailty is lost. “A little -folly is desirable in him that will not be guilty of stupidity.” - -Yet the letter of the law must be upheld, and the very men who make our -statutes continue to break them. - -The joke may go too far. The American people may remember that “eternal -vigilance is the price of liberty” and be willing to watch and wait, -lest that most precious of all things be taken away from them. - -There can be no disputing the fact that a law that is not enforced -is worse than no law at all. Law and order--that is the phrase. But -America is a country of law and disorder; and the worst of it all is -that the reformers refuse to stop where they have. They are preparing -to plunge us into even deeper gloom. Why should they rest, having been -so eminently successful already? - -We used to laugh tolerantly at the compulsory military service of -the Germans, under the Kaiser; but isn’t a compulsory seat upon the -water-wagon just about as autocratic? - -“Dry Country, ’Tis of Thee,” should be our national anthem--since -we are seriously looking for one to take the place of the -too-difficult-to-sing “Star-Spangled Banner.” But no; the words would -not ring true. For there is a wetness all around us, and the lyric -of a national anthem should at least seek to express the ideals and -aspirations of a people, in terms of truth. - -Yet before Prohibition, who would have thought of picking out America -as the wettest of all countries? We were just moderately so. We had no -desire to get a reputation for excessive dampness. It is the drys who -have given us that reputation--against our will. And the pity of it is -that the tag will remain--even after we are sanely and becomingly wet -again. - -The reformers wish no going back to even a semblance of the old ways -and days. They wish us to conform, sedately, forgetting that Emerson -once wrote, “Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.” - -And somehow I go on believing in Emerson. - -There was some wild talk, not so many months ago, that it might become -lawful to dispense government-approved beer from the soda-fountains; -but sensible people who care for their toddy--delectable word!--were -not thrilled. They no more wish beer served from soda-fountains than -they wish soda-water served from soda-fountains. They want their toddy. -And when they say so, firmly, “Oh, dear!” and “Oh, my!” and “This is -awful!” cry the Prohibitionists. - -I always somehow get back to that argument of the upholders of -the Eighteenth Amendment to the effect that Prohibition is a good -thing--particularly for the next generation. I feel like asking them, -in absolute seriousness, Then why not look to the soda-fountain? - -When I was a lad we used to drink simple little things like vanilla, -strawberry and chocolate sodas--at five cents apiece. And we were -happy over harmless lemon and cherry phosphates. Yet the other day -when I chanced to step into a confectionery shop, I was nonplussed to -hear sophisticated flappers (what tautology!) ordering raspberry nut -sundaes and banana splits with chocolate sauce, and other concoctions -which my bewildered brain refuses to remember. And when I saw the -little silver dishes heaped with these vicious sweets, I was horrified. -Gluttony, pure and simple. And what of dyspepsia, and indigestion, and -complexions, after partaking for a few weeks of such stuff? Does no -one care enough for the coming race to do something about it? - -I have seen hulking men enter such a shop at nine in the morning, -hastily tear off an ice-cream soda, containing I know not what -flavoring, and dash out again into the world of business. What must the -lining of their stomachs be like? No habitual drunkard could show a -worse record, I imagine. And of the two evil-doers, I would prefer the -latter. At least he is human. The soda-fiend is a sensualist, knowing -nothing of the healthy ecstasy of comradeship. He is a solitary drinker -of the worst sort; and though he may not stagger out of the place, he -is certainly unfit to begin his day’s work--just as unfit as the fool -who makes it a practice to take a nip of Scotch before breakfast. - -Seriously, here is work for the reformers. Let them investigate the -kind of mixtures that are served to our youngsters at soda-counters. -One-half of one per cent of raspberry should be all that is permitted. -A solemn bill should be introduced into the next legislature, and -carried by an overwhelming majority. It is unthinkable that our youth -should be exposed to the evils of sundaes, sold openly all along our -avenues and boulevards, in every city and town and hamlet. It is -madness to let this traffic go on. - -And there are not even any swinging-doors to hide the sundae fiends. -Shamelessly they imbibe their drinks with the world passing the -unshaded windows, looking in at them. A shocking state of affairs. -Yet who is doing anything about it? No wonder little Alice, of the -pale face, does not eat much luncheon. Her mother worries over her -anemic condition; yet she will not take the time to investigate the -child’s daily habits. She never inquires how she spends her allowance. -And young Bobby, who formerly was so rosy and plump, deteriorates -into a consumptive-looking boy. No, he doesn’t smoke; and as yet he -has not acquired the hip-flask habit. What, then, is the matter with -him, that he drops out of baseball and has no heart for tennis; that -he is backward in his studies, and sleeps restlessly? On his way to -school he stops in at the soda-fountain. And on his way home, he stops -in once more. Surely the Government should issue cards, and make -it a misdemeanor for a clerk to serve more than one soda a week to -minors--and grown-ups. The Board of Health should do something about it. - -You see, if it isn’t one thing it’s another in this troubled world. No -sooner do we mop up the saloon than we find other places in need of -mopping. Parents and social workers, here is a job for you. Get at it, -at once. Forthwith. Instanter. Immediately. The future welfare of the -race is at stake. - -If it were only ginger-pop that the children drank! But here again one -cannot control the appetites of human beings. We have closed the corner -saloon. Is there no way of closing the corner soda-fountain? - -It is curious, in these days when there is so much understanding, even -among flappers, of psycho-analysis and complexes, that no one seems -to have called attention to the fact that the prohibitionists are the -greatest living examples of certain distressing inhibitions. - -That the majority of us should find ourselves suddenly dictated -to--told, literally, what we should and should not put into our own -little private tummies--is beyond belief. What does a man who has -never taken a drink know of the psychology of drink? What does he -know of good-fellowship, of the poetry of the toast, of the beauties -of _Brüderschaft_? I would as soon think of Dr. Mary Walker telling -_Romeo_ and _Juliet_ how to make love. - -The set lips of the fanatical reformer are the outward evidence of an -interior set of corroding inhibitions. Unable to get relief from the -tedium of existence in, say, a town like Gopher Prairie, the subject -moves, in his or her later years, to Minneapolis or some other larger -city, and is next heard of as a professional reformer of one sort or -another. - -I remember a young man in my class at school who was impossible as -a playboy because he always wanted to rule the roost, to dictate -everlastingly the manner in which any game we sought to enjoy should be -played. He was never content to be just one of us. Oh, no! He must run -things, order us about, be a dictator and a little czar, an autocrat -of the most unbending kind. We despised him. He could never fall into -line and be boyishly human. He could not yield; he could not adjust -himself to the spirit of fun which we others abandoned ourselves to -with youthful ease. He was just a common scold. - -He disappeared from our school-yard, and from our lives. Years later, -when the War broke out, he turned up in a remote town as a shrieking -radical. Nothing was right. He had worked out his destiny in the only -way such a nature as his could possibly do. He wasn’t a good sport. -Worse, he wasn’t even a good citizen. He didn’t amount to a row of -pins. He wasn’t even worth interning. He wasn’t interesting enough to -get the slightest notoriety--he wasn’t what the newspapers term good -copy; and that broke his heart. - -I have no doubt that now, with the War over, he is a professional -prohibitionist--or do I mean inhibitionist?--with a soft job at some -desk. He would never be happy anywhere; but in such a position, -interfering with normal people’s happiness, he would be as happy as he -could be. - -It is exactly men and women like him who have slipped over some of -the laws we now have and who are planning statutes against staying -away from church on Sunday. But it’s an old story. The intelligent -people in every community are forever allowing themselves to be duped -by fortune-tellers and ouija-board manipulators, table-tippers, snake -doctors and bell-tinkling “mediums.” - -A dog-in-the-manger spirit is in the land. “I don’t like a glass of -wine--I’ve never tasted the nasty stuff--so I don’t want you to taste -it!” This is the cry of the paid reformers who eke out a living by -taking up some fad, and, having nothing interesting of their own to -reveal, peep and eavesdrop and reveal the interesting traits of their -innocently jovial and erstwhile happy brothers. - -We have enough complexities in our modern life without having the -complexes of these would-be and self-constituted evangelists made -public day by day. Of course, the natural human being is he who -indulges in everything--in moderation. Show me the man who constantly -denies himself something, and I will show you an abnormal man. He -becomes obsessed with his “goodness,” as he dares to call it; and he -cannot talk ten minutes without mentioning his _idée fixe_. He revels -in it. He gloats over it. He delights in it, just as the monks of old -delighted in the hair-shirt and self-flagellation. He thinks he is -better than we are. Soon he begins to preach. He is like the old woman -who committed a sin in her early youth and still loves to talk about -it. He does not know how boring he is. He does not know how little a -part he plays in society. He is just a bit “off,” a trifle queer. - -The next step in this form of madness is to try to impose one’s own -ideas upon one’s neighbors. Soon proselytizing must be done. The -pent-up energy of years must be released in middle age. Steam must be -let off. Blood pressure must be reduced. If these “cases” would only -lock themselves up in cells and flagellate themselves, they would find -comfort and release from their agony of mind, and a weary world would -be grateful. But no! they must stalk through the land, imposing their -so-called moral rectitude upon the rest of us. - -Good-naturedly we have, up to now, humored them, smiled tolerantly at -them, secretly pitied them. But with shrewdness and cruelty they have -plotted and planned for years, quietly banded together, until now they -are joined in a great brotherhood; and instead of locking themselves -up, they have locked us up--and maliciously, gleefully thrown away the -key. We should have been their keepers. Instead, they are ours. - -An occasional little spree, as a wise Frenchman once said, never hurt -anybody. It is necessary for people of imagination to romp and play -once in a while. What form that romping and playing takes is their -own affair--so long as they do not injure their neighbors. They may -express themselves in terms of smoking, of flirting, or sitting up all -night and talking their heads off; or they may take a long walk in -the rain; or go to the movies for several hours; or read an exciting -but impossible detective story--which is by no means a waste of time; -or dance; or go fishing; or attend an Elks picnic; or buy their wives -a diamond bracelet; or indulge in an after-dinner speech; or see a -foolish musical comedy. There are a thousand and one ways to let off -steam. They come back from any one of these “dissipations” a hundred -per cent better in mind and body, and plunge into the serious business -of life with a fresh stimulus, a new zest. - -But the prohibitionist--what form do his inhibitions take? _His_ -orgy is one of complete surrender to an orgy of holding in, forever. -He never lets go--never--not for one second. And just as the hermit -enjoys his self-imposed solitude, he revels in his self-inflicted -punishment; and, without wishing to be cynical, I say that he gets a -certain drab satisfaction in this stupid disciplining of himself. The -remorse of the morning-after is unknown to him. But without realizing -it, every morning he experiences a mental hang-over. He has never lived -through one normal day. The pendulum, for him, swings completely in -the other direction; and he is happy only when he is unhappy. But--and -here’s where you and I come in--he is not content with this exquisite -unhappiness. He wants us to be unhappy, too! - -Pathological, you see. Heretofore, the temperance people looked upon -all drinkers, heavy or light, as wounded souls--medical cases. But -we who drink and smoke and laugh in moderation are the normal people -of the world. The others are those who are in need of treatment. The -tables have been turned, thanks to psycho-analysis, and Freud, and the -open door that leads to the light of medical science. A bunch of sour -grapes have robbed us of our sweet grapes. Why? Because they could not -stand the thought of Joy being in the world. They want everyone to be -as miserable as they are. - -Having succeeded so easily in taking away one of our joys, do you think -these fanatics are content? If so, you know them not. Their victory has -been accomplished so simply that, of course, they are now looking about -for new worlds to conquer. They set their mouths, grit their teeth, -look us over, impale us on a pin and see where next they can turn on -the screws. They take a fiendish delight in inflicting punishment. That -is part of their disease. Their suppressed desires find expression in -robbing us of our natural pleasure. They are cunning and keen and wise, -with the curious and dangerous wisdom of the insane. They think they -are sent into the world to redeem it. They have the Messiah complex. -They have the delusion of greatness. And when we venture to question -their methods and motives, they hurl invectives back at us and cry, -“You are persecuting us!” They have paranoia, you see. They would kill -us, actually, rather than give us one sip of beer. - -And these are the people who have, temporarily, gained the upper hand! -Mad on one subject, they appear perfectly balanced while lobbying in -the legislatures of the land. Obsessed with one idea, they can talk -intelligently on every other subject; but sooner or later they will -switch the conversation to their pet theory--and then I ask you to note -the gleam in their eyes, see their lips twitch, watch how nervous they -become! Yes, pathological cases, every one of them! - -When will the hard-shelled prohibitionists understand that it is not -drink _per se_ that thinking people are fighting for? The people are -roused to action and alarm because of the dangerous precedent that -has been set. If we, as a nation, are to be deprived of legitimate -and friendly egg-nog (lovely word again!) when New Year comes round, -why, in the name of heaven, can we not be deprived of eggs? They make -one bilious, I am told. And biliousness is bad for one. Come, let us -correct it. - -But, having taken away the dangerous egg, let us poke about and see -what else one can remove. Ah! there it is, of course! Coffee! Coffee -makes one nervous. Nervousness is awful. Coffee keeps one awake. But -why remain awake in a world that has lost its glamour? Remove our -coffee, then! Gladly we permit you to take it; for then we can go -blissfully to sleep and forget our worries and cares. - -It has been loudly denied that lobbying is being done to bring about -the passage of further drastic laws; but the busybodies are secretly -working, night and day. The deadly work goes on, unabated. Of course -they are not crying their methods from the housetops. Sinister forces -are burrowing deep, and frightened legislators will be forced to follow -the path they took before the Eighteenth Amendment went through. - -You remember that wonderfully satirical story of Mark Twain’s, “The Man -That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” don’t you, and what happened to a town that -imposed righteousness upon the inhabitants? All temptation having been -beneficently removed, when one little chance came to misbehave, the -entire village leaped at it and was thoroughly corrupted. - -There is some fun in passing a saloon, in going voluntarily on the -water-wagon, in refusing that extra cocktail; there is none whatever in -having someone else do it for you. - -Our prayers may be dictated to us next. But something tells us that if -prohibitionists formulate them, they have no more chance than ours of -being heard in heaven. A world made safe for us by reformers is the -last kind of world we care to dwell in. For reformers are the kind of -people who paint heaven as a stupid city of golden streets and pearly -gates, and incessant singing and playing of harps. Well, as Omar said, -“thy heaven is not mine.” - -Prohibitionists, I am genuinely sorry for you. You need not pity me, -for I shall go on doing as I please, despite you. And so will millions -of other good Americans. Does that make you frantically desperate? Does -that make you have another attack of your symptoms? Do you puff up with -rage and despair when you hear me say such things in open defiance of -you? - -Keeper, bring in the straitjacket, and sweep out, as Goldberg -says, padded cell No. 7,894,502,431. For the pathological ward is -overcrowded today. They have just brought in a frightfully red-faced -man who believes in the Blue Laws; and he must have gone quite mad, for -he is singing what he claims is the new national anthem, “Three Cheers -for the Red, White and Blues!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE INFAMOUS VOLSTEAD ACT - - -There are seven Articles in the original Constitution of the United -States of America. - -There are nineteen Amendments (to date). - -The Fifteenth Amendment has never been taken seriously in certain of -the Southern States; and the Eighteenth Amendment has caused more -dissension than any law ever placed upon our statutes. The Volstead -Act, which is but an enforcing act of the Amendment, is highly -unpopular. After three years of trying to coerce the people into -obeying a mandate in which millions of them do not believe, are we to -continue to do so, or are we, sensibly, to wipe it out? - -The money consumed by the Government in attempting to have this vicious -law obeyed and respected should cause every American to blush. We are -gradually--nay, swiftly--getting to a point where practically every -citizen will be watched and guarded by another. One’s daily habits will -be observed--perhaps by one’s next-door neighbor, or the janitor in -one’s basement. There is no telling who is a detective nowadays. And -there is no telling who is a bootlegger. Maybe one is the other. - -How far away we have wandered from those early principles of the -signers of the Declaration of Independence and the makers of the -Constitution! “O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy -name!” cried Madame Roland; and Bertrand Barère exclaimed, “The tree of -liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants.” - -The Volstead Act is the most tyrannous document a people have ever had -thrust upon them. I wonder how many Americans have read it, studied -it, pondered over it? I wish we might read the thoughts of all the men -who cast their votes for this infamous piece of legislation. I wish we -might search their consciences, know of their secret emotions when they -assented to its restricting sections. - -It would be folly to reproduce the entire document here, with its -tangle of legal verbiage, its intricate twists and turns, its -complicated sentences which, to the layman, mean so little, but to the -law-makers mean so much! Through a thick underbrush of paragraphs the -legal mind wanders at will, delightfully and miraculously at home, -and finally imagines that it emerges into the sunlight of knowledge -and wisdom. Plain folk like you and me find it difficult to follow -the gypsy patteran and patter; yet somehow we get the sense of this -appalling mass of words--words that seem to have handcuffs attached -to them; words that hint of prison cells and donjonkeeps; words that -mystify and frighten us. We feel so guilty as we traverse them; and -remembering the violations of this sacrosanct paper which we have -witnessed since its solemn passage, we marvel at the energy expended to -make us all good and holy--citizens, I was going to say; but I think, -with the Englishman, subjects would be nearer the truth. - -For a high and mighty absolute monarchy never weighed its people down -with heavier bonds. No Kaiser-ridden land ever knew more complete and -devastating tyranny. The burdens heaped upon the shoulders of the -already weary tax-payers so that the “dignity” of this Act may be -upheld--ah! few of us ever consider these. We have grown so used to -added packs that one more dollar seems to make little difference. But -it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back; and who knows how -much longer we can stand these accumulating and distressing burdens? - -Section 7, of Title 2, reads as follows: - - “No one but a physician holding a permit to prescribe liquor shall - issue any prescription for liquor. And no physician shall prescribe - liquor unless after careful physical examination of the person for - whose use such prescription is sought, or if such examination is - found impracticable, then upon the best information obtainable, he - in good faith believes that the use of such liquor as a medicine - by such person is necessary and will afford relief to him from - some known ailment. Not more than a pint of spirituous liquor to - be taken internally shall be prescribed for use by the same person - within any period of ten days and no prescription shall be filled - more than once. Any pharmacist filling a prescription shall at the - time indorse upon it over his own signature the word ‘canceled,’ - together with the date when the liquor was delivered, and then make - the same a part of the record that he is required to keep as herein - provided. - - “Every physician who issues a prescription for liquor shall - keep a record, alphabetically arranged in a book prescribed by - the commissioner, which shall show the date of issue, amount - prescribed, to whom issued, the purpose or ailment for which it is - to be used and directions for use, stating the amount and frequency - of the dose.” - -This would be ludicrous were it not so serious. But let us pass on to -Section 12: - - “All persons manufacturing liquor for sale under the provisions of - this title shall securely and permanently attach to every container - thereof, as the same is manufactured, a label stating name of - manufacturer, kind and quantity of liquor contained therein, and - the date of its manufacture, together with the number of the permit - authorizing the manufacture thereof; and all persons possessing - such liquor in wholesale quantities shall securely keep and - maintain such label thereon; and all persons selling at wholesale - shall attach to every package of liquor, when sold, a label setting - forth the kind and quantity of liquor contained therein, by whom - manufactured, the date of sale, and the person to whom sold; which - label shall likewise be kept and maintained thereon until the - liquor is used for the purpose for which such sale was authorized.” - -And Section 13 specifies again about records--I wonder if these are -carefully kept, as the law provides!-- - - “It shall be the duty of every carrier to make a record at the - place of shipment of the receipt of any liquor transported, and he - shall deliver liquor only to persons who present to the carrier a - verified copy of a permit to purchase which shall be made a part of - the carrier’s permanent record at the office from which delivery is - made. - - “The agent of the common carrier is hereby authorized to administer - the oath to the consignee in verification of the copy of the permit - presented, who, if not personally known to the agent, shall be - identified before the delivery of the liquor to him. The name and - address of the person identifying the consignee shall be included - in the record.” - - “SECTION 14. It shall be unlawful for a person to use or induce - any carrier, or any agent or employee thereof, to carry or ship - any package or receptacle containing liquor without notifying - the carrier of the true nature and character of the shipment. - No carrier shall transport nor shall any person receive liquor - from a carrier unless there appears on the outside of the package - containing such liquor the following information: - - “Name and address of the consignor or seller, name and address of - the consignee, kind and quality of liquor contained therein, and - number of the permit to purchase or ship the same, together with - the name and address of the person using the permit.” - -How simple they make it for us! And of course free speech on the -billboards has been squashed. For Section 17 has this to say: - - “It shall be unlawful to advertise anywhere, or by any means or - method, liquor, or the manufacture, sale, keeping for sale or - furnishing of the same, or where, how, from whom, or at what - price the same may be obtained. No one shall permit any sign - or billboard containing such advertisement to remain upon one’s - premises.” - - “SECTION 18. It shall be unlawful to advertise, manufacture, - sell, or possess for sale any utensil, contrivance, machine, - preparation, compound, tablet, substance, formula, direction, or - recipe advertised, designed, or intended for use in the unlawful - manufacture of intoxicating liquor.” - -How the very stills themselves must tremble at these ominous words! - -But I think for its far-reaching effects, Section 20 takes the palm: - - “Any person who shall be injured in person, property, means of - support, or otherwise by any intoxicated person, or by reason of - the intoxication of any person” (though we thought intoxication was - to be wiped out with the passage of the Volstead Act!) “whether - resulting in his death or not, shall have a right of action against - any person who shall, by unlawfully selling to or unlawfully - assisting in procuring liquor for such intoxicated person, have - caused or contributed to such intoxication, and in any such action - such person shall have a right to recover actual and exemplary - damages.” (Yet it is not quite clear how a dead man can bring an - action in the courts!) “In case of the death of either party, the - action or right of action given by this section shall survive to - or against his or her executor or administrator, and the amount - so recovered by either wife or child shall be his or her sole - and separate property. Such action may be brought in any court - of competent jurisdiction. In any case where parents shall be - entitled to such damages, either the father or mother may sue alone - therefor, but recovery by one of such parties shall be a bar to - suit brought by the other.” - -So Mr. Volstead anticipates trouble for years to come--as long as it -would take to settle an action for damages in our already-clogged -courts. We make laws, it seems, which we expect to be broken. Deep -down in his heart, then, Mr. Volstead feared that people would go on -being--just people. Drunkenness is rampant in the land; and I suppose -drunkenness will always be rampant in the land. Even Mr. Volstead -cannot stop it. What a pity! - -But do not think for a moment I am putting in a plea for drunkenness. -I am bitterly opposed to drunkenness. Prohibition has not cured it. -We have had it long enough now to see its terrible errors. The lions -have heard the crack of the whip, but instead of being overcome, -overpowered, cowering in corners, we have the spectacle of a -determination to pay no attention to the lashings of the law. Half of -us willfully disobey this iniquitous legislation--and are proud of our -disobedience. What is to be done about it? The more teeth that are put -into the Volstead Act, the more teeth the lions show. They growl and -fight. They will not be mastered. - -Read Section 23. - - “Any person who shall, with intent to effect a sale of liquor, by - himself, his employee, servant or agent, for himself or any person, - company or corporation, keep or carry around on his person, or in - a vehicle, or other conveyance whatever, or leave in a place for - another to secure, any liquor, or who shall travel to solicit, - or solicit, or take, or accept orders for the sale, shipment, - or delivery of liquor in violation of this title is guilty of - a nuisance and may be restrained by injunction, temporary and - permanent, from doing or continuing to do any of said acts or - things.” - -Have our army of bootleggers read this Section? But they are worth a -whole chapter to themselves, so important a part have they become of -our national life. - - “SECTION 26. When the commissioner, his assistants, inspectors, - or any officer of the law shall discover any person in the act of - transporting in violation of the law, intoxicating liquors in any - wagon, buggy, automobile, water or air craft, or other vehicle, it - shall be his duty to seize any and all intoxicating liquors found - therein being transported contrary to law. Whenever intoxicating - liquors transported or possessed illegally shall be seized by - an officer he shall take possession of the vehicle and team or - automobile, boat, air or water craft, or any other conveyance, and - shall arrest any person in charge thereof. Such officer shall at - once proceed against the person arrested under the provisions of - this title in any court having competent jurisdiction; but the said - vehicle or conveyance shall be returned to the owner upon execution - by him of a good and valid bond, with sufficient sureties, in a sum - double the value of the property, which said bond shall be approved - by said officer and shall be conditioned to return said property - to the custody of said officer on the day of trial to abide the - judgment of the court. The court upon conviction of the person - so arrested shall order the liquor destroyed, and unless good - cause to the contrary is shown by the owner, shall order a sale - by public auction of the property seized, and the officer making - the sale, after deducting the expenses of keeping the property, - the fee for the seizure, and the cost of the sale, shall pay all - liens, according to their priorities, which are established, by - intervention or otherwise at said hearing or in other proceeding - brought for said purpose, as being bona fide and as having been - created without the lienor having any notice that the carrying - vehicle was being used or was to be used for illegal transportation - of liquor, and shall pay the balance of the proceeds into the - Treasury of the United States as miscellaneous receipts. All liens - against property sold under the provisions of this section shall - be transferred from the property to the proceeds of the sale of - the property. If, however, no one shall be found claiming the - team, vehicle, water or air craft, or automobile, the taking of - the same, with a description thereof, shall be advertised in some - newspaper published in the city or county where taken, or if there - be no newspaper published, in said city or county, in a newspaper - having circulation in the county, once a week for two weeks and by - hand-bills posted in three public places near the place of seizure, - and if no claimant shall appear within ten days after the last - publication of the advertisement, the property shall be sold and - the proceeds after deducting the expenses and costs shall be paid - into the Treasury of the United States as miscellaneous receipts.” - - “SECTION 27. In all cases in which intoxicating liquors may be - subject to be destroyed under the provisions of this Act the court - shall have jurisdiction upon the application of the United States - attorney to order them delivered to any department or agency of the - United States Government for medicinal, mechanical, or scientific - uses, or to order the same sold at private sale for such purposes - to any person having a permit to purchase liquor, the proceeds to - be covered into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of - miscellaneous receipts, and all liquor heretofore seized in any - suit or proceeding brought for violation of law may likewise be so - disposed of, if not claimed within sixty days from the date this - section takes effect.” - -One is happy to realize that the Government may, even while the -Volstead Act is in force, receive some small emolument and revenue from -John Barleycorn. - -Section 37--or a part of it--reads as follows: - - “A manufacturer of any beverage containing less than one-half of - 1 per centum of alcohol by volume may, on making application and - giving such bond as the commissioner shall prescribe, be given a - permit to develop in the manufacture thereof, by the usual methods - of fermentation and fortification or otherwise a liquid such as - beer, ale, porter, or wine, containing more than one-half of 1 - per centum of alcohol by volume, but before any such liquid is - withdrawn from the factory or otherwise disposed of, the alcoholic - contents thereof shall under such rules and regulations as the - commissioner may prescribe be reduced below such one-half of 1 per - centum of alcohol: _Provided_, That such liquid may be removed - and transported, under bond and under such regulations as the - commissioner may prescribe, from one bonded plant or warehouse to - another for the purpose of having the alcohol extracted therefrom. - And such liquids may be developed, under permit, by persons - other than the manufacturers of beverages containing less than - one-half of 1 per centum of alcohol by volume, and sold to such - manufacturers for conversion into such beverages. The alcohol - removed from such liquid, if evaporated and not condensed and - saved, shall not be subject to tax; if saved, it shall be subject - to the same law as other alcoholic liquors. Credit shall be allowed - on the tax due on any alcohol so saved to the amount of any tax - paid upon distilled spirits or brandy used in the fortification of - the liquor from which the same is saved.” - -Don Marquis’s Old Soak must rejoice when he reads such stipulations! -And, being a tax-payer, like the rest of us, Section 38 must fill him -with added delight: - - “The Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Attorney General of - the United States are hereby respectively authorized to appoint and - employ such assistants, experts, clerks, and other employees in the - District of Columbia or elsewhere, and purchase such supplies and - equipment as they may deem necessary for the enforcement of the - provisions of this Act, but such assistants, experts, clerks, and - other employees, except such executive officers as may be appointed - by the Commissioner or the Attorney General to have immediate - direction of the enforcement of the provisions of this Act, and - persons authorized to issue permits, and agents and inspectors - in the field service, shall be appointed under the rules and - regulations prescribed by the Civil Service Act: _Provided_, That - the Commissioner and Attorney General in making such appointments - shall give preference to those who have served in the military or - naval service in the recent war, if otherwise qualified, and there - is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the - Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sum as may be required - for the enforcement of this Act including personal services in the - District of Columbia, and for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, - there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not - otherwise appropriated, the sum of $2,000,000 for the use of the - Commissioner of Internal Revenue and $100,000 for the use of the - Department of Justice for the enforcement of the provisions of this - Act, including personal services in the District of Columbia and - necessary printing and binding.” - -And how is the law enforced? - -Our journals do not make pleasant reading for good Americans these -days. They are filled with headlines, which concern the Prohibition -law, morning after morning. Not long ago I picked up my newspaper and -found no less than seventeen columns devoted to stories of what the -police in New York City alone were doing, or trying to do, to make the -Volstead Act anything but a huge joke. - -Up the State, where farmers are paying good taxes, I found a delicious -item in a newspaper, to prove the sincerity of the Federal authorities. -It seems that in a small town near Utica, an Italian was suspected of -having some whiskey on his premises; and three stalwart officers, in -plain clothes, pounced down upon his shop (it was not a rum shop) to -see what they could find. The man was out; but his wife was at home, -and a careful search of the pitiful premises revealed a quart of -Scotch, which may or may not have been on sale. - -It took three husky men three hours to make this startling discovery. -And how much of the taxpayers’ money, I wonder? It was all-important -that an arrest should take place, but there was no evidence, and -nothing further was ever heard of the matter. - -And this which sounds as though it had occurred in benighted Russia, -greeted my eyes at breakfast one morning, in the New York _Times_: - - “ACCUSE JERSEY POLICE OF BRUTAL DRY RAID - - “Formed Way into Women’s Rooms and Insulted Them, Resort Residents - Charge. - - “The conduct of eighteen of the New Jersey State Police who - participated with Federal prohibition agents in liquor raids on - hotels and other places in Lake Hopatcong, N. J., Tuesday night, - was such that indignant residents threatened yesterday to complain - to Governor Edwards. - - “At the Great Cove Hotel at Nolan’s Point, the police are alleged - to have gone to the room of a waiter and his wife and demanded - that they show their marriage certificate. It is also charged - that they went to the room of two girls, one of whom was praying, - and insisted that they open the door. The police searched the - belongings of the girls for whiskey. - - “It is charged that at the Espanol Hotel, Nolan’s Point, the police - went to the room of a mother and her three children, awakened her - and charged there was a man in her room. She was compelled to open - her door. - - “Rented cottages, it is charged, also were visited and searched. It - is charged by the complainants that the State police drank the beer - and whiskey they seized.” - -But of course this is all right--to a prohibitionist. The law must be -enforced. It makes no difference how enforcement is accomplished. - -If the police were honest, if they themselves approved of the -Eighteenth Amendment, the country could be made bone dry tomorrow. But -when the politicians who voted for Prohibition have no respect for -the law they put upon our statutes, why should we expect integrity and -honesty down the line? - -How can there be any respect for a law which the minions of the law -disobey, repeatedly? In a great city like New York, in the Autumn of -1922, innumerable policemen were found drunk while on duty--so much -drunkenness had occurred that it was said on reliable authority that a -murder a week occurred. - - “POLICE MUST TELL HOW THEY GOT RUM” - -was the heading in the New York _Times_ on October 16th. “Drastic -regulations for dealing with policemen who drink” have been framed, and -have been circulated in the Police Department. This is the text of the -orders. Think of their being necessary! - - “1. To the commanding officers: - - “The following memorandum from the Police Commissioner is for your - information and guidance. - - “In Mount Vernon any person found publicly intoxicated is arrested - and required to make an affidavit stating where he obtained the - liquor causing the intoxication. This affidavit is made the basis - of a search warrant, directing a search of the place selling the - liquor. - - “This is but one of the many means which might be employed to put - an end to violation of the Prohibition law. The plan seems to work - out successfully in Mount Vernon. - - “2. Intoxicated members of the force: - - “Hereafter when members of the force are found to be suffering from - alcoholism to such an extent as to warrant charges signifying the - liquor has been obtained from persons who are violating the State - prohibition law, request the officers to make an affidavit stating - where they obtained this liquor. Take appropriate action in the - premises. If it is found that the officers have failed to take - proper action where the law has been violated additional charges - should be preferred against them and if the case is a serious one - they should be suspended from duty. - - “3. Cabarets and dance halls: - - “Cabarets and dance halls having resumed business for the Fall - and Winter season will be carefully inspected from time to time - and properly regulated. The majority of these places disregard - provisions of the prohibition law and should be given rigid - supervision. - - “Commanding officers will see that music and dancing at these - places is stopped at 1 A.M., and that these places do not harbor an - undesirable element after that hour.” - -I have spoken of uniformed men standing guard over a roomful of -citizens in New York restaurants and cabarets. Alas! it is shockingly -true. It is as though no other law existed, as I have said. To one who -loves his country, his city, it is disgusting. The people writhe under -the presence of the officer--but do nothing about it. What can they do? -Could they not request the Mayor, or the Police Commissioner to stop -such nonsense? And if the thing occurs in one restaurant, why not in -all of them? - -With my own eyes I have seen this petty exhibition. It is outrageous. -Only one officer was in the place I visited. Yet I could not believe I -was in free America. - -The room was filled with beautifully dressed men and women. The dance -floor was crowded. Upon every table, directly under the eye of the -officer, was a drink. I am not saying that in each tumbler there was -an alcoholic beverage--and probably the man in uniform did not wish to -think so, either. But I wonder how any intelligent being could imagine -that a lot of sophisticated Manhattanites would go out of an evening -to a gay cabaret, and order lime-juice--unless they intended to mix -something with it? Such folk are not plain ginger-ale consumers, as -a rule--they purchase it to mingle with gin. White Rock is not their -favorite beverage; neither is Clysmic. Yet bottles of these were -evident everywhere. Anyone save a moron would have known why. - -Yet solemnly up and down that room the officer walked, glancing here -and there, hobnobbing now and again with a friendly waiter--who seemed -to be on excellent terms with him. His journeys were rhythmically -conceived and executed. For a moment or two he would stand glaring -about him, his arms folded, after the manner of a soldier in the late -War standing guard over military prisoners. Then he would amble, almost -to the time of the music, to the farther side of the room. Instantly -two hundred hands would slip under the tables, and flasks would be -drawn forth, and a liquid that was certainly not water would be poured -swiftly and deftly into various goblets. Then, when the officer swung -back again on his rounds, the folk at the other side of the room would -go through the same unbelievable performance. The man in uniform had -eyes, but he saw not. - -You see, the authorities had come out with a statement not long before, -to the effect that it was not the man with the hip-flask whom they were -after--only the citizen foolish and daring enough to slam his flask -down openly upon a cabaret table. In other words, so delicate are the -nuances of the law, that it is not an offense to drink behind your -napkin, or behind a closed door; but it is a very terrible crime to -reveal the fact that you have a container of alcohol on your person. -Think of seriously pronouncing such a ukase, with the Mullan-Gage law -still upon the records. I do not understand how City Magistrates, in -New York, know how to interpret the law. - -I was told that almost every evening an arrest or two is made in these -hitherto happy cabarets; but generally the case is dismissed. The -proprietor bails his patron out, and then the merry-go-round starts -again next evening. Since this was written, the police have been -withdrawn from New York cabarets--another confession of the failure to -enforce the law. - -But New York is full of insincerities. Conventions take place there, -and we read a sanctimonious announcement in the papers that of course -nothing alcoholic will be served at the banquets--that goes without -saying. But up in Eddie’s room, on the eighteenth floor, a lot of -grown-up men, in the city to discuss solemn business problems, find -that sustenance which they desire and demand. The authorities, alarmed -at the influx of so many virtuous men, give out the statement that -it is well that they _are_ so virtuous, and not the kind of fellows -who crave a drink; for the hootch in New York is notoriously foul -(of course it isn’t, but that makes no difference to a Prohibition -officer) and it would be unsafe to consume any of it. Many of these -safe and sound business men, from all parts of the country, came out -strong for the Eighteenth Amendment. They were Puritans--when it came -to the other fellow’s habits. The little clerk would never rise to a -position of importance--like theirs--if he took so much as a glass of -beer. They forgot that they, in their youth--and ever since--had taken -a daily nip. I am not saying that they are any the worse for it. I do -know, however, that they are none the better, judging by their public -utterances and their private behavior. - -If there is one kind of human animal I have a supreme contempt for it -is the so-called man who believes in Prohibition for you and me--but -not for himself. I have heard bankers and Wall Street potentates hold -forth with fervor on the salutary effects of the Volstead Act, since it -has forced the poor laboring man to give up his ale and beer. He gets -to work early now--there’s no need to worry about Monday morning in the -factories throughout the land. There is no Saturday-night debauchery; -and the bulging pay-envelope is taken home to the wife and children, -with no extractions on the way at the corner saloon. Happiness reigns -where penury and travail abided before. Production is mounting; there -are no strikes to speak of, the prisons are emptying, crime has -diminished, wife-beating is unheard of, and so on, _ad infinitum_. - -Which would be delightful if it were true. Home brew goes rapturously -on; and if Tim doesn’t bother to make it himself, he has a pal who -does, and he purchases all the gin and beer he needs. - -I am not saying this with any intention of approval. I am merely -stating conditions as I have observed them. Those who shut their eyes -to the facts and go blandly on their way, announcing that the country -is bone dry when it is nothing of the sort, do immeasurable damage. - -I remember when the Volstead Act first went into effect that I had a -serious talk with myself. I came to the conclusion that nothing was -more dangerous to this land of ours than a state of things which made -it possible for the rich to drink continuously and the poor to be able -to obtain nothing. I felt that I could not, with a clear conscience, -go on having an occasional cocktail, if the laboring man down the -street was deprived of his grog. For a month I absolutely followed -the whisperings of that Inner Voice. Then I happened to go to a -manufacturing town near Boston, and the work I was doing brought me -into contact with the men in the shops there. Somehow the subject came -up--I forget in just what way; and when my plan became known, a laugh -greeted my ears. - -“Don’t be such a jackass!” one of the fellows cried. “Why, we’re -getting all we want, in spite of Mr. Volstead--we’re making it -ourselves!” - -My self-inflicted martyrdom ceased from that moment; and I must confess -that I felt a bit foolish. - -More people are drinking heavily now than in the old days--and, -drinking inferior stuff, they are suffering more in consequence. The -results of this have been put into a delightful rhyme by the clever -James J. Montague who, in his way, is a genius. He turns out happy and -technically fine verses every day for a syndicate, until one is amazed -at his cleverness and seemingly endless chain of ideas. Listen to him: - - -_THE ELUSIVE MORAL_ - - Before there was a Volstead law - The village gossips used to mutter - In pitying accents when they saw - A friend and neighbor in the gutter: - “How dreadful was the fellow’s fall! - How terrible is his condition! - He wouldn’t be that way at all - If only we had prohibition!” - - They knew the drunkards all by name, - And when they came around with edges - Some elderly and kindly dame - Would get their signatures to pledges. - And if they all appeared next day - Still far too merry and seraphic, - The troubled townsfolk used to say - Hard things about the liquor traffic. - - To-day, when some good man goes wrong, - The villagers with whom he’s mingled - Observe his frequent bursts of song - And thus discover he is jingled. - “Too bad about that chap,” they cry, - “He might have kept his high position - If Volstead hadn’t made us dry-- - What ruined _him_ is prohibition!” - - There is some moral in this tale-- - I fancied so when I designed it-- - But I have searched without avail - For nearly half an hour to find it! - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -A TRIUMVIRATE AGAINST PROHIBITION - - -How many Americans know that on August 6, 1833, Abraham Lincoln, with -two other men, took out a license to sell liquor? Through the kindness -of my friend, William L. Fish, I am permitted to reproduce it (see page -84). - -Times were different then, it is true; but one has the feeling that -Abraham Lincoln was not a Prohibitionist. He was temperate in all -things. - -[Illustration: (liquor license)] - -In his amazingly interesting book, “Talks with T. R.,” Mr. John J. -Leary, Jr., includes a chapter wherein Theodore Roosevelt speaks in no -uncertain manner about the prospect of the country going dry. - - “Colonel Roosevelt was not of those who favored the Eighteenth - Amendment,” Mr. Leary points out. “To his mind Prohibition was - certain to cause unrest and dissatisfaction; he doubted the - fairness of removing the saloon without providing something to take - its place in the life of the tenement-dwellers; and he was inclined - to think the liquor question was settling itself. - - “‘You and I can recall the time,’ he said to me one day, ‘when - it was not bad form for substantial men of affairs, for lawyers, - doctors--professional men generally--to drink in the middle of the - day. It is good form no longer, and it’s not now done. It is not - so long ago that practically every man in politics drank more or - less, when hard drinking, if not the rule, was not the exception. - Now the hard drinker, if he exists at all among the higher grade, - is a survival of what you might call another day. - - “‘Take Tammany. No one holds that up as an organization of model - men, yet I am sure that were you to make a canvass of its district - leaders, you would find pretty close to a majority if not an - actual majority are teetotallers. Tammany no longer sends men - with ability, and a weakness for liquor, to Albany. It may and it - probably will send another of Tom Grady’s ability, but it will not - send one who drinks as hard. - - “‘This, you may rest assured, is not a matter of morals. It is, - however, a matter of efficiency. Tammany wants results and it is - sufficiently abreast of the times to know that drink and efficiency - do not go hand in hand in these days of card indexes and adding - machines. - - “‘It is the same in your profession. Not long ago most of the - boys were fairly competent drinking men; some I knew were rated - as extra competent by admiring, perhaps envious, colleagues. Now - the drinking man, at least the man who drinks enough to show the - effects, is rare. The reason: your editors won’t stand for it. As - Jack Slaght put it the other day--I think it was Jack--a reporter - in the old days was expected to have “a birthday” about so often - and nothing was thought of it. Now, as Slaght puts it, he is - allowed but two. The first time, still quoting your friend Slaght, - who at times is inclined to use plain language, he gets hell; the - next time he gets fired. That is so, is it not?’ - - “I assured him that Slaght was substantially correct. - - “‘It’s not a matter of morals there, though’ (with a laugh). ‘I - will admit you boys do not lack morals. As with Tammany, it is a - question of getting results, exactly as it is with the doctor, the - lawyer, and the judge. - - “‘Drinking declined once it became an economic question, or at - least as soon as it was recognized as an economic factor. It then - began to be unfashionable--at least to overdrink--and the man who - never drank at all ceased to be unusual in any trade or calling. - - “‘I am, however, sorry that they are pressing Prohibition so hard - at this time. It is, I think, all right, desirable, in fact, to - limit or perhaps prohibit the so-called hard liquors, but it is a - mistake, I think, to stop or try to stop the use of beers and the - lighter wines. - - “‘If this thing goes through, where does the social side of life - come in? We both know that a “dry” dinner is apt to be a sad sort - of affair. It will make dining a lost art. - - “‘Likewise, I do not know how the working-classes will take to the - change. You and I have no need of the saloon. We have other places - to go. But you and I know that the saloon fits into a very definite - place in the life of the tenement-dweller. I do not know what he - will do without it; what substitutes the reformers will think they - can give him for it. I do not believe they have thought of that, or - that they care much. - - “‘Frankly, I do not know what will be the outcome. Prohibition, - if it comes, will cause ill-feeling and unrest--it will be a - disturbing factor--but I do not look for anything serious, for - after all is said and done, the fact remains that the American - workman is a law-abiding individual. - - “‘When it comes, Prohibition may or may not be permanent. You may, - however, be sure of one thing--it will be extremely difficult to - repeal, once it becomes part of the Constitution.’ - - “Responsibility for Prohibition Colonel Roosevelt placed squarely - upon the shoulders of the liquor dealers good and bad. - - “‘Some liquor dealers I have known,’ said he, ‘were good, - well-meaning citizens, who kept decent places. Take the Oakeses, - father and son, who own the Oyster Bay Inn. I should be very sorry - to see them lose their license. Theirs is a clean, respectable - place. Again, there is John Brosnan’s place in New York. No one - ever heard a complaint against John. His place has been no more - offensive than if he sold dry goods. - - “‘I shall take no part in the contest one way or the other. It must - be settled without me. I shall not allow it or anything else to - swerve me from the work we’re now in.’ - - “The ‘work we’re now in’ was the effort to speed up the war by - arousing the American people to the necessity of winning a ‘peace - with victory.’” - -Thus Theodore Roosevelt. - -Woodrow Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act. He saw at once its undemocratic -features, its danger to the country. - -As to following Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow -Wilson--do you prefer their leadership, or that of Mr. Volstead and the -fanatics? - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -“THE FEAR FOR THEE, MY COUNTRY” - - -THE Prohibitionists contend, when we who are but human suggest that -the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act should be changed, that -the law is the law; and now that these are part of our statutes, they -are there to stay, that they must not be tampered with or altered in -any way; that it is up to every good American to accept them, not to -complain, not to make any utterance which would be apt to disturb the -sweet peace these laws are intended to bring to us. - -They forget that it is they themselves who saw fit to change our laws. -Are they bad Americans because they did so? When the shoe is on the -other foot.... But the analogy is so obvious that there can scarcely be -any necessity of arguing the matter. - -I have written, in a previous chapter, about a few of the laws which -are disobeyed. Am I a bad American, a poor sport, for instance, because -I refuse to believe in capital punishment? It is the law of my State -that a man found guilty of murder in the first degree must go to -the electric chair. Called to serve upon a criminal jury, I plainly -say that I do not believe in capital punishment. I am excused. My -conscientious scruples are taken into consideration. I imagine that -only a small percentage of us believe in sending a man to his death, -even for so serious a crime as murder; yet the statute abides. We -continue to send men to the gallows, or the chair--though some States -have been wise enough to abolish the barbarous habit. - -I have conscientious scruples about trying a man for violation -of the Volstead Act; for it would hardly be possible for me to -convict a fellow citizen who had been spied upon by a detective in -a bathing-suit, as I read not long ago that one man had been. I am -against the manner in which evidence is obtained; and I would distrust, -even under oath, statements of witnesses who hired themselves to the -Government as plain-clothes men to visit beaches and bathing pavilions -in order to discover some unlucky devil in the act of taking a nip from -a pint bottle after he was shivering from his plunge in the ocean. -There is a human element in such a case. I may be too emotional for -perfect jury service. Granted. But that is something beyond my control. -I cannot change my temperament. I loath the spectacle of one part of -the population striving to discover something evil in the other part. -It seems unnecessary to me. Peeping Toms are a far greater menace -than the people peeped at. I do not feel morally bound to respect a -law which so many respectable fellow citizens likewise disrespect. I -think stupid legislation is an abomination; that the world would be a -happier place were it not for censorship of morals and manners. I think -that most people instinctively know the difference between right and -wrong, and that, through education, they can be made to understand and -see all those little differences and shades which sometimes confound us. - -There are divorce laws upon our Statutes which millions of people -violently and bitterly oppose. Is a good Roman Catholic a bad American -citizen because his conscience refuses to let him condone the rulings -of our Courts in divorce trials? - -On April 24, 1922, in St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Emmerton, -Maryland, a sermon was preached by the Reverend W. A. Crawford-Frost on -the subject of “Obeying a Disreputable Law.” - -The minister took as his text the verses from Esther 1:7 and 8: “And -they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one -from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of -the king. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: -for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that -they should do according to every man’s pleasure.” - -He said in part: - - “Recently President Harding and Secretary Hughes have made pathetic - appeals to the people of America to respect the law. That such - a request should have been considered necessary is itself a sad - commentary on the state of affairs existing in our republic. There - is a difference between obedience and respect. All good citizens - are called upon to obey the laws, whether they respect a particular - law or not; but they are not called upon to respect a law that is - not respectable. - - “There are disreputable laws just as there are disreputable men. - - “When is a man properly looked upon as disreputable? That depends - on the time and place and the people who do the looking, but in - most ages and countries there are some things that the universal - conscience of man holds to be not respectable. Thus lying, robbing, - cruelty and blasphemy are disreputable, and a man who lies, robs, - is cruel and blasphemes is a disreputable man. - - “Accordingly, if a law can be shown to lie, to rob, to be cruel, - and to blaspheme God, it is a disreputable law and does not deserve - respect, though all good citizens should obey it until it is - repealed. - - “To call upon the people of America to respect a law that is not - respectable is fundamentally dishonest, for it breaks down the - distinction between what is respectable and what is disreputable - and calls upon us to admire and look up to that which we should - despise and abhor. - - “Now I will give you reasons why I consider that the Volstead - Act lies, robs, is cruel and blasphemes God. It may be that my - arguments are not sound, but they appear to me to be so, and all - that a man can do is to go according to his conscience and his - common sense. - - “It seems to me that it is a lie to say that all beverages - containing more than one half of one per cent of alcohol are - intoxicating. No man’s stomach can hold enough of a drink - containing twice that proportion of alcohol to become inebriated - thereby. It is a physical impossibility. He would have to absorb at - least a gallon at one time to do it.... - - “The Volstead Act robbed thousands of men whose capital was - invested in what they considered to be an honorable industry and - one that promoted the health and happiness of mankind on the whole, - even though five per cent injured themselves by it. - - “It robbed them by taking away their property from them without - compensation. It robbed their employees of their living by throwing - them out of work. It robbed the taxpayers, who now have to pay out - of their own pockets by compulsion the billions of dollars that - were formerly spent cheerfully and voluntarily by the users of - alcoholic beverages. - - “The Volstead Act is cruel to invalids who under it cannot afford - to get the proper alcoholic beverages needed to preserve their - lives. I could quote scores of the highest medical authorities to - prove this, but only have space for a few: - - “Dr. Paul Bartholow, of the Jefferson Medical College: ‘Beer, ale - and porter are much and justly esteemed as stomach tonics and - restoratives in chronic, wasting diseases. Alcohol is an important - remedy in the various forms of pulmonary phthisis. In convalescents - from acute diseases there can be no difference of opinion as to the - great value of wine as a restorative.’ - - “Dr. Samuel C. L. Potter, of the Cooper Medical College, San - Francisco: ‘In anemia and chlorosis good red wines are almost - indispensable. It is an absolute necessity in the treatment of - lobar pneumonia. In fevers, alcohol is often most serviceable.’ - - “Dr. Frederick C. Shattuc, of Harvard University: ‘In typhoid - fever if the heart shows undue weakness I consider it a grave - error in judgment to withhold alcohol. The danger of forming the - alcohol habit is practically _nil_ in the subjects of acute general - infection. They are more likely to acquire a distaste than a liking - for it.’ - - “Dr. Daniel M. Hoyte, formerly of the University of Pennsylvania: - ‘Alcohol has long been used to abort a cold. The patient takes - a hot bath, and after getting into bed drinks a hot lemonade - containing one or two ounces of whiskey. This produces diaphoresis - and aids in the elimination of the toxins.’ - - “Dr. Binford Throne, writing in _Forschheimer’s Therapeusis_: ‘All - cases of diphtheria have more or less myocarditis, and all should - be given stimulants from the first. The best is good whiskey or - brandy.’ - - “Dr. Charles P. Woodruff, Surgeon in the United States Army in the - Philippines, wrote in the _New York Medical Journal_, December - 17th, 1904, as follows: - - “‘In 1902 I obtained a mass of data on the physical condition - and drinking habits of a regiment of infantry which had about - three years in the Philippines. I must confess to being somewhat - disconcerted and disheartened at first by the total; the excessive - drinkers were far healthier than the abstainers, only one half as - many were sent home sick and one sixth as many of them died. I had - hoped to prove the opposite.... The damage done to these young - men by occasional sprees is not so great as the damage done by - the climate to the abstainers. What a lot of misstatements have - we received from our teachers, text books, and authorities!’ He - concludes: - - “‘I suppose some medical editors would advise hiding these figures - on the ground that they would be an advantage to the whiskey - dealers who buy Kansas corn from Prohibition farmers. They would no - doubt rather see our soldiers die than let them know that a drink - of wine at meals might save their lives.’ - - “In his report he had stated that approximately 11 per cent of the - abstainers died, while about 3½ per cent of the moderate, and less - than 2 per cent of the excessive, died. About 15 per cent of the - abstainers were invalided home, about 9 per cent or 10 per cent of - the moderate, and about 8 per cent of the excessive drinkers. - - “And yet in the light of stupendous facts like these the Volstead - Act is passed, hampering physicians in their work of mercy and - making it sometimes impossible for them to give the remedies that - God intended to prevent suffering and preserve human life. Could - diabolical cruelty go further than that? - - “To torture an invalid is as devilish as it is to burn a well man - at a stake. - - “More. It is a thousand times worse because it is so much more - widely spread. Hundreds of invalids are being tortured all over the - United States to-day for every white man that ever was burned at - the stake by the Indians. - - “Every loyal member of the Protestant Episcopal Church should hold - that the Volstead Act is a blasphemy against God. Jews, Unitarians - and others who do not consider that Jesus was God, are entitled - to hold different views from us regarding the religious aspect of - this Act, but for us there is no escape. We believe that Jesus was - God, and we believe that He made wine at Cana and that He ordered - it to be drunk publicly in His memory for all time to come. Our - Church has declared that unfermented grape juice is not wine and - should not be used for it in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. A - law to say that wine containing more than one half of one per cent - alcohol should not be allowed to be made and carried about freely - from place to place, implies that Jesus did wrong in making it and - ordering it to be used publicly by Christians. If He did wrong, He - was not God. Therefore, the Volstead Act from the standpoint of our - Church, blasphemes God. - - “Every true Churchman, consequently, should despise and abhor the - Volstead Act as lying, robbing, cruel and blaspheming and unworthy - of respect, although it must be obeyed by all good citizens till - it can be repealed. We give it obedience, but not respect. - - “‘But,’ some will say, ‘if this is so, why should we obey such a - law? Would it not be better to rebel against it, to flout it openly - and take the consequences?’ It is unjust. It is tyrannical. It is - un-American. It is due to a combination of religious and universal - ignorance of physiology. It is the result of active political - propaganda carried on by money of persons who are financially - interested in prohibiting alcoholic beverages. The weapons used - have been trickery, deception, falsification of statistics, - lobbying, slander and abuse. It has been forced on legislators - by intimidation of the grossest kind. Good men have been afraid - to oppose it, for fear of being called ‘boozers,’ ‘bootleggers,’ - lawbreakers,’ and other opprobrious epithets. It was smuggled in as - a war measure when our young men were overseas, and later on was - made more and more stringent, till it far surpassed in tyranny any - thought entertained by its supporters in the beginning. Why should - we obey such a law? Would it not be more American to treat this - piece of iniquity as our forefathers treated the Stamp Act? - - “No. It is our duty to obey it. We could not repeal the Stamp Act, - and we can repeal this. In the case of the tyranny of George III - there was no legal redress. All that freedom-loving men could do - was to rebel. That tyranny was forced on us from the outside. This - we have allowed to be imposed on us in our supineness by tyrants in - our own household. The two cases are not similar. We must obey the - Volstead Act till we can repeal or amend it.... - - “Bolingbroke declared, ‘Liberty is to the collective body what - health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can - be tasted by man; without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by - society.’ - - “I refuse to be silent when I see America, the hope of mankind, - likely to be bound hand and foot by the tyranny of ignorance and - religious fanaticism.... - - “The maxim of John Philpot Curran, ‘Eternal vigilance is the price - of liberty,’ was never needed in America more than it is at this - moment. This is no time for patriots to be silent. - - “According to Burke, the people never give up their liberties but - under some delusion. In this case the delusion is that they are - following Christ while they are really following Mahomet, the - anti-Christ. That delusion must be exposed until everybody sees it - clearly. - - “We must not forget what Colton said: ‘Liberty will not descend - to a people. A people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a - blessing that must be earned to be enjoyed.’ - - “How can this be done? Listen to Savonarola: ‘Do you wish to be - free? Then above all things love God. Love one another and love the - common weal; then you will have liberty.’ - - “It is all right to regulate drinking by law, provided it is the - right kind of a law. - - “The extraordinary thing about our text is that it shows the legal - regulation of drinking to be no new thing, for it existed in the - time of Queen Esther, 510 B.C., or just 2432 years ago, because our - text says ‘and the drinking was according to the law.’ - - “But the law allowed all the liberty that was right and proper. It - says: ‘None could compel; for the king had appointed to all the - officers of his house that they should do according to every man’s - pleasure.’ - - “It was a joyful and festive occasion, like the wedding at Cana, - and Ahasuerus then, as did Jesus later on, recognizes that the - proper use of wine would Promote happiness and health and that the - guests present would be trusted not to abuse it. - - “But though laws regulating drinking may be necessary to well - ordered society, these laws must be equitable and sensible, - regulation, according to the scriptures, not prohibition. The - drinking should be ‘according to the law.’ One great trouble about - the Volstead Act is that the drinking goes on just the same but it - is not ‘according to the law,’ and instead of getting pure liquors - people are being poisoned by the thousands all over the country. - - “Would it not be better to follow the Bible and have the liquor - drunk according to the law? - - “This can only be done by modifying the law so as to make it - conform with the Bible. If the law is dishonest, cruel or unjust, - we must vote to change it if we love God, and love our neighbor and - love the common weal. We must either repeal it altogether or amend - it, so as to make it honest, kindly and fair, so that we may have - law and liberty at the same time. - - “And Americans will do it. In the immortal words of Daniel Webster: - ‘If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it - will burn. Human agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth’s - central fire, it may be smothered for a time; the ocean may - overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but its inherent and - unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, and at - some time or other, in some place or other, it will break out and - flame up to heaven.’” - -This is powerful language which strikes at the very root of things, but -Dr. Crawford-Frost is not the only fearless clergyman who has spoken -his mind on this all-absorbing question. Archbishop Glennon, of St. -Louis, has scored the Eighteenth Amendment. In an interview given at -Atlantic City in August, 1922, he bravely said: - - “The Constitution has been considerably weakened by the addition of - the Eighteenth Amendment, for the Prohibition clause limits rights, - while the rest of the Constitution grants rights. Matters referring - to alcohol and drugs should be left to the police courts of the - various cities and states.” - -When he was asked if he thought Prohibition a benefit to the country, -he said: - - “For those who drink too much, yes.” - -The Most Reverend James Duhig, D.D., Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia, -interviewed in New York, in the late summer of 1922, deplored the -dry law. He admitted that he had not observed any drunken men in the -streets of the metropolis, but that fact, he said, was beside the -issue, because it was the principle of Prohibition with which he took -issue. He said: - - “In Australia they are against Prohibition. I myself have written - strongly against it, and all that I have been able to learn of the - results of it in the United States has only served to confirm my - belief that Australia has taken the right view. - - “Australia was amazed at America going dry. You cannot make men - sober by an act of Parliament. What we need is a reasonable control - of the liquor trade, not its total abolition. Extremes are always - dangerous, and I consider Prohibition an extreme course.” - -In the State of Nebraska recently an attempt was made to put through -the legislation many autocratic laws. People were not to be allowed to -speak a foreign language, and certain restrictions were to be placed -on the wearing of religious garb, etc. A visitor to that State, George -A. Schreiner, of South Africa, deprecated such legislation, and stated -that “laws of intolerance defeat their own ends.” It is interesting to -see the reactions on those who come to our country for the first time. -Mr. Schreiner expressed himself wisely when he said: - - “It all reminds me of the attempt recently made in Japan to put a - law on the statutes against bad thoughts. Of course, that was very - absurd and still, in a way, it was a very honestly meant piece of - legislation. The author of the bill wanted to get at the root of - what he considered an evil--a danger to Japan. Elsewhere and in - your own State the same thing has been attempted by being aimed at, - as it were. I feel that a great deal of intolerance has been born - of the War, but we ought to be fair even with Jupiter and Mars. - Much is blamed on the War, when, in reality, the War served simply - as an excuse to waken latent passions in man.” - -_The Outlook_, which is certainly a sane periodical, whose editorial -integrity cannot be doubted, sees a menace in too much legislation. -Only confusion and distrust can result when the people are confronted -with a mass of judicial arguments and interpretations of those -arguments. In a sensible editorial recently, entitled “Why Not -‘Limitation of Legislation’?” the editors spoke their minds thus: - - “This harassed old world needs ‘limitation of legislation’ as well - as ‘limitation of armaments.’ Statutes, laws, and regulations of - all sorts make each year confusion worse confounded. It has been - asserted that every person in the United States, unwittingly, in - 99 cases out of 100, violates every day some Federal State or - local law or regulation; perhaps the honest judge himself in going - from his home to the court room where he hands down every day - his judgments of justice breaks some minor regulation, for which - offense a policeman, if he were nearby and had studied his book of - regulations carefully enough, could place the eminent judge under - arrest. - - “A leading authority on American police administration recently - estimated that the average policeman, to enforce the city - ordinances, State laws, and Congressional enactments, committed in - whole or in part to his charge, must have a working knowledge of - at least 16,000 statutes. This fact was pointed out in a recent - speech in Washington by James A. Emery before the American Cotton - Manufacturers’ Association. - - “Why not a Congress sometime which would subtract 500 useless or - foolish or annoying laws from the statute-books, instead of adding - 500 laws to those same bulky volumes? Such a Congress might earn - recognition as the greatest the world had yet seen. - - “In one of our State legislators a few years ago an extreme - illustration occurred of the desire of a member to have his name - attached to some piece of legislation. This particular member was - sent to the Legislature from a more or less rural district. He - introduced a bill providing that a bounty of five dollars be paid - by the State for the hide of every loup-cervier (the Canada lynx or - wild cat) killed in the Commonwealth. Most of the members did not - know what a loup-cervier was and had to consult the dictionary, or - some other member who had beaten them to the dictionary, to find - out what this particular animal (popularly known in some places - as Lucy Vee) was. The legislator who desired to have his name go - down in history as the author of an addition to the laws of the - State is said to have traded his vote on practically every other - piece of legislation which came up at that session for votes on his - pet measure, which was passed. The State pays as much as twenty or - thirty dollars some years for the animals killed on which this bill - offered a bounty! - - “If there is one place above all others where there is pride of - authorship, it is in the halls of America’s State and National - capitols; and, as in the field of belles-lettres, there is plenty - of plagiarism. Similar bills also are frequently introduced by a - half dozen or more members, each hoping his may be the one which - will stick and bear the mark of fame. - - “The United States ‘easily holds first place in the manufacture - of statutory law,’ declared Mr. Emery in his speech. ‘A single - Congress,’ he added, ‘usually receives some 20,000 bills. Many of - the States consider not less than 1000. During the year 1921, 42 - legislatures were in session. Judging from past years, Congress and - the States annually enact an average of 14,000 statutes. The State - and National legislation of a single year recently required more - than 40,000 pages of official print.’ - - “Certainly, it is time for a Congress on limitation of legislation.” - -The same paper has this to say, editorially, on “The Achilles Heel of -Prohibition”: - - “National Prohibition has not been long on trial. The final effect - of the fundamental change in our Constitution involved in the - enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment has not been, and cannot be, - yet determined. All the evidence which we have seen, however, tends - to show that the nation is better off materially and physically - under Prohibition than under the system which permitted the - sale of intoxicating beverages. Benefits to be derived from the - elimination of the drink traffic did not wait upon our National - experiment for demonstration. They have been obvious for centuries - in the experience of peoples from whom alcohol has been barred by - religious authority. There remains, however, a very serious problem - confronting the defenders and advocates of national prohibition. - It is the problem of maintaining the respect for law and order and - that mental habit of ready acceptance of legal enactments which is - one of the strongest bulwarks of applied democracy. - - “We do not doubt for a minute that the majority of the people of - the United States are in favor of national prohibition. Even in - great cities where the liquor interests have had their stronghold - we suspect that the number of men and women who would vote for - national prohibition, were it put to the popular test, is much - larger than the ‘wets’ are willing to admit. We say this in order - that this editorial may not be considered as an argument for the - repeal of prohibition amendment by those who are working for such - ends upon premises which we regard as distinctly unsound. - - “To say that there is a majority in favor of the amendment does - not imply that there is not a large and active minority in favor - of its repeal. The greatest problem confronting advocates of - national prohibition lies in the fact that this large minority has - not accepted the amendment with that good faith and willing spirit - which we have grown to look upon as characteristic of the spirit of - the losers in our political controversies. There have been great - changes in our government prior to the enactment of the Prohibition - Amendment, but almost invariably these changes, once effected, - have been acquiesced in by their most ardent opponents. We are - not speaking of individual violators, but of the public attitude - towards the law. - - “One of the strongest denunciations of those who have failed to - acquiesce in the Eighteenth Amendment was recently voiced by Judge - Ben B. Lindsay, of Colorado, in a statement to the press. Judge - Lindsay said: - - “‘Is the Eighteenth Amendment going to be enforced? At the present - time it is not being enforced with any degree of success, but has - raised up a trail of evils in its wake which are as bad, if not - worse, than those it sought to avoid. - - “‘So far the great majority of prosecutions have been against the - poor and uninfluential people who are victims of the tremendous - temptations afforded by the example of the rich. - - “‘Just what do I mean? I mean that the wealthy and more favored - class in this country must accept a responsibility which is now - being ignored. They must be willing to give up their pleasures and - abide by the law intended for the good of all. So far they have not - set the example. - - “‘The theaters, jokesters, and parodists are encouraged in making - a mockery of the Constitution of the United States. When a rich or - influential citizen fills his cellars with smuggled liquor and the - police are called off, in nearly every case the “conspiracy of the - rich” is immediately set in motion. What is this “conspiracy”? - - “‘It consists of their influence in reaching officials and - suppressing newspaper publicity concerning themselves. So long as - some of these officials and some newspapers are lending themselves - to this “conspiracy,” they are creating class prejudice. An example - of this occurred in our city within the past week. A friend of one - of our most influential newspapers became involved in a bootlegging - case and was successful in suppressing all mention of it in that - particular paper which pretends to be against this evil. - - “‘The greatest need in this country to-day is to abolish “special - privileges,” and the new “special privilege” which the Eighteenth - Amendment has created is the right of the rich to have their booze - while the same right is denied to the poor.’ - - “Judge Lindsay has laid his finger upon a moral danger which exists - in the widespread levity towards an important section of our - National Constitution. The same menace was singled out for warning - by Prohibition Commissioner Haynes when he recently said: ‘One of - the greatest dangers now confronting the Republic is that we may - lose our vision of the sanctity and majesty of the law.’ - - “How shall we guard ourselves against this menace? The protection - cannot be found merely in increased activity of the enforcement - officials. It cannot be wholly met by the vigilance of the police. - It is a moral danger, and it must be met with moral weapons. - - “If we turn to the States which experimented with prohibition - prior to the enactment of the National Amendment, we shall find - precedent an uncertain guide to an understanding of the situation - which confronts us. Maine, which has the longest record under - prohibition, has almost the poorest record in maintaining respect - for its prohibition laws. Kansas, on the other hand, after a - generation of disturbance and conflict, settled down to obedience - to the law backed by a wholesome and widespread public opinion. - - “Will the Nation follow the precedence of Maine or of Kansas? - The determination of this all-important fact depends on the sum - total of the attitude of our individual citizens towards the - maintenance of our fundamental law. It is the right of any one to - work for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment if he or she so - desires, but it is the bounden duty of every one to see that so - long as the Eighteenth Amendment is part of our Constitution it is - accorded that respect upon which the whole structure of democratic - government rests.” - -But here we get right back to where we started. Citizens cannot be -_forced_ to respect a law for which, inwardly, they have a great -contempt. Even a spiritual energy cannot be brought to bear, I fear, -which is strong enough to bring about this desirable end. The youth -of our land, at least in our great cities, laugh at the Eighteenth -Amendment--which means that they will laugh at other laws, and finally -express nothing but derision for the Government. - -This concentrated feeling is far more serious than scattered -inebriety. It strikes at the very base and roots of society, and, -once having gained a sure hold on the people, cannot be checked. An -observer who loves America cannot but see in the youth of the land -a total disrespect for order and the old sanctities; a violation of -moral codes, and a failure to establish rectitude in niches of the -heart. There are no convictions, no principles among the young and -growing population. There is no desire to conform, no aspiration for -a betterment of conditions as they are. Instead, there is intolerant -laughter, and one is called an old fogy who attempts to assert that -marriage vows mean something and that girls who drink cocktails in -taxicabs out of thermos bottles are in grave peril. - -There is a studious avoidance of responsibility. Yet one should not -be surprised. The example set is none too worthy. It is known that -hypocrisy exists in high places; that inconsistency is a national -trait; that men in office say one thing and do another. - -I heard a young man remark not long ago: “Oh, they think it’s wrong, -do they, to drink? Well, how many Congressmen in Washington have -replenished their wine-cellars, do you suppose, since Mr. Volstead -ran this country, eh? I’d like to get affidavits from bootleggers in -Washington, as to just what stock has been laid in.” - -That feeling--how can one counteract it? One has no answer for such -a sage youth. Alas! he does some thinking, after all; but our silly -legislation has caused his thoughts to run in a direction from which we -would gladly divert his mind. The fact of the matter is that most of -his elders have thought long and solemnly on these same things. - -It is not a pretty topic to consider. We will not face the facts--that -is the trouble with America, as I see it. I know one Assemblyman in -New York State who bravely ran on a wet platform in a dry community, -as a matter of principle. He was weary of lying to himself, and to -his constituents. He said that as long as he kept a wine-cellar, and -deliberately transported some of its contents when it suited him, in -his car, he could not face his friends. He must come out in the open -and accept their blame or their approval. He ran for office with a -clear conscience; but others will not thus declare themselves. Behind -veils of verbiage they discreetly conceal their political faces; alone -with one another, or with you and me, they will speak their true mind -on Prohibition--particularly if their tongues are loosened by one or -two glasses of whiskey. - -These are the men who are a danger to the Republic they pretend to -serve. Janus-faces have they. They are all things to all men. The time -will come when, before we go to the polls, we shall know just where -each candidate stands on every issue. There will be no equivocation. -Declarations must be made. Masks must be off. - -Of the menace of hypocritical office-holders and senators, Edwin -Markham has spoken eloquently in these ringing lines. They should be -known to us all in these times of shattered dreams and false avowals. -The old established Ship of State could weather the gale if the crew -were honest and remained on deck. - - -THE FEAR FOR THEE, MY COUNTRY - - In storied Venice, where the night repeats - The heaven of stars down all her rippling streets, - Stood the great Bell Tower, fronting seas and skies-- - Fronting the ages, drawing all men’s eyes; - Rooted like Teneriffe, aloft and proud, - Taunting the lightning, tearing the flying cloud. - - It marked the hours for Venice: all men said - Time cannot reach to bow that lofty head: - Time, that shall touch all else with ruin, must - Forbear to make this shaft confess its dust. - Yet all the while, in secret, without sound, - The fat worms gnawed the timbers underground. - - The twisting worm, whose epoch is an hour, - Caverned his way into the mighty tower; - Till suddenly it shook, it swayed, it broke, - And fell in darkening thunder at one stroke. - The strong shaft, with an angel on the crown, - Fell ruining: a thousand years went down! - - And so I fear, my country, not the hand - That shall hurl night and whirlwind on the land; - I fear not Titan traitors who shall rise - To stride like Brocken shadows on our skies: - These we can face in open fight, withstand - With reddening rampart and the sworded hand. - - I fear the vermin that shall undermine - Senate and citadel and school and shrine; - The Worm of Greed, the fatted Worm of Ease, - And all the crawling progeny of these-- - The vermin that shall honeycomb the towers - And walls of State in unsuspecting hours. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -DRYING UP THE OCEAN - - -There is a little town in Wyoming which, outwardly, is as arid as that -waste of desert not so many hundreds of miles away from it. Yet for -a consideration one may obtain all the moonshine and gin one desires -at another village near by. The lady prohibitionists, all members of -the W. C. T. U., as they pass the erstwhile village drunkard (on their -way to some sanctimonious meeting), remark what a wonderful thing the -cleaning up of the town has been. Poor devil! only a little while ago -he was literally in the gutter. Now, look at him, as he sits in the -merry sunshine on the porch of the post-office, whittling his life -away, where aforetime he drank it away. (They do not know that the poor -devil is about the only person in the village--except themselves--who -fails to obtain whiskey, though his reasons for the lack are hardly -similar to theirs. He simply cannot afford the price.) It costs a few -pennies to get to that neighboring wet village; and, after one is -there, it costs a little more to procure the stuff he once drank with -such avidity. But the flappers--oh, yes, they have them even in Wyoming -small towns!--and the boys who are their friends, can dash over in a -Ford and get all they want. Concealed on the hip, they feel no lack of -stimulation when the evening shadows fall. They do not get tight in -public, as the town drunkard used to do--not at all. But they are up -to all the tricks of sly drinking. If they were burglars, they would -be called sneak-thieves. America has taught them a thing or two; and -where the previous generation, at their age, never dreamed of taking -a cocktail, they think of nothing else, and will get it at any price. -This is true the country over. But the obviously enforced reformation -of many a village souse is pointed to as perfect evidence that all is -well. I suppose those virtuous W. C. T. U. ladies go to bed o’ nights -and sleep serenely, happy in the consciousness that they have helped -the race. And even as they slumber, hip-flasks are opened, corks are -popping, and an enjoyable time is being had by all. - -Thus do reformers blind themselves to conditions as they are. The -village drunkard, tottering to his grave, has been reformed--if he was -worth reforming at all--while the arriving host of youth is dancing and -singing and jazzing its way “down the primrose path to the everlasting -bonfire.” - -This is but another evidence of our national hypocrisy. And not content -with making the land dry--which we haven’t done at all--we must go -out and make the sea dry. Our holier-than-thou attitude has caused us -to lose our sense of humor, verily; for to dry up the ocean is going -Moses and the children of Israel one better. Moreover, the day of -miracles is past. - -It was in the early Fall of 1922 that we suddenly discovered that our -ships were a part of sacred American soil. International law had long -since told us so, but somehow, in the confusion following the passage -of Mr. Volstead’s vaudeville act, we had forgotten it. Perhaps we were -too busy, like the Wyoming ladies, trying to make our citizens good on -shore to get around to those sensible enough to leave the country for -an ocean voyage. That is the American way. - -At any rate, our boats continued, under Mr. Lasker, to be pleasant -oases on the desert of the sea; and fortunate indeed were those -who lived along the coast and could jump aboard if things became -unbearable at home--which they hadn’t. Yet it was good to know that -there the ships lay in harbor, ready for each and all of us, stocked -with pleasant and rare vintages. Again the rich were in luck. If one’s -pocketbook were fat enough, one could obtain anything one desired. God -pity the poor workingman, but life was life, and there were plenty -of luxuries which had always been denied the impoverished, but which -the wealthy took as a part of the strange scheme of things, and oh, -yes, it was awfully unfair, but that was that, and after all what was -one to do about it, and it was too bad, and oh, dear, and oh, my, and -goodness gracious and a lot of other stuff which I have overheard but -mercifully forgotten. - -It took us two and a half years to discover in one minute that Uncle -Sam himself had been a bootlegger at sea. A long, long time to have -had our own eyes sealed! But when Attorney General Daugherty finally -issued his decision that American boats must be dry, all sorts of -complications arose. We told foreign governments that their ships, too, -must not enter our ports with liquor aboard. All the ocean, within the -three-mile limit prescribed by international law, was to cease to be -wet. It mattered not that Italian sailors were supplied with red wine -as part of their fare; they must throw it overboard before they came -into our sanctified precincts. And even if foreign bars were sealed and -padlocked and double-padlocked, they would be anathema to us. Whether -the liquor brought over on them was intended to be sold here, or merely -kept on board for the return voyage, mattered not. We were going to put -a stop to rum-running, and now, Mr. Foreigner, what are you going to do -about it? - -As this is written, England has already protested against such drastic -and high-handed action. One of the British ships has been seized, and -a test case is to be made of her seizure. We, who held aloof so long -from all sorts of entangling alliances; we who preached the doctrine of -staying at home and minding our own business, suddenly find ourselves -rushing in where angels fear to tread; and, losing our humor, we may -likewise lose our friends. - -The powerful Anti-Saloon League is responsible for our foolhardiness. -We will ruin American shipping, we will commit maritime harikari; but -it is all right, since, having slipped our heads into the noose of -the fanatics, what difference does it make how soon or how slowly we -strangle to death? - -Of course there will be all sorts of confusion, all kinds of delays -in the courts--for naturally other nations will make test cases, and -it will be many months--perhaps years--before America knows how she -stands with Europeans and how Europeans stand with her. It is one thing -to manage our own citizens--quite another to guide the conduct of our -neighbors. - -It is curious how ships and shipping enter into our governmental -affairs again--how history repeats itself. Deny it though we will, we -got into the World War only after our shipping had been interfered -with. We accepted German insults and taunts; but the moment our -business interests were at stake, we took up our guns and rushed to -save the Allies and make the world safe for democracy. A utilitarian -reason for saving our own necks--that is all that it was; and we cannot -close our eyes to our spiritual shortcomings. - -Now we have the effrontery to interfere with the ships and shipping of -foreign countries. Let us see what will happen to us. Remember that -there is no War going on, to fill people with emotion and ecstasy. -This is to be a cold, steel-like remedying of troubles. Why should our -laws be respected, and those of other nations treated with contempt? -Who are we to say that a Latin sailor should not consume a glass of red -wine with his rations? - -No one can tell what the Supreme Court will do; but it is rather -obvious that if America has closed up the saloons on shore she should -close them up on sea. If, walking a street in one of our cities, you -are under the protection of the Stars and Stripes, you are also under -that protection pacing the deck of an American liner. Prohibition must -follow the flag. - -But some of the American lines are talking of changing the flag under -which they have been sailing! Here’s a howdy-do, here’s a pretty mess. -It is unthinkable that a liner should alter her citizenship, just -to carry a bit of beer. Yet that is what those staid old ladies are -contemplating. To what dreadful deportment are we driven, with Mr. -Volstead ruling us! - -If our ships have to go dry, we will cut off the large freight business -in the West Indies, since much rum is exported from these islands. -There can be no transportation of wine to countries like France, Spain -and Italy; and, with such loss in revenue, how can our boats ply to -and fro? At this writing, hundreds of passengers have cancelled their -sailings on American vessels, incensed at the Attorney General’s -ruling. - -The New York _World_, which has been a consistent and fearless enemy of -Prohibition, has published many fine editorials on the subject of a dry -sea; but none states the case better than this: - -“Despite Mr. Lasker’s protest that it will ruin the American merchant -marine, the opinion of Attorney General Daugherty regarding the -sale of liquor on vessels flying the flag of the United States is -fairly certain to be upheld by the Courts. There is plenty of law and -precedent behind it. But every phase of law and precedent that supports -the opinion as it touches American shipping runs counter to the opinion -as applied to liners under alien flags. - -“Ships chartered in the United States, according to Mr. Daugherty, -are subject to the laws of the United States, are, in fact, American -territory; but ships chartered in foreign countries are not foreign -territory. As soon as they enter American waters all vessels subject -themselves to American law, which means, of course, the Volstead Act. -How this comes about is not clearly explained. It would naturally be -supposed that if an American ship were American territory a British -ship would be British territory, and so on. Mr. Daugherty cannot have -it both ways. On one point or the other he must change his mind or have -it changed for him. - -“But even though the enforcement law did not apply to European vessels -within the three-mile limit, it is difficult to discover in what -way they would violate it by carrying a sealed supply of liquor. -Possession of liquor, as defined by the courts, must include a change -of ownership. It is not legal for a manufacturer to ship liquor to -a consumer through the United States, but it is legal for an owner -of bonded liquor to remove it from one place to another within this -country. Alien ships traversing American waters with sealed liquor -aboard would be guilty of nothing which American citizens are not -allowed on land by judicial decision.” - -Well, if the bars are closed forever on American ships, it will but add -to the present discontent; and again there will be an expression of -our national hypocrisy. It does not take much vision to see what will -inevitably happen. For just as people drink now on land when they feel -so inclined, they will drink upon the ocean; and every steward on every -American liner will become a bootlegger, whispering into the ears of -passengers something like this: - -“Say, I have some fine old Scotch--the real thing--only twelve dollars -a bottle. Want some? I’ll see that it’s brought to your state-room. Oh, -no; there’s not a particle of danger. Everybody’s doing it.” - -And thus will the comedy go on; thus will the playing of the farce be -extended beyond the three-mile limit, and within it, too; and once more -we will appear before the world in our cap and bells. No arrests will -be made. Things will simply drift along; and by and by, even though the -Eighteenth Amendment remains in the Constitution, and the Volstead -Act continues to be a part of our laws, both may be forgotten, just as -some of the old statutes of the Puritans, still upon the Massachusetts -records, have been allowed to float into a limbo of dreams. - -The quandary which a ship finds herself in, sailing from Great Britain -to the United States, is laughable. John Bull demands, under his -democratic laws, made for freemen, that a certain amount of brandy be a -part of every cargo; whilst Uncle Sam, a tyrant now--refuses to permit -even a single jug of ale to enter the sacred three-mile limit. Between -Scylla and Charibdis the hardy mariner finds himself. On what reefs of -the mind a captain plunges as, dazedly trying to obey both laws, he -reads first one ruling and then the other. If he follows John, he is -out with Sam; if he sticks to Sam, he is the laughing-stock of John. - -This might be the sad song of any sea-captain these days: - - Tweedledum and Tweedledee, - Battledore and Shuttlecock! - Alack! alas! no more at sea - Is one allowed his rolling-stock! - -But the end is not yet. Of course there will be concessions, many -wise shakings of the head, a profound slumber over tangled legal -documents, and then--perhaps--an awakening to the fact that after all -a holier-than-thou attitude scarcely pays in these times of human -frailty. We may realize, with our native intelligence, that we have -made a foolish, a terrible, a hideous mistake. Worse than being hated -by other nations is being laughed at by other nations. Can America -stand up against the mirth of Europe over our pig-headedness and smug -sanctimoniousness? If laughter has killed politicians, can it not kill -nations? If ridicule can end a career, can it not end national nonsense? - -But somehow, despite heavy mandates and injunctions on the part of the -drys, something tells me that the ocean is going to remain indubitably, -irremediably, habitually, irritatingly and everlastingly wet. - -No one seems to know just where we are destined, as a nation, to -take our way. We fuss and fume and fret. In the race of life, we put -endless obstructions along the track, and leap the hurdles clumsily, -falling now and then, picking ourselves up, falling again and otherwise -behaving rather ridiculously. What it all means no one seems to know. -Instead of letting well enough alone, we seem obsessed with the idea of -interfering incessantly with goodly folk. Suppression is in the air. -The skies are clear, but we put clouds in them--clouds that rise from -the earth because they are of our making. The dust of the world shuts -out the clean prospect ahead of us. We run about in circles, when, so -simply, we could march on a straight line. We are very, very stupid; -and though we know it now, we are afraid to admit it to ourselves. - -Again our hypocrisy. Unable to respect ourselves and our own -institutions, how can we ask other peoples to do so? - -In their eagerness to make the ocean round about the United States dry, -Prohibition officials even suggested to the Government that the Bahama -Islands be purchased from Great Britain. In this heavenly haven, it was -pointed out, rum-runners foregathered; perhaps England would help us -to make such conditions impossible in the future, and would be willing -to let the Islands come to us, in part payment of the old War debt. -But our own territory in that direction--Porto Rico and the Virgin -Islands--are still far from dry. With the problem of these localities -still unsettled, it would seem to be a piece of folly to lay hands on -the Bahamas, in the hope of “cleaning them up.” - -Yet why stop, in our fanatic zeal, at the Bahamas? Why not reach out -and get the Canary Islands--indeed, everything everywhere. We who -preached aloofness until we were blue in the face, seem suddenly bent -upon interfering with all countries, no matter how remote they may -be. When men were actually, not potentially, in danger of death and -destruction, we would not lift a finger to aid them in Europe; but now, -with a mock holiness that ill comports with our attitude of a few years -ago, we are for saving a handful of drunkards from a terrible end. - -And the pity of it is that we do not see how funny we are! - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE MULLAN-GAGE LAW, THE VAN NESS ACT AND THE HOBERT ACT - - -The Empire State, not certain that the teeth of the Volstead Act were -biting it hard enough decided on April 4, 1921, that it would pass what -is known to the man in the street as the Mullan-Gage Law. It begins as -follows: - - “SEC. 1. The penal law is hereby amended by inserting therein a new - article, to be article one hundred and thirteen.” - - It goes on to say: “The possession of liquors by any person not - legally permitted under this article to possess liquor shall be - prima facie evidence that such liquor is kept for the purpose - of being sold, bartered, exchanged, given away, furnished or - otherwise disposed of in violation of the provisions of this - article; and the burden of proof shall be upon the possessor in any - action concerning the same to prove that such liquor was lawfully - acquired, possessed and used.” - -As every one knows, in ordinary cases a defendant is considered -innocent until proved guilty. But here we see a dangerous reversal -of that idea in jurisprudence. Anyone carrying a flask would be -considered, in the eyes of this law, a bootlegger, a purveyor of -illegal goods--in fact, a criminal even though no evidence had been -produced to prove him so. In our anxiety to purify the nation, we have -distorted old established laws, turned reasoning topsy-turvy, and once -more made ourselves ridiculous--in the Empire State at least. - -“Of making many laws there is no end,” one might paraphrase -Ecclesiastes. In his remarkably interesting book, “Our Changing -Constitution,” Charles W. Pierson points out the growing dangers which -confront us, because of our repeated amendments and addenda. He sounds -many a warning, and every American should read his brief but profound -volume. - - “Whatever view one may hold to-day,” he writes, “as to the question - of expediency, no thoughtful mind can escape the conclusion that, - in a very real and practical sense, the Constitution has changed. - In a way change is inevitable to adapt it to the conditions of the - new age. There is danger, however, that in the process of change - something may be lost; that present-day impatience to obtain - desired results by the shortest and most effective method may lead - to the sacrifice of a principle of vast importance. - - “The men who framed the Constitution were well advised when they - sought to preserve the integrity of the states as a barrier against - the aggressions and tyranny of the majority acting through a - centralized power. The words ‘state sovereignty’ acquired an odious - significance in the days of our civil struggle, but the idea for - which they stand is nevertheless a precious one and represents what - is probably America’s most valuable contribution to the science of - government. - - “We shall do well not to forget the words of that staunch upholder - of national power and authority, Salmon P. Chase, speaking as - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in a famous case growing out of - the Civil War: - - “‘The preservation of the states, and the maintenance of their - governments, are as much within the design and care of the - Constitution as the preservation of the Union and the maintenance - of the National Government. The Constitution in all its provisions, - looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible - states.’” - -Yet today what do we find? The States renouncing their sovereignty, -abrogating their authority to the central government, time and again -diminishing their own strength, losing sight of one of the very things -on which the safety of our country depends. Worse than that, some of -them have attempted to pass laws which seem totally unnecessary, in -the light of the already rigid Volstead Act. Witness the State of -New Jersey, for instance, with the iniquitous Van Ness Act, which, -fortunately, was deemed unconstitutional. - -Early in 1921, Mrs. Frank W. Van Ness, while a member of the New -Jersey Assembly from Essex County, of which Newark is the county seat, -introduced the act which provided that “whenever a complaint is made -before any magistrate that a person has violated one or more of the -provisions of this act, it shall be the duty of such magistrate, and -every such magistrate is hereby given full power and authority to issue -his warrant to arrest any such person so complained against, and, -summarily, without a jury and without any pleadings, to try the person -so arrested and brought before him and to determine and adjudge his -guilt or innocence.” - -The Volstead Act plainly states that anyone violating the provisions -of that act is guilty of a crime. Mrs. Van Ness’s Act was an attempt -to have such persons, in the State of New Jersey, guilty of disorderly -conduct, which would not require a trial by jury. - -The New Jersey Legislature passed the Van Ness Act, and other State -prohibition laws, at its session of 1921; but on February 2, 1922, the -Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey held that a number of the -provisions of the Van Ness Act were unconstitutional. The prevailing -opinion was written by Chancellor Walker, but there was a difference -among the judges as to the constitutionality of some of the different -provisions of the act, and other opinions were also written. The Court -of Errors and Appeals is the Court of last resort in New Jersey, -and by its judgment it reversed the Supreme Court finding which had -theretofore held the Van Ness Act to be constitutional. - -Mrs. Van Ness was a candidate for reëlection in the fall of 1921, but -was not reëlected. Is there no significance in this fact? - -As old as Magna Charta is the right of any citizen to a trial by jury, -when convicted of a crime; and as old, too, as that sacred document, is -the theory that one is innocent until proved guilty. Yet the Volstead -Act has paved the way for politicians without vision to seek to -destroy these inalienable rights. - - “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” - -Among other things, in the opinion handed down in 1922, Chancellor -Walker wrote: - - “The act entitled ‘An act concerning intoxicating liquors used or - to be used for beverage purposes,’ passed March 29, 1921, the short - title of which is ‘Prohibition Enforcement Act,’ commonly called - the Van Ness Act, authorizing convictions for violation of its - provisions by magistrates without trial by jury, violates Article - 1, Sec. 7, of the Constitution of New Jersey, 1844, which provides, - inter alia, that the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; - and also Id. Sec. 9, which provides, inter alia, that no person - shall be held to answer for a criminal offense unless upon the - presentment or indictment of a grand jury.” - -And another judge rendered this opinion: - - “The Van Ness Act is invalid to the extent that it makes violations - of its provisions disorderly acts as distinguished from those which - are criminal in their nature because, prior to its enactment, the - Congress of the United States had already declared by necessary - implication in the federal statute, commonly known as the Volstead - Act, that a person who violated any provision of the Eighteenth - Amendment to the Federal Constitution, should be guilty of crime.” - -The constitutional provision in the State of New Jersey has long been -known to be as follows: - - “The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; but the - legislature may authorize the trial of civil suits, when the - matter in dispute does not exceed fifty dollars, by a jury of six - men.” - -Chancellor Walker further pointed out that the Constitution of 1776 had -contained this provision: - - “And ... the inestimable right of trial by jury shall remain - confirmed as part of the law of this colony, without repeal, - forever.” - -But though the Van Ness Act was declared unconstitutional the work of -suppression went on. The Hobert Act took its place. The Association -Against the Prohibition Amendment (New Jersey branch) protested to -Governor Edwards when the Bill was passed. They pointed out that -Chancellor Walker, in his opinion in the Court of Errors and Appeals, -on page 18 of the decision dated February 2, 1922, had said: - - “New Jersey need not have passed any enforcement act and could have - left the field wholly to Federal endeavor under the Volstead Act.” - -They likewise pointed out that there were no advantages whatsoever -to the State of New Jersey proceeding from such an act; but the -disadvantages were numerous and severe. It put upon the State courts -all the work, and upon the citizens of the State all the expense of -enforcing the national law. They also showed how tyrannical the Act was -in certain sections. Section 16 reads as follows: - - “Any officer engaged in the enforcement of this act who shall - search any private dwelling, as herein defined, which is occupied - as such dwelling, without a warrant directing such search, or who, - while so engaged, shall, without a search warrant, maliciously and - without reasonable cause search any other building or property, - shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall - be punished for a first offense by a fine of not more than one - thousand dollars, and for a subsequent offense by a fine of not - more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more - than one year or by both such fine and imprisonment.” - -It was shown that this section had been taken, word for word, from the -Amendment, forced upon the United States Senate by the House in the -Willis-Campbell Bill and passed by the Senate on November 18, 1921. -The Stanley Amendment originally offered in the Senate for the purpose -of serving as an enforcement act to the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to -the Constitution was passed unanimously by the Senate after a thorough -investigation and after having been accepted by Senator Sterling who -had charge of the Bill. The House refused to accept the Amendment and -put into the Bill the following section: - - “That any officer, agent, or employee of the United States engaged - in the enforcement of this act, of the national prohibition act, or - any other law of the United States, who shall search any private - dwelling as defined in the national prohibition act and occupied - as such dwelling, without a warrant directing such a search, or - who while so engaged shall without a search warrant maliciously - and without reasonable cause search any other building or property - shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,” etc., etc. - -Senator Ashurst, of Arizona, a dry Senator, and one who said he had -never cast a wet vote in his life, refused to sign the conference -report on the ground that the language of this section did not protect -the people in their rights. He was joined by other dry Senators for the -same reason. Senator Reed, of Missouri, than whom there is no greater -Constitutional lawyer in the United States, in calling attention to -the words, “shall without a search warrant maliciously and without -reasonable cause,” had this to say: - - “What is the plain inference to be drawn from that language? First, - you must have a warrant to search the house. Second, if while you - are searching the house you proceed without a warrant to search the - other building or property you are not guilty of offense unless two - things concur: First, you must have been without any reasonable - cause to search the other buildings or property, and, second, you - must have acted maliciously. Notice the language. It is worth - your while. You are legislating for 110,000,000 people and you - are putting this authority into the hands of irresponsible men, - proceeding without bond, armed with big guns, and sent out among - the people.” - -The Hobert Bill invites Prohibition agents and officers to go anywhere -they desire _without_ a search warrant, with the absolute assurance -that in their unlawful occupation they are immune under the law. -“Malice” is the most difficult thing in the world to prove--with the -possible exception of “without reasonable cause.” - -As a friend of mine, William L. Fish, says, “The Van Ness Act was the -_Bill Sykes_ of legislation, while the Hobert Act is the _Iago_.” -Between two such arch villains there is little choice. We are not -reforming the country, but deforming it. - -If the people are to lose such cherished rights, there is little hope -for America. Blind indeed are those who cannot read the writing on -the wall. Surely there must come a reaction against such intolerable -legislation. - -Already one senses a change of feeling; for millions of us cannot -be wrong when we claim that disregard of the laws of the land is as -serious a problem as the old problem of the corner saloon. If, in -correcting one evil, we bring to life greater evils, are we on the -right track? - -[Illustration: Solemnly up and down that room the officer walked, -glancing here and there, after the manner of a soldier in the late war -standing guard over military prisoners.] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -BOOTLEGGING AND GRAFT - - -Prohibition, being a phenomenon, has inevitably bred other -phenomena. The most ardent fighters for a dry United States are the -Prohibitionists themselves--and the bootleggers. A new industry, which -flourishes every day, despite the honest attempts of the Government -to suppress it, has arisen. It brings in a fat profit to those who -enter it. An incredible army of active workers is marching--or rather -driving in motor-cars--through the land, doing a prosperous business. -They do not deposit their earnings in our banks; for if they did so, -the federal authorities could force them to pay an income tax. Instead, -they put them in the proverbial stocking; and after a sufficient number -of bank-notes--for it is usually a cash business that is carried -on--are available many of the bootleggers, who are mostly foreigners, -sail for parts unknown. There they intend to spend the rest of their -days in peace and comfort and opulence. Why not? - -I am writing of the evils of bootlegging not only as they apply -to a great city like New York. In a certain western city of some -250,000 inhabitants--a city in a State which went dry long before the -constitutional amendment--a woman told me that all she had to do was -to ring up her favorite bootlegger when she was giving a dinner-party, -and practically anything she desired would be delivered at her door -within fifteen minutes. It is very difficult to get evidence against -these diligent business men, and I have encountered only a few people -who have conscientious scruples about dealing with them. It is hard to -be consistent concerning Volsteadism. If the Act itself plays merry -pranks on sea and shore, why should not human beings likewise forget -their dignity once in a while? - -The bootlegging evil has begotten another evil. Graft is stalking -through the land, hand in hand with it. They are boon companions. They -are inseparable. Where one is, there you will always find the other. -Brothers in sin; Siamese twins. Damon and Pythias, Ruth and Naomi, were -not more devoted. But their unholy alliance has none of the virtues of -those ardent and ancient friendships. - -There is always, in any illicit transaction, a man higher up who must -reap his share of the illegal profits. Usually, the American public -rebels at the middleman, resents his grasping proclivities; but -nowadays, being humanly thirsty, it has no time to quibble; and so -long as it gets its modicum of spirits, it has little fault to find -with the humanly fallible protector of the bootlegger who must receive -some attention. It is willing to pay almost anything for whiskey -or gin, and, used to being “done,” it good-naturedly recognizes -the authorities along the way who are in a position to open stores -of the desired stuff, and see that it is delivered to the crowding -bootleggers. It is an endless chain; and to become wealthy overnight -has always been the dream of the average American. With Prohibition, -he sees an opportunity such as never existed before, and thousands are -taking advantage of the situation. - -When one considers the amount of revenue which formerly poured into the -coffers of the United States treasury because of the tax on alcohol, -and what the loss of that money must mean today to the Government, one -realizes that in some manner the deficit must be made up. The good -old genial public is again the goat, to fall into the vernacular. -Prices have risen since the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment. Hotel -proprietors, who formerly counted upon a considerable income through -their bars, now find themselves forced to charge higher prices for -food. Time was when, if one failed to order wine with one’s meals, an -extra twenty-five cents was asked. It was taken for granted that red or -white wine was a part of one’s ration, as it were; and those who failed -to indulge in the luxury were looked upon as rather curious specimens -of humanity. A table d’hôte, with _vin rouge_, was the regular thing; -and the wine was included in the price of the dinner. With the going -out of all forms of drinks, naturally there had to be a readjustment -of menu-cards. There is a tax now almost everywhere for bread and -butter; and a cover charge is made in practically all the metropolitan -restaurants. Gradually, one notes, these “extras” are creeping in. One -cannot blame the hotel-keepers. Rents and wages have increased since -the War; therefore they must ask more for their rooms, as well as for -their dining-room service. And where one formerly tipped in moderation, -the average waiter scorns anything less than fifteen or twenty per -cent of the amount of one’s check. The good-natured and long-suffering -American people are imposed upon at every turn. And, denied the -privilege of consuming liquor openly, they give dinners in their homes, -where at least there can be a semblance of harmless gayety. This causes -fewer people to go to the smart restaurants in a city like New York; -and generally there is no supper crowd at all. Lights are dimmed early; -and while I am holding no brief for late hours, I do think that human -beings should be permitted to organize their own lives, and decide for -themselves whether a supper-dance after the theater or the Opera is -harmful. At luncheon time the hotels present another aspect. They still -do a thriving business; but, as I have said in a previous chapter, for -many and many a year there had been little drinking in the middle of -the day. - -With fewer people to serve, and fewer meals to serve, hotel men have -been driven to ask more for that service which they continue to render. -The one bright thought in this painful readjustment is the fact that -the Prohibitionists must help the rest of us to make up the loss of -revenue. Their checks, hitherto much less than ours, are now quite the -same. But, then, I imagine few of them have ever cared for brilliant -lights and smart napery, preferring to dine in the dim sanctity of -basements and back rooms at an hour so early that daylight has hardly -gone when the “supper bell” rings. The color and joy of the Ritz or the -Plaza would scarcely appeal to a fanatic. - -But to get back to the bootleggers. There are many degrees of them. -Some are honest; others are not. Once in a while a gin bottle will -contain nothing but water; and sometimes whiskey will have been -diluted, and near-beer sold as the regular thing. Yet with an -established trade, and recognized business, conditions are improving. -Even as there is honor among thieves, the latest model of bootlegger -must play the game squarely; and those of the better class frown upon -chicanery, and are disgusted when spurious material is sold. They -realize that if inferior liquor is delivered, sales may soon cease -altogether. Therefore those who have their best interests at heart--and -their name is legion--are cautious and painstaking, and will honestly -tell a customer whether he is buying synthetic gin or pre-Volstead -stuff. - -I do not pretend to know the workings of this nefarious trade; but -I do know this: that many Italians and Germans and Frenchmen, among -others, are doing a thriving business, and are only too glad to donate -part of their enormous commissions to the local ring who, in return, -offer them complete protection. And from talks which I have had with -various restaurant proprietors who likewise pay graft regularly, I -know that our Government has lost the respect of practically every -foreigner; for he sees not only his own people defying the law, but -the Americans disobeying it under his nose. He says that so long as -there are grapes on vines and apples on trees; so long as fermentation -is a natural process, there will be drinking in the world; and he -cannot understand why it is against the law to take a sip of red wine -with one’s spaghetti, or a nip of brandy with one’s coffee. It is all -incomprehensible to him. His children grow up, seeing him have no -reverence for the laws of the country he has adopted. - -Of course the Prohibitionist will say that there is a very simple -solution of this. These foreigners within our gates should succumb to -the inevitable, and obey the law. True. I wish that everyone would -obey the law. The way for children not to be punished at school is for -them to behave themselves. But it is difficult to force people to do -something which it is inherently distasteful for them to do. We invite -immigration. We welcome hordes of people to our shores--people who, we -know, are accustomed to taking wine and beer with their meals; and then -we impose strict measures upon them, suddenly, and expect them to fall -into line. We should educate them first. We should let them know what -the Constitution means, what it stands for. We should insist that they -learn our language, study the history of the United States, absorb the -meaning of America before they attain citizenship. We are loose with -them; why should they not be loose with us? They see that we are none -too careful when we allow them to cross our threshold; why should they -help us tidy up the house after they are safely within it? - -The truth is, if we would but face it, that we are thorough in -few things. We make a great pretense at civic virtue and national -righteousness, and we neglect the fundamentals. To the core of things -we seldom wish to go. - -The bootlegger, laughing in his sleeve at the boasted and vainglorious -spiritual integrity of America, is but the natural result of our own -folly. He is as inevitable a part of so-called Prohibition as feathers -are a part of birds. As time goes on, his business now conducted in -secret may be conducted openly. He may become a recognized figure -in society, since we can never suppress him utterly. He is like the -bounder in every club, the _nouveau-riche_ in every drawing-room. -He has come to stay, more’s the pity. For an enormous percentage of -Americans approve of him, the while they disapprove of him. They know -his faults; but they say to themselves that even Congressmen have -faults; and they know down deep in their hearts that many a Congressman -and many an exalted Judge patronize the bootlegger, receive social -calls from him, and even speak to him on the telephone when they are -“out” to others. The bootleggers know all this. Why should they, -therefore, venerate a system which is not treated seriously by those in -the highest places? We are asking of them something superhuman. And the -latest development is that the bootleggers are now paying income taxes, -openly stating the source of their earnings, with no fear of getting -into trouble. - -Meanwhile, the propaganda of the Anti-Saloon League goes on in the -newspapers, with this and that report of how a “ring of bootleggers” -has been wiped out. We read of sensational raids in the big cities; and -there is a cry that federal officers have “broken” the whole system to -pieces. Thousands of quarts of Scotch have been confiscated--where it -is placed, no one seems to know. Dry agents, in their zeal, even search -hearses, and make the undertakers--to say nothing of the bereaved -relatives of the deceased--quite angry. The time may come when X-rays -may be taken of innocent citizens, to discover whether they have been -drinking liquor. Do not smile. Anything is possible when a great -country allows itself to be governed by an organization of fanatics -who have intimidated Congress and seem bent upon ruining our shipping -industry. - -But it would appear almost impossible to get honest men to act in -the capacity of spies. There is an everlasting “shake-up” of federal -officials who are supposed to see that the Volstead Act is enforced. -Here again the human element enters--that element which the fanatics -never recognize. The temptations are too great for the average man. -He knows that bootleggers are getting rich. And soon he sees that if -he closes his eyes and opens his hand, he too can become a Crœsus. At -first, it may be that he hesitates. There is danger of being caught. -Well, why not take a chance? he says to himself. Others are doing it. -After all, one has to live, and a six-cylinder car _would_ be nice. -Thus is the voice of conscience quieted; and soon it ceases to whisper -at all. That little Italian restaurant in his district--ah, yes! they -dispense drinks to the favored few who know the ring the bell must be -given. It would be so easy to pretend that he does not know of its -existence; and Tony, after all, is not such a bad sort. He’ll hand over -the kale, without a question, without a murmur. - -And so one more federal official goes to the dogs, a man who until -yesterday was honest. Knowing that his lucrative career may be brief, -he has determined to make hay while the sun shines. And Prohibition has -created another crook in the wicked city, though of course it has cured -a drunkard in the virtuous country. And the Anti-Saloon people are -perfectly satisfied. - -Are you? - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -“DON’T JOKE ABOUT PROHIBITION” - - -Not content with forcing us to close our lips to liquor, the -Prohibitionists recently sent out a request, which amounted to an -order, that no one should open his lips to speak disparagingly or in -jest of the sacred Eighteenth Amendment. We were to be denied the -blessed privilege of laughing at ourselves, even! I suppose that a -few fanatics--oh, merely to study life, bless their hearts!--had gone -into a vaudeville theater and had been incensed at the ribaldry of -the actors and the shrieks of mirth of the audience over Prohibition -wheezes. I have seen an assemblage in convulsions when some light -mention was made of Mr. Volstead; and whenever a flask is displayed on -the screen of some movie house, there never fails to follow a round of -loud applause. - -Our comic weeklies and newspaper supplements continue to print -Prohibition jokes, much to the delight of their readers. One fearless -periodical, _Judge_, has come out openly for light wines and beer--and -lost a valued contributor thereby. Another paper, on the contrary, -solemnly prints this editorial, headed “There Are Jokes and Jokes”: - -“A great concern operating vaudeville theaters in most of the large -cities has issued an order that all performers must cut out their jokes -about Prohibition. This is progress. It should be followed by orders -to eliminate Prohibition jokes from our legislatures, courts, police -stations, city halls, and all other places where men supposed to be -serious and doing serious work are to be found. The outstanding fact -about Prohibition seems to be that people forget that it came about -through an amendment to the United States Constitution.” - -Meanwhile, the mother-in-law joke is tolerated, and roared at. It is -perfectly all right for a man to make fun of his wife’s mother, since -there is no formal statute against such jests; but it is unthinkable -that he should laugh at himself because he can’t get a simple glass of -beer. The country he fought for, and was willing to die for, denies -him an ancient form of enjoyment. He could make fun openly of negroes, -though the Fifteenth Amendment tells him that they are his peers. - -The reformer, you see, never counted upon the chaffing which the -Volstead Act would have to stand. Ridicule can kill anything, and they -know it now. Therefore, they must stop ridicule by mandate. Heaven -knows there is little to smile at these days--except Prohibition. Are -we to have that luxury taken from us too? - -It looks that way. Yet no law can control people’s innermost feelings. -No request--amounting to an order--can coerce a nation to do something -it is not impelled to do, of itself. One remembers a sad time, not so -long ago, when we were begged to remain neutral in thought, word and -deed; and notices were printed in theater programs, urging us to make -no demonstration when the troops of the Allies crossed the screen; to -give no sign when the German army did likewise. Yet there was a burst -of applause or a burst of hisses, just the same. The minds of a people -cannot be controlled. It is nonsense to try to control them. - -Now the fanatics would seek to rob us of the joy of laughter. For of -course they despise and detest laughter. Laughter--ridicule--is a -sword that can be used against them. We can make this whole business -of Prohibition so ludicrous that we can laugh it out of the statutes. -Guffaws have disturbed many a solemn meeting; and a single cartoon has -broken many a promising politician. One may be able to stand up against -a serious argument; but lampooning has destroyed even men of genius. - -All was to be well the moment the Eighteenth Amendment became a fact. -Everyone was going to sit still and take it very seriously, just as -the Prohibitionists had planned. The lid was on, and on it would -remain--forever and ever. Puritans have no sense of humor, or they -would not be Puritans. They had not dreamed that someone would overturn -the can on which the lid was placed, and, through sheer joy of living, -shout and sing as of old. The habits of generations cannot be changed -in a moment. We who had been accustomed to decent drinking did not -intend to stop at once. We would “taper off,” as the topers put it. We -had laid aside a little supply of jollity, and the word would go about -that So-and-so had a large enough and deep enough cellar to permit him -to entertain for at least three or four years. - -One of the strange things about Prohibition was the fact that, with -its coming, everyone imagined that everyone else would turn miser -concerning treating. But here again the human element was forgotten. -Everyone seems more anxious than ever to prove that his bootlegger has -an exhaustless supply; and a certain pride is taken in handing out -innumerable drinks. An aristocracy has arisen that even serves liqueurs -after coffee--as though a plethora of _crême de menthe_ and yellow and -green chartreuse were in the land. The proverbial generosity of the -American was never more in evidence. Where one was niggardly, perhaps, -in the old days, one can scarcely afford to be so now; and those who -accept drinks without returning them are frowned upon as unworthy. They -are the outcasts of a new society, the lowest form of hanger-on. Of -course they are not nearly so numerous as of old; therefore they are -more conspicuous. - -And so the laughter goes on; but even when the reformers do not hear -it, they writhe, knowing of its existence. Once in a great while some -echo reaches them, no doubt. Things have not “straightened out” as -they had anticipated; and so they squirm, and rage, and puff up, and -devise ways and means to call a complete halt on all merriment, whether -it is directed at them or not. - -In all seriousness a woman’s temperance society sent a mandate to every -editor in the United States not long ago, bidding them cease satirizing -Prohibition. It would not do, they contended, to continue to smile at -the sacred Eighteenth Amendment. Mr. Volstead, also, was sacrosanct; -and it was outrageous the way piety was pooh-poohed, and what did the -editors _mean_ by such conduct, and why didn’t they stop it and obey -teacher and be good? - -And every government official, when he gets up at a banquet to make a -speech, begs his hearers to heed the law--though he knows full well -that down the street another banquet may be going on, attended by -officials equally high, where the law is never thought of. It is a -sad commentary on our government when it is necessary thus to address -the people. “We must be one people, one union--and that the American -Union,” shouted one representative of the government speaking in -Chicago before a business men’s convention. And he went on to say, -“Whenever a newspaper ridicules a law, plays up a policy of contempt -for law and its enforcement and in its news and editorial columns -fosters law-breaking, that newspaper is doing more to destroy American -institutions than a Federal Judge can do to maintain them.... No -man in public life who is possessed of vision and realizes his -responsibility to Government would favor regulation of the public press -by law, but it is obvious that the power of the press must not be used -to foster disrespect for our Government and disobedience to its laws.” - -Free speech will not be tolerated, if the fanatics have their way. Yet -the first article in the Amendments to the Constitution says: - -“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, -or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom -of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to -assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” - -In order that the Eighteenth Amendment may be upheld, the First may be -forgotten. - -But to get back for a moment to the ladies of the something-or-other -temperance society. A brilliant writer, Mr. Edward S. Martin, answered -them delightfully in _Harper’s Magazine_; and with the kind permission -of the editors of that periodical, I am privileged to make extracts -from his article. Mr. Martin never loses his temper, as the ladies -certainly did. He remains, as ever, the tactful, urbane, pitying -occupant of the editor’s easy-chair. He does not even frown. He speaks -from a long experience, gently but to the point: - -“The enforcement of Prohibition meets with some obstacles and furnishes -food for thought to two large groups in the community--the people -who want it enforced and the people who occasionally want something -to drink. Just at the moment it seems as if the people who want a -drink are somewhat ahead of the other group in the competition; at any -rate, the group that wants enforcement seems to think it necessary to -make extra effort. To _Harper’s Magazine_, as doubtless to hundreds -of other periodicals, has come a communication from the Committee for -Prohibition Enforcement of a much-respected and powerful organization -of women, which announces that the committee has adopted a program, -the items of which it communicates. The fifth item is to the effect -that all the ministers be urged to preach and teach the necessity for -respect for and observance of the law. The sixth item runs, ‘That every -theatrical manager, movie manager, and editor, whether of a daily, -weekly or monthly publication, be requested to see that all jokes -ridiculing Prohibition and its enforcement are eliminated from any -production, film, or article coming under his jurisdiction, and that -the matter be treated with that seriousness that the subject merits; -and that this resolution be thrown on the screen and printed in the -different papers and magazines throughout the country.’ - -“The demand for protection from jokes is often made and always implies -that there is something that needs to be joked about. There is a sin -called ‘sacrilege.’ If we joke about things that are sacred to enough -people, it gives a kind of offense which, even if the law does not -punish it, it is not safe to excite. There is a sin of blasphemy, which -we suppose the law will still punish if it is gross enough. It will be -agreed that the considerate people do not jest about sacred things, nor -even about things which, though not sacred to themselves, are sacred -to the people they are talking to. Well, then, is Prohibition one of -these sacred things we must not talk about? Are amendments of the -Constitution and the Volstead law to rank with the Ten Commandments and -the Sermon on the Mount as not being safely subject to derisive comment? - -“Something like that seems to be in the minds of the women whose -communication we have received, who include item six in their program, -but if so, their attitude is wrong. A constitutional amendment is not -sacred, much less a Volstead Act. It is the Volstead law that the jokes -on Prohibition are aimed at more than the amendment. If we cannot joke -about an act of Congress, then indeed things have come to a restricted -pass. If a law is bad, one of the ways to beat it is to laugh it out -of court. If that is being done about the Volstead law, the ladies who -want that law enforced would do well to examine it and see why it is -not enforced, rather than try to stop jokers from laughing at it. - -“A letter writer to a newspaper says, ‘If it is true that a community -gets the kind of government it deserves, it is equally true that a -law gets the kind of obedience it deserves.’ His assertion may be -disputed, but still, if the Volstead law is not being respected, is -it certain that it deserves respect? It is a law in the process of -being tried out. If it is good we want it enforced. If it is bad we -want it amended, but we do not want to be choked off from discussing -it or testing it. There is no power in Congress to say what is right -or wrong. The most that Congress can do is to say what is lawful or -unlawful. The distinction is important. The practical judge of whether -a law is right or wrong is the general community to which the law -applies. If that community will not back up the enforcement of the -law, it will not be enforced. It is yet to be demonstrated how far -the Volstead law, as it stands, is enforceable. If its fruits do not -please a majority of the people who live under it, it may have to be -modified so that it will stand for something that is near enough to be -the popular judgment of what is right to win popular support. There -is a great deal of good in the present Prohibition movement. It put -the saloons out of business. It checked the brewers and distillers in -their over-strenuous efforts to sell their products. It accomplished -benefits which probably could not have been accomplished except by the -kind of clean sweep that the amendment was. But it was necessarily a -rough job--an experiment to be tried out in practice. If its rules need -modification, they may get it or they may not, but if not, they may be -practically modified in enforcement. - -“Who is boss in this country? Is it the President, the Senate, the -House, the Supreme Court, the state authorities, the newspapers, the -lawyers, the ministers, the doctors, or possibly the women? - -“None of them! Public opinion is the boss. In the long run, what public -opinion demands it gets. Laws to be of any worth have to have sanction. -That is, there must be something to make people who violate them feel -that they are doing wrong. The laws of nature have abundant sanction. -If you fool with the law of gravitation, you get bumped. There is no -trouble about the enforcement of the law of gravitation. Nobody goes -around begging you not to ridicule it. It takes care of itself, and -if you flout it you pay the consequences. The Ten Commandments have -a sanction of long experience. Some of them are obsolete, but the -others are respected, and, though they are not directly enforced by the -courts, laws based on them are so enforced. Public opinion hereabouts -rests very considerably on the Ten Commandments. They have shaped the -habits of thought and deportment of many millions of people, including -most of those now living in this country. - -“The trouble with the present enforcement of Prohibition is that it -has not yet got moral sanction enough to make it effective. Public -opinion will back up the law in closing the saloons and restricting -and regulating the sale of intoxicants, but it does not follow it, -for one thing, in defining a beverage with an alcoholic content of -one half of one per cent as intoxicating. When it comes to that, -public opinion laughs, because that is contrary to its experience. -Furthermore, public opinion shows as yet no particular fervor about -achieving a total stoppage of alcoholic supplies from those who want -them. No serious stigma attaches to violations of the Volstead law -by private buyers. Fines and like embarrassments may result, but not -disrepute. A good many fairly decent people seem to buy what they -want, and do not conceal it. The people who thought before the law was -adopted that it was wicked or inexpedient to drink intoxicants, still -think so. The people who thought otherwise continue to think otherwise. -Many people drink less than before the law began to operate, but a good -many other people drink more, and buy much worse beverages at much -higher prices. To some extent Prohibition seems to have made drinking -popular by diminishing the individual discouragement of it and putting -the responsibility for the maintenance of temperance on a law and the -officers who enforce it. That may be only a temporary effect, but if it -turns out that the Volstead law, as it is, cannot be enforced at the -present time, there may possibly be an effort to tinker it--to put it -into such shape that public opinion will stand back of it and give it -a sanction. The alternative would be to wait and see what effect time -will have on men and habits. There is no one to tell us that we shall -be damned if we disobey the Volstead law, and so long as juries refuse -to convict persons who violate it, it stands modified in practice.... - -“The organizations, political, commercial, religious, that seek to -shape public opinion all use propaganda. We all know what that means -because we have all had such a surfeit of it. During the War we were -flooded with it and everyone learned what it was and how to use it. -It is put out by speakers, on the movie screens and in print wherever -possible. Organization secured Prohibition, but organization is not -public opinion and may for a time override it. Organization works -on the run with noise and big headlines and meetings and even with -threats. Public opinion slowly takes form in the minds of individuals. -There comes in Lincoln’s saying about the impossibility of fooling all -the people all the time. Propaganda may overwhelm private judgment -for a time, but private judgment keeps on working after propaganda -ceases. It digests what has been offered to it. The common facts of -life continue to appeal to it and impress it. It views what propaganda -has accomplished and slowly and deliberately considers whether it is -good, and if it concludes that it is not good it ceases to back it and -then there has to be something different, something that looks like -improvement....” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -HOW CANADA HAS SOLVED THE LIQUOR PROBLEM - - - Sing a Song of Montreal, - A barrel full of rye; - Four-and-twenty Yankees - Feeling rather dry; - When the barrel was opened - They all began to sing, - “Oh, to hell with Mr. Volstead-- - And God save the King!” - -The Dominion of Canada has solved its liquor problem, for the most -part. It is interesting to note that in those Provinces which are -technically dry, a wretched state of things exists, as in the United -States; and those Provinces which have government control are well -ordered. For instance, Nova Scotia has absolute Prohibition. I went -there in May and June, 1922, and, as in the States, I never lacked for -a drink when I desired one. Practically every chemist is a bootlegger. - -To show you how badly the system works, let me tell of a personal -experience. I found myself one week-end in a little village which shall -be nameless. I inquired of the inn-keeper if it would be possible to -obtain a bottle of whiskey. “Certainly,” he said. “Simply go to the -drug-store, tell him you are a guest of mine, and I think you will -have no difficulty in getting a good brand.” - -I was surprised, to say the least. It chanced to be a Sunday morning. -The church bells were ringing, and as I got to the door of the shop, -the druggist was just leaving it--he lived above it, I believe--for -morning service. I told him my errand; and immediately, without the -slightest hesitation, he opened the door, took me in, and sold me what -I wished. He hadn’t the slightest idea who I was; yet perhaps it was -evident that I was an American traveler. No questions were asked, and -openly I carried my bottle through the streets back to the inn. - -In New Brunswick I obtained ale openly in a hotel; and the waitress -told me that almost on every other corner of the city in which I was -stopping, a bootlegger could be found; and if I made my wishes known -there would be no difficulty in purchasing anything I wanted. As it -happened, I wished nothing there; but it was good to know that it could -have been bought any time of the day or evening. - -But in the Province of Quebec and in British Columbia quite another -state of affairs will be found. The Government controls the liquor -trade, and guarantees the quality of the alcohol sold. Neat little -Government Liquor Stores, as they are called, are in every city and -town, and a vendor has charge of each one--a regular Government -employee who is “responsible for the carrying-out of the Government -Liquor Act and the regulations so far as they relate to the conduct of -the store and the sale of liquor thereat.” - -Everything is done in a most orderly and systematic way. If one -wishes to purchase whiskey, he merely applies to the vendor in his -neighborhood. A small fee is charged; and it is a gratification to -know that this fee goes directly to one’s Government, and not into the -pockets of bootleggers. Supplies are delivered in sealed packages, duly -inscribed; and again it is a gratification to know that one is in no -danger of drinking poison, with the added fear of death or blindness. - -There are restrictions--a great many, indeed; but they are wise and for -the best interests of the Province. For instance, it is against the law -to drink in the Government stores; but one may, of course, in an inn -have a supply of liquor in one’s room, or drink light wines and beer in -the public dining-room. Drunkenness is taboo, and one sees very little -of it. The people are prosperous, and everyone is as happy as one can -be in this troubled world. Canada had enormous war debts. I was told -that British Columbia had paid her quota, and in addition had made many -improvements of public highways--all through the revenue derived from -the Government’s sale of liquor. - -In British Columbia, great care is exercised that no spurious permits -are received at the stores. The law provides that “no permit shall be -delivered to the applicant until he has, in the presence of the Vendor -or official to whom the application is made, written his signature -thereon in the manner prescribed, for purposes of his identification as -the holder thereof, and the signature has been attested by the Vendor -or official under his hand.” - -Permits are not issued to corporations, associations, societies or -partnerships. Therefore the opportunities for fraud are diminished. -And on polling days all the stores are closed. In pre-Volstead times -in the United States the law distinctly said that our saloons should -remain closed on Election Day in many of the big cities; yet was this -regulation--a very wise one--ever enforced? That is one reason why we -have Prohibition today--we simply would not obey even those moderate -and salutary laws enacted for the welfare of the community. The -saloon-keeper paid not the slightest heed to them; in fact, he scoffed -at them; and that is why he has no sympathy from the rest of us, now -that his foul places are gone forever. - -One would not be so foolish as to assert that a state of perfection -has been reached in the Government-controlled Provinces. Bootlegging -goes on--but principally because this country is dry. If the States -were also under Government control in the matter of the liquor -traffic, there would be no temptation to transport stuff illicitly -over the border. I imagine that the Canadians are quite as guilty -as the Americans when it comes to these secret transactions; for if -it takes two to make a quarrel, it is equally true that it takes -two to consummate a sale of any kind. There would be a cleaner slate -if we had the common sense to do as, say, Quebec has done. There -are no swinging-door saloons; but there are tidy shops where one is -not ashamed to go. No one is drinking on the sly, pretending to be -consuming coffee out of a cup which really contains a high-ball. “In -vino demi-tasse” is not the motto of Canada, as it is that of the -United States. - -It is significant to note that in British Columbia, when that Province -was completely dry--even without beer--141,057 prescriptions for liquor -were issued; yet in the fiscal year which ended March 31, 1922, only -6,568 prescriptions were issued. - -And while our own Government continues to ask for mighty appropriations -for the enforcement of Prohibition, the reports from the Province of -Quebec state that for the fiscal year ending in June, 1922, a profit of -$4,000,000 was realized, and that the regulations have proved quite as -successful morally as financially. - -Can we say that, in the matter of morals, the Volstead Act has worked -advantageously? It has undermined the whole country; and under -fanaticism, we have shown ourselves to be a total failure. The New York -_World_ says: - - “The Quebec law is a good law because it has city and country - solidly behind it and it can be enforced. It provides for local - option, it restricts the purchase of spirits, it allows the sale - of wine and beer in cafés and it creates no enforcement problem. - It affects every legitimate reform advocated by the professional - Prohibitionists of the United States, but quietly, sensibly, - profitably and without friction.” - -If we could but come to the sanity of Canada, in her -Government-controlled Provinces! - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -CRIME AND DRUNKENNESS - - -Promises were made by the reformers that with the advent of -Prohibition the country would witness a great lessening of crime and -drunkenness. Our prisons were to be almost emptied. Unemployment would -be practically unheard of; and the health of the people would be -infinitely better. - -Never has the country suffered more from strikes than during that -period between 1920 and the present time. Labor is still restless, for -all the sanctimonious predictions of the Anti-Saloon League. We see, -then, that law and order do not come when we harness a people’s will. -Would that they did! Life would be simple then. People are bound to -burst their bonds and fetters now and then. The spurt of the geyser -goes on, no matter how we seek to suppress it. Old Faithful performs -every hour in Yellowstone Park; and I suppose that until time is no -more, men will go on shouting about their rights, despite such empty -reforms as Prohibition; will go on holding grievances, demanding a -remedy of wrongs, and generally raising Cain. Obstreperous behavior -is not the result of drunkenness--always. People are humanly fond of -cavorting, even without the aid of a stimulant. And so the strikes go -merrily on, and workingmen who were placid under beer are found to be -thinkers under Volsteadism. - -The headlines in our papers continue to be sensational, in these times -that were to be so quiet. Murders still occur, strangely enough; -and hold-ups of the most brazen kind take place everywhere. Diamond -ear-rings are snatched from ladies driving in the Park of an evening, -houses are entered by ruffians who tie up the servants and the master -and mistress and calmly go through the premises, taking what they wish. -It is all very shocking, very terrible; but human nature has a way of -remaining what it is. It was thought that only drunkards committed such -heinous crimes. We find that men of sobriety are equally culpable. -The millennium has not arrived; and our prisons are still densely -populated, much as the reformers may deny the disconcerting fact. One -is shocked at the continuance of outrageous crimes; and if, after three -years of experiment with the abolishment of booze, we still face a wave -of disorder and confusion, there seems little hope of that future of -roses and sweetness and light so glibly prophesied. - -Hard times continue to confront us, though the fat pay-envelope to -the wife and children of the workingman was to be a weekly event. An -analysis of official figures shows an increase of 44 per cent in the -arrests for drunkenness in 1921 over 1920, and Stuyvesant Fish has -shown that the largest industrial life insurance company reports an -increase of 50 per cent in deaths due to alcoholism in 1921, the second -“dry” year. The statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance -Company, April, 1922, contained these words: - - “There have been marked increases in the death rates for heart - disease, Bright’s disease and apoplexy in recent months among - the industrial policyholders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance - Company. Small increases in the mortality from these diseases - had been noticed early in November of last year, but the change - attracted little attention and caused little comment. The - possibility that it marked a definite check in the favorable - tendency shown for several years for each of these diseases was - not seriously considered. By December, however, the death rate - had taken a more decided upward turn for each disease. Organic - heart disease registered a rate of 124.9 as compared with 118.4 - in November; the apoplexy rate rose from 62.9 to 70.6, and that - for Bright’s disease from 69.1 to 71.9. By January it had become - apparent that for two of these diseases, at least, a definite - upward tendency was in progress. The heart disease rate increased - sharply from the December figure of 124.9 to 137.2, and that for - chronic nephritis went up nearly three points over the December - figure. The apoplexy rate for this one month fell somewhat. In - February the heart disease figure rose even more sharply than for - January (to 153.4), the nephritis rate again increased slightly (to - 75.8) and that for apoplexy returned to approximately the December - level. By March the rate for organic heart disease had reached - 168.2 per 100,000, one of the highest figures ever recorded in any - one month among Metropolitan industrial policyholders. The March - rates for chronic nephritis (87.5) and for apoplexy (75.8) are - both the highest registered for those diseases since March, 1920.” - -The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, Inc., has collected -statistics to prove that crime has by no means diminished since the -passage of the Volstead Act; and with their kind permission I give a -tabulated list of twenty cities in the United States, which, under -Prohibition, have revealed an increase in arrests for all sorts of -crimes. These are the official figures in each city. - -At random I have taken some statistics from various parts of the -country, to show how drunkenness has not disappeared since the passage -of the Eighteenth Amendment. Rather, has it increased. In Baltimore, -Maryland, for instance, the arrests for drunkenness during the period -between January and April, 1922, were over two-thirds as many as for -the entire year of 1921. - - April, 1922 354 - April, 1921 238 - April, 1920 69 - January to December, 1921 3,258 - January to December, 1920 1,785 - -In the State of Wyoming, the total number of prisoners in jail on July -1, 1922, was 561. On July 1, 1917, there were but 452. - - -_CRIME UNDER PROHIBITION IN THIRTY AMERICAN CITIES_ - - _Drunkenness and_ - _Arrests_ _Disorderly_ - _Population_ _All Causes_ _Conduct_ - _1920_ _1920_ _1921_ _1920_ _1921_ - Philadelphia 1,823,779 73,015 83,136 20,443 27,115 - Detroit 995,678 43,309 50,676 5,989 6,349 - Boston 748,060 58,817 72,161 22,341 31,794 - Baltimore 733,826 41,988 54,602 13,443 20,496 - Pittsburgh 588,343 36,572 41,820 14,373 16,990 - Buffalo 506,775 24,436 32,377 8,491 9,650 - San Francisco 506,676 26,672 30,106 2,794 6,005 - Milwaukee 457,147 10,545 15,520 2,400 3,481 - Cincinnati 401,247 14,175 21,973 2,062 3,106 - Minneapolis 380,582 10,608 17,874 2,982 6,051 - Portland, Ore. 258,288 18,445 30,856 3,654 4,379 - Denver 256,491 12,947 19,649 1,847 3,163 - Louisville 234,891 7,857 9,601 1,092 2,361 - St. Paul 234,698 5,638 10,077 1,902 4,319 - Oakland, Cal. 216,281 3,706 4,497 1,261 2,191 - Akron, Ohio 208,435 12,558 10,104 5,228 3,939 - Birmingham 178,806 16,786 21,488 2,886 4,612 - Richmond 171,667 12,706 15,532 1,563 1,953 - New Haven 162,537 7,934 8,465 3,186 3,184 - Dallas 158,976 26,058 35,848 1,219 1,338 - Hartford 138,036 8,072 7,395 4,057 3,207 - Paterson 135,875 4,058 3,809 1,637 1,509 - Springfield, Mass. 129,614 3,757 4,574 625 920 - Des Moines 126,468 4,465 4,982 1,530 1,598 - Trenton 119,289 5,693 5,577 1,550 1,426 - Salt Lake City 118,110 7,728 7,505 883 909 - Albany 113,344 3,216 4,168 578 900 - Cambridge, Mass. 109,694 3,822 4,664 871 1,423 - Spokane 104,437 6,478 7,237 933 1,311 - Kansas City, Kas. 101,177 4,774 4,129 45 133 - ---------- ------- ------- ------- ------- - Total 10,417,227 516,835 640,402 131,855 185,808 - - Total in 30 Cities _1920_ _1921_ _Increase_ - Violation of Prohibition Laws 9,375 18,976 102.0% - Drunken Autoists 1,513 2,743 81.0% - Thefts and Burglary 24,770 26,888 9.0% - Homicide 1,086 2,124 12.7% - Assaults and Battery 21,147 23,977 13.4% - Drug Addictions, etc. 1,897 2,745 44.6% - Police Department Costs $31,193,639 $34,762,196 11.4% - -Judge Cavanagh of Chicago estimated that there were from 7,500 to 8,000 -cases of murder and manslaughter in the United States in 1921. But the -Special Commission on Law Enforcement of the American Bar Association, -in its official report made on August 10th, 1922, stated that there -were no less than 9,500 “unlawful homicides” in this country in 1921. -The average per day was twenty-six. In the previous year there were -at least 9,000 such homicides. In the first nine months and a half of -1922 there were 101 “unlawful homicides” in Philadelphia alone, as -compared with the same number during all of 1921. In the same city, the -arrests for violation of the dry law numbered 32,281, for the period -between January and September, 1922. Of these, 25,925 were “drunk and -disorderly.” - -In Providence, Rhode Island, drunkenness has increased 85 per cent -since 1919. In Rochester, New York, crimes of violence in 1921 numbered -607, as against 488 in 1917. In the latter year there were 323 arrests -for burglary, while in 1921 there were no less than 502. It has been -reported that the western part of the State has become the victim of a -new crop of young, educated and what are called “polished” crooks. - -Sing Sing prison deported no less than sixty prisoners to Auburn in -May, 1922, because of overcrowding. - -The warden of Sing Sing, to whom I wrote, asking for figures as to the -inmates received at his prison, very graciously and with unprecedented -promptness sent me the following report, and told me I could make my -own deductions: - - Fiscal year ending June 30th, 1917 1071 - ” ” ” ” ” 1918 1197 - ” ” ” ” ” 1919 1073 - ” ” ” ” ” 1920 1490 - ” ” ” ” ” 1921 1414 - ” ” ” ” ” 1922 1613 - -Figures do not lie. - -Yet the Prohibitionists insist that conditions are better than ever -before, and I have seen otherwise intelligent citizens take it for -granted that the figures given by a speaker at some uplift meeting were -correct. Few of us go to the trouble of verifying statistics. But the -fact remains that passionate crimes continue, murders of unprecedented -cruelty are committed all the time, and a heaven on earth is, I fear, -remote from us. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE LITERARY DIGEST’S CANVASS - - -The cry has gone up from time to time since the passage of the Volstead -Act that the country at large wanted--nay, had demanded, Prohibition. -_The Literary Digest_, hearing and noting these reiterations, decided -to investigate the feeling of the land. They would have a referendum of -the people through a straw vote; and they would get, in that way, at -the truth. - -Many of us were not at all sure of the sentiment in communities like -the Far and Middle West. We knew that the South, for reasons best -known to itself, had favored large arid territories; but the East had -remained insistently wet. Therefore, it was a big surprise, when the -_Literary Digest’s_ returns began to come in, to discover that in -many sections a reverse feeling flourished from that which had been -anticipated. It must have proved a shock to the Anti-Saloon League, in -its smug complacency, to learn that many citizens, like a man I met in -Omaha, declared that he was greatly in favor of Prohibition--until we -got it. - -Indeed, many feel just like that. Conditions are certainly intolerable -wherever I have been. Drunkenness may have disappeared from the -sidewalks, but it has taken to the taxicab; and though the corner -saloon has gone (I hope forever) the hip-flask has taken its place, on -the south-east corner of many an individual. - -So much had been said and written of the feeling of the country, that -the _Digest_ (the editor-in-chief is a Prohibitionist, if I am not -mistaken) went right to the heart of the thing, in no uncertain manner. -Much discussion had taken place as to the temper of the people, and -there seemed no way of arriving at the truth. - -Ten million blanks were sent out, to every kind of voter. The Bonus -for Soldiers and Sailors was more or less tied up with Prohibition. -Therefore it was deemed wise to try to get the popular sentiment on -both questions at the same time. - -The questionnaire, in the form of a ballot, was as follows: - - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - : Secret Ballot on Prohibition and Soldiers’ Bonus : - : No Signature--No Condition--No Obligation : - : Mark and Mail at Once : - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - - _PROHIBITION:_ (Put a cross (x) in the square only - opposite the policy you favor) - - A. Do you favor the continuance and +---+ - strict enforcement of the Eighteenth | | - Amendment and Volstead Law? +---+ - - B. Do you favor a modification of the +---+ - Volstead Law to permit light wines | | - and beers? +---+ - - C. Do you favor a repeal of the +---+ - Prohibition Amendment? | | - +---+ - Mark (X) in ONE - Square Only - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - SOLDIERS’ BONUS: (Put a cross (x) in the square) - _Yes_ _No_ - Do you favor a Federal Bonus for all +---+ +---+ - American Soldiers and Sailors who | | | | - wore the Uniform during the World +---+ +---+ - War? - - It is important to Mark and Return This Ballot Immediately. - -Every precaution was taken to obviate dishonesty; but I suppose as -there never was an election without trouble at the polls--it would be -expecting too much of human beings to believe otherwise--so in this -solicitation there may have been a few duplicate votes to swell the -general average, one way or the other. Yet the _Digest_ had confidence -in the returns; and through their canvass of the various States we have -come to see that there are not only “wets” and “drys,” but a third -enormous party of what we might call “moists.” By this term is meant -the people who wish a modification of the Volstead Act, permitting the -sale of light wines and beer. Indeed, this party predominated in the -final returns. - -The Anti-Saloon League has scorned the _Digest’s_ figures; yet one has -a feeling that if the showing had been in favor of a strict observance -and upholding of the present Prohibition law, a different attitude -might have been observed on its part. It is but human, after all, to -wish the tide to turn in the direction one has spiritedly advocated. -Even the “moists” must have been surprised at their own brilliant -showing. - -It was in July, 1922, that the first reports were made; and the -_Digest_ was amazed when the ballots of the first hundred thousand -poured in. - -Those in favor of a strict enforcement numbered 32,445. - -Those in favor of a modification numbered 39,665. - -Those in favor of a repeal of the Prohibition Amendment numbered 22,547. - -As to the Soldiers’ Bonus, the vote was almost even. Yes, 46,609. No, -47,469. - -“Dampness seems to predominate,” the _Digest_ said. “The most startling -fact revealed by this first tally is that the early voters are against -the continuance and enforcement of the present Prohibition law by the -proportion of nearly two to one. On the other hand, the voters show -themselves in favor of the Prohibition Amendment, or, in other words, -in favor of some sort of a Prohibition law, by the even larger ratio of -72,000 to 22,500.” - -The editors were exceedingly fair in their appraisement of conditions. -They stated that “In Kansas, the votes run 111 for strict enforcement, -34 for modification and 14 for repeal of the Amendment. Thus the -Prohibitionists, it is seen, outnumber the combined ‘moists’ and ‘wets’ -by almost three to one, a situation that is duplicated in no other -State. Since this early vote was tabulated, a large number of returns -have come in for Kansas and, even though we may be anticipating next -week’s report of votes, it may be mentioned that this large vote is a -striking verification of the conditions indicated by the small vote -shown here. Kansas is for Prohibition, by approximately three to one. -It is a significant fact, also, that this State has tried a dry régime -for a number of years, and knows better than most others how it works.” - -But here again no thinking man, it seems to me, has a right to find -fault with a State which wishes earnestly to go dry. Local option is -sensible and reasonable; a certain territory could fence itself in, -as it were, guarding itself from a menace, making all the strict laws -it desired to protect its people from what it considered a tremendous -evil. But it has no right to inflict its statutes upon its friendly -neighbors, any more than the United States has a right to restrict -drinking on the ocean, forbidding foreign vessels to enter our ports -with cargoes of sealed spirits. - -It is interesting to note how the various States voted in this -preliminary canvass. - - -_DETAILED TABULATION OF THE FIRST RETURNS ON PROHIBITION_ - - NEW ENGLAND _For_ _For_ _For_ - STATES _Enforcement_ _Modification_ _Repeal_ - 1--MAINE 24 17 17 - 2--N. H. 16 13 3 - 3--VT. 16 6 6 - 4--MASS. 4,242 4,862 2,805 - 5--R. I. 7 14 17 - 6--CONN. 34 39 20 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 4,339 4,951 2,868 - - MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES - 1--N. Y. 6,169 9,315 4,966 - 2--N. J. 29 45 27 - 3--PENN. 8,307 9,139 6,573 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 14,505 18,499 11,566 - - EAST NORTH CENTRAL STATES - 1--OHIO 829 716 250 - 2--IND. 152 73 33 - 3--ILL. 9,312 12,012 6,621 - 4--MICH. 125 84 36 - 5--WISC. 75 69 22 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 10,493 12,954 6,962 - - WEST NORTH CENTRAL STATES - 1--MINN. 89 82 17 - 2--IOWA 113 88 23 - 3--MO. 100 67 33 - 4--N. DAK. 16 17 1 - 5--S. DAK. 21 9 2 - 6--NEBR. 72 44 19 - 7--KANS. 111 34 14 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 522 341 109 - - SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES - 1--DEL. 6 4 3 - 2--MD. 15 27 36 - 3--D. C. 14 27 8 - 4--VA. 28 27 9 - 5--W. VA. 18 20 4 - 6--N. CAR. 32 14 7 - 7--S. CAR. 10 11 4 - 8--GA. 24 27 12 - 9--FLA. 11 4 8 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 158 161 91 - - EAST SOUTH CENTRAL STATES - 1--KY. 27 25 28 - 2--TENN. 42 17 10 - 3--ALA. 23 19 5 - 4--MISS. 13 11 5 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 105 72 48 - - WEST SOUTH CENTRAL STATES - 1--ARK. 15 12 1 - 2--LA. 12 13 3 - 3--OKLA. 43 29 7 - 4--TEXAS 116 62 21 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 186 116 32 - - MOUNTAIN STATES - 1--MONT. 11 16 8 - 2--IDAHO 9 13 5 - 3--WYO. 2 5 -- - 4--COLO. 31 30 11 - 5--N. MEX. 5 5 1 - 6--ARIZ. 8 3 -- - 7--UTAH 8 16 6 - 8--NEV. 1 1 1 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 75 89 32 - - PACIFIC STATES - 1--WASH. 830 951 247 - 2--OREG. 28 22 6 - 3--CALIF. 1,204 1,509 585 - ------- ------- ------- - TOTAL VOTES 2,062 2,482 839 - ------- ------- ------- - GRAND TOTAL 32,445 39,665 22,547 - -After the first and second polls had been taken by the _Digest_,--that -is, after 200,000 votes had been classified,--the editors asked for an -expression of opinion from William H. Anderson, State Superintendent of -the Anti-Saloon League of New York and President of the Allied Citizens -of America. He admitted the honesty, good faith and fairness of the -canvass, but deemed it “unwise.” And he went on to say: - - “There is a clear and fundamental distinction between taking a - poll on a question which is yet to be decided and taking a poll - on a question which has been decided. In the latter case the - issue inevitably presented to many minds is whether the law which - represents the decision shall be enforced.” - -There are millions of citizens who look upon the Eighteenth Amendment -as cause for a grievance; and the First Amendment states very clearly -“the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the -Government for a redress of grievances.” - -Surely it is no breach of the peace to ask for an expression from -voters concerning a matter so serious as Prohibition, on which they -never voted. How else could a clear comprehension be gained of the -wishes of the people, save through the press in a country so vast as -ours? Naturally, there would be resentment in the dry camp at any -attempt to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment; but I hope there are no -Americans who would honestly favor a supine obedience to a law which -is abhorrent to such a number of us. Intolerance is not a worthy -sentiment. It is a healthy sign when people disagree. The clash of -minds leads to larger prospects of final understanding; and if it is -found in the end that Prohibition is ardently wanted by the majority, -we shall continue to have Prohibition, with, I trust, a perfect -carrying out of the law. The _Digest’s_ desire to learn the truth is an -admirable one. The advocates of Mr. Volstead have nothing to fear from -it. If they are right, and people like myself are wrong, then right -will prevail. Meanwhile, nothing is gained by cantankerously bidding us -behave ourselves, and bow to the inevitable. This is but an added form -of Prohibition which only serves to stir up enmities, to create further -discords, and muddle matters even more. Your honest opinion and mine -are quite as valuable to the country as that of Mr. Volstead and Mr. -Anderson. - -And so the _Literary Digest_ evidently thought. For it continued to -publish returns as they came flooding into the editorial office. -Innumerable letters accompanied the votes. People from all sections of -the country “spoke out in meeting,” advocating Government control of -the liquor traffic. From Omaha and New Jersey this advice came, and -from practically every State of the Union. The people were being heard -from. - -The second hundred-thousand voted as follows: - - For strict enforcement 76,597 - For modification 85,151 - For repeal 45,646 - -A poll was taken in many factories where both men and women are -employed. In the Edison works in New Jersey, the poll was taken under -the supervision of Charles A. Edison, “who saw to it that the ballots -were distributed one to each worker. They were marked secretly, -and deposited by the individual workers in sealed ballot boxes, -later opened by representatives of the _Digest_. The result shows a -proportion of slightly more than twenty to one against the continuation -and enforcement of the present liquor laws.” This is the vote: - - For enforcement 93 - For modification 976 - For repeal 966 - -A careful poll of the establishment of Parke, Davis & Company, -manufacturing chemists, of Detroit, revealed the following results: - - For enforcement 218 - For modification 1,081 - For repeal 211 - -Combining these two polls, the attitude of the workers in two -representative factories would be summarized as follows: - - For enforcement 311 - For modification 2,059 - For repeal 1,177 - -In connection with factories and labor, one inevitably thinks of Samuel -Gompers. The _Digest_ asked him for an expression of opinion, wishing -to get all sides of all subjects, and he sent this strong statement: - -“In addition to the vile and poisonous substitution for whiskey so -largely consumed, and in addition to the increased drug habit since -Prohibition, Prohibition has made a nation of grouches. It has taken -the joy out of the American people, as can be attested by almost every -social gathering. The whole scheme is unwarrantable interference with -the personal freedom of the people, and increases discontent and -resentment in the knowledge that those who have it, have it. I firmly -believe that a modification of the Volstead Act so that beer and light -wines may be manufactured and sold under proper regulations would solve -the whole question rationally and helpfully.” - -The discontent of the worker is something to be considered--even -by fanatics who would rule us by force, and seek to restrain too -thoroughly man’s natural appetites. One must take into account the -wishes of that vast army who do the drudgery of the world; and it -does not require an immense amount of imagination to understand what -the years may bring. If there is an apparent stolid indifference now -in the realms of labor, the _Digest’s_ poll would seem to contradict -any such belief. That the workingman is beginning to realize that a -distinct form of class legislation has taken place there can be no -doubt. I think the authorities would never dare to encroach upon a -laborer’s rights in the matter of home brew. Yet they must be aware -that, deprived of his only club, the corner saloon, the workingman who -still desires a glass of beer occasionally is methodically producing -it. Against the law? To the devil with the law, says the hard-working -day laborer, when the rich disobey it every hour of their lives. - -Another factory, which employs women, was also canvassed. This was -the establishment of the Campbell’s Soup Company in New Jersey. -Approximately 30 per cent of the workers polled were women; yet the -vote is against the present laws by a proportion of 9 to 1. This is how -the voting ran: - - For enforcement 162 - For modification 720 - For repeal 750 - -But the final figures are the most interesting of all. A summary -of 922,383 ballots revealed this result, which must have proved -disheartening to the Anti-Saloon League: - - -_SUMMARY OF 922,383 BALLOTS ON PROHIBITION_ - - _For Enforcement_ _For Modification_ _For Repeal_ - Main Poll 306,255--(38.5%) 325,549--(41.1%) 164,453--(20.4%) - Women’s Poll 48,485--(44.5%) 39,914--(36.7%) 20,448--(18.8%) - Factory Polls 1,453--( 8.4%) 10,871--(62.1%) 4,955--(29.5%) - ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- - TOTALS 356,193--(38.6%) 376,334--(40.8%) 189,856--(20.6%) - -Is it necessary for anyone to say anything further about the temper of -the country? Facts are facts. - -To repeat what my friend in Omaha said: - -“Prohibition was all right--until we got it!” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -LITERATURE AND PROHIBITION - - -The Young-Old Philosopher has recently been traveling over the country -as far west as the Coast. He had heard that conditions, so far as -Prohibition was concerned, were excellent out there; but he wished to -observe for himself. - -He found them quite the contrary. In states like Oregon and Washington, -which went dry long before national Prohibition became an established -fact, the people were obtaining anything they desired. Close to the -border, there is plenty of bootlegging, endless daring adventuring in -the liquor traffic, many a bold plunge over the line to bring whiskey -and gin into United States territory. - -And they certainly bring it. Meanwhile, the propaganda of the Puritans -goes on--or, rather, the impropaganda; for it is not true that people -are behaving themselves. There is just as much discontent and disorder -among westerners as among easterners, so the Young-Old Philosopher -observed. - -But in cities like Omaha, which is about in the center of the country, -there is a dryness which is depressing. Passing through a hotel -corridor one day at noon, the Young-Old Philosopher heard male -voices, chanting in unison. He stepped to the open door of a private -dining-room, and was much amused to see a group of forty or fifty solid -business men, all wearing little badges proclaiming their allegiance -to some organization or other, standing about the tables, lifting high -their glasses of water, and shouting these words: - - “With the _feed_ on the _ta_-bull, - And a good song _ring_-ing clear!” - -There was a desperate attempt at gaiety, a look in the eye of each -prospective luncheoner which seemed to say, “We _will_ have a good -time--in spite of Prohibition!” But my friend turned away at this -travesty on mirth and good fellowship. He wondered if Richard Hovey -was not turning in his grave at the cruel editing of his deathless -“Stein Song,” and he counted it a pity that pewter mugs had been -superseded by ice-water goblets; and he saw that Gopher Prairie was -indeed a dreadful reality. Not that he would have wished to see the -law disobeyed. He merely deprecated the tragic fact that this was the -pass we had come to; this was the drab social order we had definitely -arrived at. He went disconsolately down the hallway, brooding of all -those ancient poets who had held it no shame to sing of the vine and -the flowing bowl. No one had ever written a song in praise of food. And -he thought if Hovey could be edited, soon the Bible itself would hear -the snip-snip of the shears, as certain boisterous passages were cut -out; and as for poor old Omar, he wondered how soon it would be before -he was paraphrased by the reformers somewhat in this manner: - - Here with a little Bread beneath the Bough, - A Flask of Milk, a Book of Verse--and Thou - Beside me singing in the Wilderness-- - Ah! Paradise were Wilderness enow. - -And of course quatrains like this would soon be omitted from all -editions: - - Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare - Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare? - A Blessing, we should use it, should we not? - And if a Curse--why, then, Who set it there? - -The story of the Marriage Feast at Cana must make sorry reading for any -Prohibitionist; and the Young-Old Philosopher doubts not that it will -be torn from the records in years to come. We shall not even be given -the pleasure of reading about the jubilations of vanished times--times -rich in banquets. Think of imperial Rome without golden goblets! They -were as much a part of the feast as the fruit and the lights; and if we -are to be deprived of the vicarious joy of dipping into the pagan past, -might we not just as well renounce life entirely? Red wine will be as -antiquated as the ermine and crowns of kings, my friend believes; yet -who can deny the picturesqueness of the scepter and the court fool? -They may not have been important, but they gave a glamour to dreary -days. “And some of us may prefer them,” says the Young-Old Philosopher, -“to the dandruff-covered collars of stupid senators and congressmen.” - -There is an old song of Abraham Cowley’s, written somewhere between -1618 and 1667, which must give pain to any Prohibitionist. Will they -strive to Bowdlerize the anthologies, erase from literature so true -and human a poem as this, which voices a thought almost as old as the -world? It is after Anacreon. - - The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, - And drinks, and gapes for drink again; - The plants suck in the earth, and are - With constant drinking, fresh and fair; - The sea itself (which one would think - Should have but little need of drink) - Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up, - So filled that they o’erflow the cup. - The busy sun (and one would guess - By’s drunken fiery face no less) - Drinks up the sea, and, when he’s done, - The moon and stars drink up the sun: - They drink and dance by their own light; - They drink and revel all the night. - Nothing in nature’s sober found, - But an eternal “health” goes round. - Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high-- - Fill all the glasses there; for why - Should every creature drink but I? - Why, men of morals, tell me why? - -Think of losing from English literature lines like these, from the -“Last Poems” of A. E. Housman: - - Could man be drunk forever - With liquor, love, or fights, - Lief should I rouse at morning - And lief lie down at nights. - - But men at whiles are sober - And think by fits and starts, - And if they think, they fasten - Their hands upon their hearts. - -And so modern and exquisite a poet as Richard Le Gallienne has had -much to say metrically of the follies of attempting to regulate by law -the natural appetites of man. He sounds a warning in this tragic-comic -ballade, spurning the busy-body reformers: - - They took away your drink from you, - The kind old humanizing glass; - Soon they will take tobacco too, - And next they’ll take our demi-tasse. - Don’t say, “The bill will never pass,” - Nor this my warning word disdain; - You said it once, you silly ass-- - Don’t make the same mistake again. - - We know them now, the bloodless crew, - We know them all too well, alas! - There’s nothing that they wouldn’t do - To make the world a Bible class; - Though against bottled beer or Bass - I search the sacred text in vain - To find a whisper--by the Mass! - Don’t make the same mistake again. - - Beware these legislators blue, - Pouring their moral poison-gas - On all the joys our fathers knew; - The very flowers in the grass - Are safe no more, and, lad and lass, - ’Ware the old birch-rod and the cane! - Here comes our modern Hudibras!-- - Don’t make the same mistake again. - - ENVOI - - Prince, vanished is the rail of brass, - So mark me well and my refrain-- - Tobacco next! you silly ass, - Don’t make the same mistake again. - -It would be sad indeed to lose such a song as “Drink to Me Only with -Thine Eyes!” How much poorer the garden of Poetry would be without such -bibulous planters of rhyme as Burns and Poe and Verlaine! I suppose the -paid Puritans would have even our poets walk the humdrum way, so that -we would have no news of life from taverns and inns. The picturesque -vagabond, the rapscallion son of song must be pulled in from the -pleasant highways and made to “conform.” - -Conform to what? A three-room flat with kitchenette and running water, -and a clerk’s desk downtown, with methodical rides on a heaving Subway -train at eight in the morning and again at six in the evening. Well, -there are other modes of living that seem a trifle sweeter to the -dreamers of dreams, the makers of beauty. Art is not produced like so -many bricks or like so many waffles in a waffle iron. It is shot with -wonder; and just as the water-lily emerges in its white perfection from -dubious slimy stems, so a great work of loveliness may sometimes rise -from the meanest sources. That is what your Pharisee does not--and -cannot--understand. He would cast us all into one mess-pot, stew us -all in the same juice, and bid us all conform to some stupid “ideal” -which he has the effrontery to hold before the artist as the ultimate -goodness. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -AMERICA TODAY - - -My friend, the Young-Old Philosopher, is worried about America. He -sees a drift toward old-time Puritanism--with the hood of hypocrisy -used as a general covering. He knows a distinguished judge who -recently sentenced a little bootlegger to thirty days in jail, and -excoriated him in the court-room with all the power of language at his -command. Then he dismissed court for the day, as he had an important -social engagement uptown. On the way, he suggested to the Young-Old -Philosopher that they drop in at a smart club. He was very weary after -his heavy day’s work, and needed a bracer. He got it. - -On an evening a little later, this same personage--a man greatly -respected in his community, whose utterances on civic affairs are often -quoted in the papers--attended a dinner at one of the big hotels. Many -eminent jurists and publicists were gathered together to do honor to -one of their number. A little bar, with a man in a neat white jacket in -charge, had been set up in a room not too remote from the dining-room; -and thither the Great Men repaired to refresh themselves after the -arduous duty of imposing fines and prison sentences on ruffians who -dispensed alcohol through the city to those who, like the Great Men, -could pay for it. But--“Judge not, lest ye be jugged.” - -And the Young-Old Philosopher told me that once he stood in the private -office of a well-known lawyer when the telephone bell rang. He could -not help hearing the conversation, which ran somewhat like this: - -“Yes? That you, Pete?... A dozen cases of the same--_you_ know. -Tonight, if possible. Try to get it there. Same price, of course.... -Without fail; and I have a friend who wants to see you. Here’s the -address: 000 Sherman. Call him up. He’s all right. Good-bye, Pete.” - -The Young-Old Philosopher has himself told me that he has no scruples -about disobeying the liquor law; yet somehow it gave him no little -pain to listen to this monologue, uttered by one whose life is given -to forensic pleadings, whose maledictions pour forth in cataracts of -eloquence when some shuddering nobody stands at the Bar of Justice. It -is as though a priest left the altar to abscond, immediately after a -high-minded sermon on the duties of Christians. - -In a far western State my friend saw the Governor take many highballs -during and after a banquet in a public room. He saw the Mayor of the -city do likewise; and he was conscious that a gentleman of the cloth -was slowly but surely growing unconscious as the dinner went on its -merry way. He had never before seen this happen. - -He was told by a fellow traveler, whose word he could not doubt, that -all but 25 per cent of the Legislature of another western State went -out and got beastly drunk, after they had voted for Prohibition. - -He has heard the jibes that foreigners, seeing what he has seen, fling -at us every day; and he has had no answer to give them. - -He has come upon boys trying to open the lockers in country clubs--not -little rowdies, but the sons of influential members--that they might -steal some of the old man’s whiskey. They have boasted of their -attempted and successful thefts. - -He has seen flappers disgustingly intoxicated. He has observed them -putting their hands up to the hip-pockets of their boy companions, to -see if a flask was there. Alas! it was. - -As limousines and taxis have flashed by him, he has caught glimpses -of youngsters who, five years ago, would not have been allowed to go -out without a chaperone, in such close proximity that for a moment he -thought it was but one strange enigmatic form in the car. - -He has seen college boys in groups of three and four disappear into -a small compartment on a train--and emerge ten minutes later with -downcast eyes and sheepish grins, flushed with liquor; and he has seen -the same boys repeat the proceeding ten or a dozen times on a journey -lasting but a couple of hours. - -He has seen a woman, injured in the streets of one of our big cities, -lying almost unconscious. A hotel was close by, and a doctor in the -crowd suggested that someone rush to get some brandy. The man who -volunteered to go came back without any--none was available, nor could -the proprietor be induced to send any out, even if he had had it. He -was suspicious of a stranger, making such a request--he was suspicious -of everybody. Police in civilian clothes--oh, they were all too common -these days, that he knew; and no one was going to catch _him_, even -though a wounded woman lay prone and groaning at his door. - -He has heard the social service worker in a New York hospital say -that, while conditions had slightly improved during the first few -months of Prohibition, they were now worse than ever. In the old -days, a workingman spent, say, $2.50 on grog out of his weekly wages, -and was content to let it go at that; now he spends ten and twelve -dollars--he’ll get his liquor at any cost; and the wives and families -of such men are in despair. With the passing of time, the people have -learned how to get drinks, and how to make them, and they are becoming -more expert every day. But they drink poison--anything they can lay -their hands upon--and become all but raving maniacs for a while. - -He has seen form letters from bootleggers in New York, giving price -lists, just as though there were no law forbidding such transactions. -Deliveries were promised within the city, at rates commensurately low. -It was even stated that “prices were going down,” and that the best gin -could be obtained, as well as other materials of alcoholic content. -A printed address was given, and the mails were boldly used for this -questionable business. - -He has known friends who had been on the water wagon for years to take -to home-brewing as a natural course. Their excuse was that they could -not afford the prices asked by professional bootleggers; and they -were certain that they could not possibly give a dinner party now--of -all times--without offering some stimulant to their guests. In the -old days they would have ventured to do so. Since Prohibition people -expected--and usually received--plenty of wet refreshment. They did not -care to be segregated from their acquaintances; they did not relish -the idea of having their invitations refused. So they gladly became -law-breakers, and swiftly acquired skill in the preparation of all -sorts of wines, gin and beer. - -He has seen, in a Southern city, the wife of a leading judge serving -a punch made of apple juice and peach juice--oh, a very heady punch -indeed!--to State officials, who had no qualms about accepting it, -though they were aware that the law was being broken. And he saw young -men made quite tight on this same punch. - -He has observed people entering a restaurant in New York with packages -which obviously contained bottles. These, under the eye of a policeman -in uniform, were taken from them by the employees of the hotel. One, -a bottle of champagne, was poured into a great pitcher--the customers -were graciously permitted to watch the process in a private room--and -then served openly, again under the officer’s eye and nose, in the main -dining room. So twisted has become our legal logic, that it seems it -is one thing to drink from a bottle and quite another to drink from a -pitcher. A nation of sophists, as well as hypocrites. - -He has seen motors searched on public highways, without a warrant; and -he has known innocent occupants of the car to be told that “they could -go on--the police had nothing on them.” - -He entered a small police station in California with a friend who had -lost a valuable cigarette case--a friend of distinction. The officers -instantly recognized him, opened a desk, exposing dozens of quarts of -whiskey, and offered both the Young-Old Philosopher and his friend -a drink. These officers were quite drunk. They laughingly told the -complainant that they had just “pinched” a roadhouse, and were going -to sell to another roadhouse the stock which they did not consume--and -“pinch” the second man in due season, taking the pre-arranged graft -which would come out of his profit. - -He remembers the case in the State of New York--no doubt others have -forgotten it, as they forget much that they should remember--of an -innocent farmer driving his motor through the countryside one day at -dusk. He was ordered to stop by an officer who suddenly appeared on -the road, and when he refused to do so he was instantly shot. Senator -Wadsworth aired this frightful incident in the Senate, and the chief -Prohibition enforcement officer of the State announced that it was the -duty of automobilists to halt when they were ordered to do so, or they -might suffer a like fate. - -He has seen in many a woman’s club, bottles of liquor smuggled in, -cocktails made by the employees and served in private rooms. Then, -because it was strictly against the rules to drink openly, like cats -who had just stolen the cream, the ladies and their men guests walked -guiltily but airily into the dining room, imagining that there were no -evidences of their wrong-doing. The neat little leather or silver cases -which contained the forbidden alcohol were automatically returned to -their owners, who in turn handed them to their waiting chauffeurs--the -latter, of course, were omitted from the happy function--and were taken -home to be replenished at the next gathering. - -He has known an old lady, very ill, who craved, as she had never craved -anything, a single glass of champagne; but even her druggist could not -get it for her, at any price, on a doctor’s prescription. And she was -denied the exhilaration of this simple luxury, in order, so my friend -supposes, that some worthless drunkard who might better be under the -sod, should be saved. - -Indeed, he has known many an invalid who might have gone to his grave a -bit happier for some momentary stimulant which stupid reformers saw fit -to withhold. - -He was told by the proprietor of several supper places in one of our -great cities--and he cannot doubt his word, since he has known him for -a long, long time--that one of the federal Prohibition officers who -live on graft receives not less than five dollars for every case of -wine which passes the Customs. Very swiftly this official is growing -unbelievably rich; he does not wish, naturally, to see a return to -what might now be considered the old, calm days. Not long ago, this -grafter decided that it was about time to make a spectacular “raid” -and close up, for a while, the cabarets along the route where he -acted as supreme czar. For Washington might take his long inaction -as neglect of duty. Therefore he set a night when he visited various -restaurants in a limousine, warning the proprietors that they must shut -down. But he added, in the ear of each, “Don’t worry! this is only a -bluff--a spectacular gesture. You’ll all be free to sell stuff in a -little while.” He meant that phrase, “a little while,” for, of course, -his graft ceased during the interval of grayness. But the federal -government, getting his report, seemed pleased at his attention to -his duties, and all was serene for him. Champagne was purchased soon -afterwards in all these cabarets, and the jazz struck up a livelier -tune, and everybody was happy. - -He has read with astonishment that the student-governing body in -several of our colleges has found it necessary to take formal action -for the suppression of intoxication among under-graduates. Was this -ever done in “the good old days”? Think of it! Your boy, whom the -Volstead Act was to protect from the scandal of drunkenness, must have -what is comparable to the Mullan-Gage Act and the Hobert Act pressed -upon him in his college, so that he may be made to see the dangers that -lurk in alcohol. The great and holy Government cannot control him; a -minor form of tyranny and suppression must come into existence to aid -the already heavy machinery of the law to run smoothly. - -He has known of an exalted judge who purchased liquor from a police -officer, had it delivered at his door in a patrol wagon; and that wagon -was guarded by a man in uniform. - -He has known another minion of the law who admitted that, though he had -not violated the Volstead Act, for conscientious reasons, had never so -much as had a case of bought-and-paid-for whiskey or beer carted to his -door, he had somehow “found” a bottle or two in his home, left there by -sympathetic friends, he supposed; yet he did not inquire. “Conscience -doth make cowards of us all,” as _Hamlet_ said; but how one absolves -himself is a matter of private concern. Rationalism could go no further -than this minion’s processes of reasoning. Strange indeed are the -ways of powerful public officials, obeying one law to the letter, and -letting their ethics slip and slide when it comes to some other law -which they do not really wish to keep, and do not really wish to break. - -He has heard a dapper young society man in Massachusetts glibly state -that the best bootlegger in his town is a federal Prohibition officer, -who can “get him anything he wants from beer to whiskey and liqueurs.” -And the dapper young man thought this was “perfectly all right, and -rather good to know in these arid days.” Moreover, one was perfectly -certain that what one purchased from this scoundrel was the real -thing--no chance of wood-alcohol blindness, or anything of that sort. - -You will notice that what the Young-Old Philosopher has seen is -not confined to any one section of the country. He has traveled -considerably to make his observations. - -This is the America of today, as the Young-Old Philosopher sees it. He -says he is not so worried about the present generation as about the -generation that may come after it. Surely the potential mothers and -fathers of children a decade hence are not fit to take upon themselves -the responsibilities and burdens of parenthood. What kind of offspring -will they produce? So long as we are looking ahead, providing for -the welfare of the race to be, let us wisely look far enough ahead so -that our eugenics may mean something. It is folly to pretend to be -altruistic, to dip into the immediate future, at the expense of the -present. We will produce a decadent race if we are not careful. - -Do you like this America of today? The Young-Old Philosopher says -frankly that he does not. - -Neither do I. And neither do you--if you are a good American. - -And what about the America of tomorrow? - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -OTHER REFORMS - - -When books of the quality of “Jurgen” can be suppressed--happily this -romance of James Branch Cabell has been restored to the libraries -and book-stalls of the land--we are facing a dangerous precedent. -“Casanova’s Homecoming” was likewise censored. But the Vice Society -might be about better business. I could name a dozen volumes which they -have stupidly imagined should be withdrawn from circulation, but it -would be merely an idle repetition. The principle remains the same. - -Publishers and authors have become frightened. If the realm of art is -to be invaded by reformers who fail to distinguish between beauty and -filth, it is self-evident that there will be precious little art in -America in the next hundred years. The pictures that we hang upon our -walls may be torn down next, and the passion for dreariness may cause -the entire United States to become one sad Sahara of utilitarianism, -with no gleam of loveliness. The mania for standardizing us is growing; -it is strange that the authorities do not pounce upon a play like -“R. U. R.,” lest it put false notions into the minds of the simple -people. There is a tremendous lesson in that drama. Crush us too -much, make too many automatons, and one day the lifeless, bloodless, -unimaginative host may rise in sudden might and defeat the very purpose -of their masters. - -The easy triumph of Prohibition gives the reformer little to do--save -to seek other avenues of sadistic expression. If we are to be dictated -to as to which books we shall read, we will find a way to discover -smut--and nothing but smut--just as we have found synthetic gin. And -if the lifting of an elbow--a necessary gesture when one takes an -old-fashioned drink--got on a Puritan’s nerves, I cannot think that the -smoke curling from your cigarette and mine gives him anything but pain -and genuine anguish of mind. Tobacco companies are worried, and some -of them have been spending vast sums to offset the crusade against the -weed. Meanwhile, the easy-going American says, “Well, of course, they -did put Prohibition over on us, but--oh, they would not dare rob us of -our cheroots. We simply wouldn’t stand for _that_.” - -But I am afraid that we are as spineless as ever. When meetings -are organized to protest against the reformers, they are often ill -attended. A dash of rain dampens the ardor of the lackadaisical citizen -who prefers his own fireside to speeches that hit hard at this and that -false cause. The trouble is that the fanatics have not made things -quite hard enough for us. If there were a real lack of liquor; if -complete drouth settled down over the land, we might rise in a great -body and speak what we inwardly feel. But most of us are too lazy to -fight back. Meanwhile, the organized minority gird on their armor, -devising ways and means to torture us further. And in slippered comfort -we sip our home brew or our dearly bought bootleg toddies, and decide -that the effort required to get together is too great. We will let -things drift. There must come a change; and after all, so long as -Prohibition hasn’t really succeeded, what’s the use of worrying? - -The reformer knows this characteristic lethargy of the American people, -and he smiles, assembles his cohorts, calls us, in the vernacular of -the day, “easy marks,” and proceeds with his reforming. - -The return of Blue Laws is not improbable. A few towns have already -adopted them, and in these movies are not tolerated on the Sabbath, -newspapers are not allowed to be sold, even the trolley cars are -stopped. A man may be arrested for painting his roof on Sunday; and -as for a game of baseball on that day--it is unthinkable in many a -community. One may not walk--except to church. The Puritan spirit is -not dead. It lives in many a hamlet, dreary enough under the best -conditions. The American people have come to a point where it is a -matter of living or existing. - -For my own part, I am perfectly willing for the _Babbitts_ of this -country to do as they please; all I ask is that they let me alone -as I certainly shall let them alone. I have said elsewhere that I -firmly believe in local option. That is because, perhaps, I think -that contrast is the greatest thing in art and in life. I have never -cared for regions of perpetual sunshine, just as I have never cared -for localities where it rains, seemingly, forever. Give me a little of -each. The Gopher Prairieite must feel an impulse to see a metropolis -now and then; just as we who live in tremendous cities feel the urge -every so often to seek the stillness of the woods. - -It so happens that a few people--nay, a great many--prefer to hive in -cities, because there they find a certain amount of culture. They like -the opera, and good plays, well acted--the sparkle which city life -gives to them. They like dining out in restaurants, and they happen to -care for the jeweled beauty of, say, Fifth Avenue or Michigan Avenue on -a winter evening. The monotony of the life of a Kansas farmer does not -appeal to them. They can scarcely understand that passion for seclusion -which he craves. But they find no fault with his mode of living. They -even look with a sort of amused tolerance upon those curious beings -who sneer at women who smoke cigarettes. They know perfectly well -that there are many virtuous women who smoke cigarettes, and it is -difficult to understand why everyone cannot be possessed of the same -knowledge. But they do not seek to impose their beliefs upon others. -They do no proselytizing. They are not anxious to convert people to a -way of thinking and reasoning that seems to them simple and natural. -They understand that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison; -but they do resent being told that what they consume as meat should be -labeled poison--by someone who has never tasted it. - -The Eighteenth Amendment tells us, practically, that it is wrong to -drink. You and I know that it is not wrong to drink. But we do know -full well, without being told, that it is very wrong to get drunk. - -In Kansas, the people are told that it is wrong to smoke; whereas -anyone at all knows that it is in no wise wrong to smoke; but it is -exceedingly wrong to over-smoke until one’s nerves become shattered and -one’s hands tremble. - -The reformer, seeing only the ill effects upon those who overdo -anything, and refusing to note the normal lives of those of us who -never overdo anything, cannot differentiate. Hence the hullabaloo, the -trouble, the mess the world is in today. - -Reformers, you see, lack discrimination. One might as well deplore -Niagara Falls because a few fools plunge into its roaring torrents; -cease to enjoy its beauty because suicides have taken advantage of -its power and height to hurl themselves into eternity. One might as -well say that no more skyscrapers are to be built, simply because now -and then a man leaps from the top of one, and makes a ghastly mess of -himself on the pavement below. - -Robert Louis Stevenson used to say that the little superfluities of -life were what made it lovely--yes, and bearable. Living does not -consist in a mere drab drudgery from day to day, proving oneself -“efficient,” turning out, in orderly fashion, so many mechanical -instruments, with no release from humdrum. Life must contain zest and -ardor and variety. That zest and ardor and variety we human beings -ourselves give or bring to it. There must be a garnishing of the -dish of existence once in a while. We cannot have our days served up -monotonously on a dull platter, see them flung upon the banquet table -without a surrounding decoration of loveliness. Ugliness must be -hidden; and sane fun must play its part in the scheme of things. - -Now it is obvious that drunkenness is a form of bestial ugliness, and -should never be encouraged. Even we who are not professional reformers -recognize that. But the right kind of mild drinking--the drinking of -wines, which helps digestion by giving the proper spur to the gastric -juices--is a salutary habit, and does no one any harm. In France I -have never seen anyone intoxicated--except a visiting American; and I -fear, with Prohibition, that more than ever will the cafés and streets -of Paris be littered with shameful and shameless fellow countrymen -of mine. The French learn from childhood how to drink; and a picture -in a recent Parisian journal showed a group of three generations of -wine-growers chosen at hazard from among many others. I never looked -upon sturdier representatives of what some of our forlorn know-nothings -would doubtless call a “decadent” people. - -Alcoholism is practically unknown among the Latin races. To go over -the border into a sodden state of imbecility is well-nigh unthinkable -to them. France got rid of absinthe when she realized the danger of -that fiery liquid. She did not have to close up and seal and nail down -every café in every city and hamlet just because a handful of ribald -artists thought it smart to sit all afternoon and dream dreams of pink -elephants. And, the instant absinthe became unlawful, the French obeyed -the edict, accepted the truth that a menace had been removed, and went -on consuming an occasional aperitif and light wines--never cocktails -and highballs. - -But the American people, through their reformers, always have to go to -extremes. We could not see the wisdom of cutting out or controlling -hard drinking. We had to slam every door of every saloon; and, -not content with that, we had to “mop up” the entire country--or -ridiculously try to do so--until there should be no drop of beer, even, -on anybody’s premises. Then, the moment we had done that, we forthwith -craved a little liquor--because we couldn’t get it. Humanly enough, -we were sorry that we had been so rash. True, we had rid ourselves of -one of the most abhorrent evidences of our so-called civilization--the -saloon with the swinging-door; but in doing so we had destroyed, or -attempted to destroy, the harmless pleasure of men and women who had -never entered a saloon. We punished everybody, in order to punish a few. - -This was not the right process. The folly of our reformers is working -incalculable harm to the entire country. And the end is not yet. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -IS EUROPE GOING DRY? - - -If William E., otherwise known as “Pussyfoot,” Johnson has his way, -Europe, too, will know the great drouth. It is something to have lost -one’s eye in a cause, and still to retain one’s nerve and enthusiasm. - -There is no doubt that the liquor interests in Great Britain have -become frightened, just as the tobacco interests have become alarmed -here; and there are rumors of large sums being spent to contravert the -propaganda of the temperance advocates in England. Lady Astor has come -out strong for Prohibition. - -The London “pub” is a notoriously shocking place. In the meanest -sections of the city, I have witnessed scenes which made one realize -that Dickens did not exaggerate when he drew a character like _Bill -Sykes_. I have seen thinly clad, anemic children waiting on the steps -of a public house for not only their fathers, but their mothers, to -emerge. And when they finally did so, they were so drunk that they -could scarcely toddle to their wretched homes. The British could find a -way to shut up these disreputable resorts without interfering with the -liberty of that portion of the population which knows how to drink in -moderation. - -During the war, and long after it, the hours were rigidly regulated -with respect to bars. One could not obtain a drink until noon; then -the bars were tightly closed again at 3:30 P.M., and not reopened -until 6 o’clock, closing again at 9. There was little disorder, less -drunkenness than ever before in the history of the country; and, with -true British loyalty, everyone obeyed the law. No one even thought of -disobeying it. That is a way they have over there. I don’t suppose one -could have tempted an inn-keeper to sell one glass of ale, though he -offered him a thousand pounds. I remember the shock of a bar-maid in a -tiny town in the south of England when I, a visitor, not knowing the -regulations, asked for a beaker of beer. “Why, we’re closed, sir, until -suppertime,” she informed me; and turned away, not expecting--and not -getting--any argument. - -Had we respected our laws we would not have had Prohibition today. - -In Sweden, in the summer of 1922, a referendum was taken on the -all-important question of Prohibition; and the wets won. The returns -were as follows: - - Against 930,655 - For 901,053 - -As in America, certain localities were decidedly in favor of complete -Prohibition; but in the large cities one found the desire for what -might be termed “dampness.” The female vote was preponderately -anti-Prohibition. - -A sensible system has been evolved in Sweden. They regulate the liquor -traffic under what is known as the Bratt system. Only one organization -in the country is permitted to dispense alcoholic beverages. This is -known as the Wine and Spirits Central, and, as in the Province of -Quebec, tickets are issued to citizens, and it is almost impossible to -acquire more than one’s allotted quota. There is a widespread desire -for a continued restriction of alcohol, but naturally quiet forces -are at work all the time to bring about complete Prohibition. Certain -reformers are attempting, by means of local option, gradually to make -the whole of Sweden as dry as a desert; but Dr. Bratt is equally firm -for the present system, which he contends--and figures would seem to -confirm his contention--that it is better for the people than anything -which could be devised. He has pointed out that in 1913, before liquor -restriction, drunkenness was amazingly common. In 1921, drunkenness -decreased 27 per cent. Arrests for drunkenness have gone down 49 per -cent under his system. There is little doubt that government control in -Sweden, as elsewhere, has worked remarkably well. - -Russia went dry. Now the Soviet government has decided that Prohibition -is a complete failure, resulting in the secret manufacture, as in the -United States, of much vile hootch. There will be a return to good -vodka, and the proceeds coming from the sale of it will be used to -educate the people. Doesn’t this sound sensible? - -It is unthinkable that Europe will ever be a Sahara; yet a few years -ago it was likewise unthinkable that our own country would come to -the arid state it now pretends to know. Anything is possible, and -most things are probable in these days of delirium and stress. But a -wineless France or a beerless Germany does seem rather grotesque. I -have been told that many French wine merchants, certain that America’s -going dry is but a phase that will pass, are keeping vast stores of -champagne in readiness to ship to us as soon as our laws are rescinded. -They simply cannot understand our Eighteenth Amendment; yet perhaps -they will have written into their own statutes some equally drastic -article in the not very distant future. - -That is how the Prohibitionists feel, at any rate. “Pussyfoot” -Johnson at this writing is working hard in Australia to bring about -this consummation. France knows already the Ligue Nationale Contre -L’Alcoolisme, with offices in Paris; Switzerland has the Ligue Suise -des Femmes Abstinentes; and both countries are being well peppered with -depressing posters, showing the evil effects of booze. Such works of -art take the place of old songs like “Father, Dear Father, Come Home -with Me Now,” and plays like “Ten Nights in a Barroom.” They have -their definite function, they will prove a power among the lower and -middle classes, scorned though they may be by the manufacturers and -dispensers of liquor. - -But as yet the economic questions involved tease and torment the -thrifty Latin. He is wise enough to see that his country will suffer -in another way if wine and other drinks are totally abolished; and, as -always, he looks to America for some solution of his problem. - -The question therefore arises, Are the drys in the United States strong -enough financially to aid Europe in her campaign against liquor? That -the movement has started there in deadly earnest cannot be denied -by anyone who has his eye on the situation. But it will require -capital to keep it going, and just now all the European countries are -notoriously poor. Is the cause of temperance deep-rooted enough to -grow and flourish, despite the handicap of lack of funds? There may -be multi-millionaires in the United States who will finance campaigns -abroad, just as it has been rumored repeatedly with what regularity -certain rich advocates of Prohibition have contributed to the American -cause. In this event, the European movement would gain a tremendous -impetus; and what the result will be cannot, of course, be foretold. - -The thing happened to us. It is ridiculous to prophesy that it cannot -happen to Europe. The pendulum having swung all the way for us would -seem to indicate that it may swing all, or part of the way, for -Britishers and Latins alike. - -It will be interesting to watch and wait. Then we shall learn whether -benevolent autocracies are better than autocratic democracies; whether -crowns and ermine are more to be desired than top-hats and frock-coats. - -Europe dry? Do not smile. This is an age of unexpected events, a period -of transition, the like of which has not been known before. - -But would Europeans obey laws that infringed upon their personal -liberty? There were those who held that there would never be rebellion -and riots in Germany, since the Germans were too docile a people to -rise up against their government. Yet we know what the Germans did, and -where the Kaiser is today. - -The spectacle of America’s going bone dry is not a heartening one. -Ambassadors from other lands have seen our contempt for the law; and -it is doubtful if any of them would recommend to their countries a -counterfeiting of our methods and manners. We have come to little -else than disruption and heart-breaking failure in this matter of -Prohibition. Imitation of our ways would amount almost to madness. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? - - -One finds it hard to believe that a law is just and right and proper -which so many splendid minds consider otherwise. There have been -numerous societies formed to combat the Volstead Act, and in their long -lists of members one may read the names of honorable citizens who feel -impelled to express their views. Hundreds of influential newspapers -stand solidly against the Eighteenth Amendment. The fight has not -been taken up in one section of the country only. Mass meetings have -been held in far separated localities, and protests have been voiced -everywhere. - -In the last election--that in November, 1922--the voice of the people -was heard in several States. Prohibition was an issue, and the victory -was almost overwhelmingly for the wets. Wisconsin, for instance, -elected seven candidates who had declared themselves for a modification -of the Volstead Act. Senator Reed, of Missouri, an avowed foe of -Prohibition, and Governor Edwards, of New Jersey, an even more ardent -“wet,” won over their opponents, having made their views definitely -known. Edwards now goes to the Senate. - -[Illustration: The Prohibitionists fail to realize that Prohibition, -for them, is in itself a debauch, a kind of wild orgy, a sadistic -spree. To strap us all to the water-wagon, snap the whip and keep us -there for life seems to be their idea of a good time.] - -The citizens of Massachusetts defeated a bill for additional State -machinery to make the Volstead Act more effective; and in Illinois -there proved to be a feeling of three-to-one in favor of light wines -and beer. The rural districts of Ohio caused the Prohibitionists to -gain a victory in that State; but there is little doubt that a change -is sweeping through the country. In New York State the Democratic -candidate for Governor ran on a light-wine-and-beer platform, against -a Republican candidate who had signed the wretched Mullan-Gage Act. -The former won by a vast majority. The people were well aware that -the federal laws would not be changed simply because the Empire State -wished a return to moderate drinking; but thousands of Republicans -voted for the avowedly “wet” candidate as a matter of principle. They -felt that at least a splendid gesture had been made, and that those -who looked on from other parts of the country, sensing the will of the -people of New York, might come to realize that hereafter the candidate -for office who announces his stand on the topic which is forever being -discussed has the better chance of victory. The time for equivocation -has gone by. The people want to know how politicians feel about -Prohibition; and the defeat of Mr. Volstead himself for re-election was -a significant circumstance. - -The Anti-Prohibitionists now know that they will have to organize and -fight--and fight hard. It requires no tremendous amount of vision -to see that, if both the big parties at present in power refuse to -consider a change in the interpretation of the Volstead Act, a third -party will arise, with Prohibition as the foremost issue before the -people. - -President Harding has said that whether the country is to remain wet -or dry will be a political issue for years to come. Statesmen and -politicians alike are beginning to see and admit a change in the -feeling of the people on the all-important subject of Prohibition. -It is nonsense to say that a matter which is discussed everywhere -at all times is a dead issue. Wherever men--and women--congregate; -around every dinner-table; in every club; at every evening party, the -topic invariably comes up. Is no significance to be attached to this -circumstance? And not long ago the English and French were complaining -about American visitors, since they found it rather boresome to listen, -day in and day out, to nothing but their talk on the engrossing -subject. We eat, sleep and (I was going to say drink) Prohibition. - -We have made a ghastly mistake. The unforeseen evils that have come -in the wake of Prohibition far outweigh the good. We have never had -anything but Poor Man’s Prohibition; and if it is true that those who -feel the pinch of poverty have derived benefit from the closing of the -saloon--as indeed they have--it is equally true that the moderately -well-to-do have had their expenses increased. Used to drinking all -their lives, they were not to be whipped into obeying a law with which -they had no sympathy. They intended, humanly enough, to continue to -get their grog--at any price. And they have done so, even though they -afterward had a rendezvous with debt. - -The poor do not get their liquor, simply because they cannot afford it. -I have seen clerks buying beer at seventy-five cents a bottle, which -must have made quite a hole in their pay-envelopes. The honest laboring -man could scarcely afford that extravagance; and so he goes beerless -to bed, not because he wishes to, but because he has to. And you and -I, whenever we desire liquid refreshment, know where we can obtain -it. If an investigation were made of the savings of the great middle -class during the past three years, I doubt if a good showing would be -discovered. And is it not of some importance that this great group, who -are the mainstay of the Republic, should be laying aside something for -the future? - -The Prohibitionists will say that they have no sympathy with anyone who -willfully breaks the law. But you cannot argue with people who count it -no sin to disregard a statute. With clear consciences a vast body of -people take not the slightest heed of the Eighteenth Amendment. They -are simply bent upon getting what they wish, despite the Volstead Act, -and nothing will convince them that they are not right. A law is of -absolutely no value unless it meets with response from those whom it -seeks to improve. After a long trial, anyone but a blind person must -see that our Prohibition laws are violently opposed by millions of -otherwise good citizens. The situation, instead of becoming better, as -the Anti-Saloon League has all along predicted, has become steadily and -obviously worse. There are danger signals confronting us. But there is -a way out of our mess. That way lies through compromise. - -The Prohibitionists compromised, as of course they are well aware, -when they did not make it against the law to drink in private homes. -As I have said, they did not dare go quite that far. Had they done so, -serious consequences would have followed. They likewise compromised -when they gave us one-half of one per cent of alcohol in our beer. Why -even that? To make it a little more distasteful, perhaps. - -The fact is that the American people are tired of Constitutional -Amendments. I have heard sound-thinking men say that when our own -private constitutions need an amendment, we can be depended upon to add -one. We are not fools--in spite of the reformers. We still believe that -there is something in the old judgment of the survival of the fittest. -The worthy emerge; the unworthy remain where they belong, or sink to -the depths. - -It is all very well to say that those who become blind through the -drinking of wood-alcohol deserve their wretched fate; that if one takes -such chances he deserves to lose his eyesight, if not his life. For -myself, I cannot look at the matter quite so coldly. I have the deepest -sympathy for those who, in good faith, drink something which turns out -to be something else. They have simply humanly slipped; and but for -this one lapse from grace they may be most estimable citizens. I think -it is far more terrible that a decent manufacturer should go blind -because an unreasonable and unenforceable law is on our books than -that a million worthless imbeciles should lie in the gutter, drunk. -I have known only a few “reformed” drunkards who ever amounted to a -continental in after years; they were hardly worth saving. It is not -very pleasant to think of an able citizen stricken at the height of his -career; and his loss to the community is much more important than the -so-called salvation of a dozen roustabouts. - -During the Christmas holidays of 1921, in and around New York City -alone, there were twenty-six persons made blind, or killed outright, -through wood-alcohol poisoning. And during another Christmas season -wood-alcohol caused fifty-nine deaths in Massachusetts alone. Somehow -I do not like to contemplate such catastrophes. But the professional -reformers may be made of sterner stuff than I. - -Let us have done with the folly of something so radically false as -Prohibition. In the old days, when a man got drunk, he broke the social -code; now, he breaks not only that, but the penal code as well, -thereby committing two offenses against society. But it is curious how -little he cares about the second offense. With an easy conscience he -deliberately goes about it--in fact, rather rejoices that he has proved -himself such a devil. - -Drink, as no one will deny, is an inherently evil thing--a terrible -force. But so is electricity a terrible force. Yet, rightly used, both -are the reverse of evil. - -But just as the Prohibitionists will not recognize the good to be found -in alcohol, they refuse to admit the evils resulting from the present -drastic laws. They fail to realize that Prohibition, for them, is in -itself a debauch, a kind of wild orgy, a sadistic spree. To strap us -all to the water-wagon, snap the whip and keep us there for life, seems -to be their idea of a good time. - -But it is hardly ours. We have begun to think that this strange and -perverted conception of a Bacchanalian orgy has lasted quite long -enough. And when the tide turns, the Prohibitionists may know something -of the horrors of a hangover, and wonder if they are on the verge of a -nervous breakdown. “The morning after” some approaching election may -not be a pleasant one for them. - -But why not compromise before the inevitable day arrives? Rid of the -saloon, the Prohibition triumph is complete enough. Local option will -continue; and if the little places elect to go dry, of course they may -do so; but as for the great cities, especially the metropolis, looking -at the skull of its oldtime happiness one can but say, with _Hamlet_, -“Alas! poor New Yorick!” - -Senator Frelinghuysen of New Jersey said not long ago that Prohibition -was one of the most serious problems with which the American people -have to deal. “In the country districts the people are in favor of -upholding the Volstead law,” he made it clear. “The church people also -are against any modification of the dry law. But when it comes to big -industrial centers and to the working classes, to say nothing about the -foreign-born population, they are all clamoring for a change in the law -to permit the sale of light wines and beer.” - -If we would enact laws tomorrow giving the various States the right to -control the liquor traffic within themselves, corruption would cease, -and a sense of peace and happiness would descend upon the country. -The constant agitations of this hour cannot go on. There is a nervous -tension in the air; and so long as the Volstead Act remains, there will -be disturbances comparable to the rumblings of earthquakes. - -Those of us who love America yearn for a return to truth and sanity. -The present conditions are intolerable. Each political party is -striving to evade this big issue. Each claims that neither the -Democrats nor the Republicans gave the people Prohibition; yet the -people are looking to one or the other party to take a stand on the -question. The last elections proved that. - -Not forever can there be a process of evasion. A third political party -will come out boldly and strong with a wet plank, and as soon as the -politicians sense the will of the people there will be an immediate -change. But how long will it take them to sense that will? - -Recently, a number of doctors brought suit to test the -constitutionality of the Volstead Act as it affects the limitation -on liquor which they may prescribe. Not all physicians oppose -Prohibition--indeed, many have stated that whiskey is not essential in -the practice of medicine; others hold a divergent view. But no one can -deny that things have come to a strange pass when Congress, and not our -doctors, treats patients ill with pneumonia and other diseases. Surely -an issue as clouded as this should be cleared up. - -Light wines and beer will return--there is little doubt of that; but -many people hold that we should adopt the Swedish and Canadian methods -of Government Control. We have seen that, with the federal authorities -managing the liquor traffic, a decent business is done, bootlegging is -practically stopped, and revenue pours into the governmental coffers. -Contentment takes the place of discontent, and those who drink pay the -price--which they are more than willing to do. It is so obvious that -this is the right method to pursue that it seems strange there should -be any argument, that there should be any line-up of opposition. - -Yet the Prohibitionists, in the light of their failure in the United -States, continue to make prophecies of a “bone dry” world in the years -to be. With amazing clairvoyance a member of the World’s Women’s -Christian Temperance Union has predicted that in 1924. Uruguay will -go dry, and likewise Argentine; Austria and Denmark in 1925; Chili in -1927; Great Britain in 1928; Germany in 1929; France in 1933; Japan in -1936; Italy in 1938; Spain and China in 1939; and Cuba in 1940. - -Foreigners have frequently been heard to say that they cannot -understand why Americans have not protested with a louder voice against -the legislation which concerns Prohibition. They forget--or they do not -realize--that the United States is a vast melting-pot, and that there -are, alas! too few Americans left to make much of an impression. The -links that draw together the individual nations of European countries -are lacking in our own land. We have absorbed every race on earth; and -these aliens do not know how to band together. They are not really part -of us, and they are naturally confused at our methods of government. -Many of them are strangers in a strange land, and perhaps they do not -feel justified in protesting, even though they are citizens now, saying -to themselves that if the Americans tolerate such rigid reforms, who -are they to utter words of rebellion? - -Is it not self-evident that Prohibition has miserably failed when the -President finds it necessary to call a solemn conclave of Governors -to see what can be done, after three years, to force the people to -obey the law in the various States? The Federal authorities, by that -gesture, admit their inability to cope with the situation, which has -now become intolerable. Scandal after scandal is being unearthed in -sanctimonious Washington, the seat of the Government, and the home of -Prohibition. It is being revealed that many Congressmen and Senators -preach one thing and practise another. Is it not high time that -their dishonesty is shown up? They should be made as ridiculous as -possible. They should be made to see that they are the worst Americans -in existence, pretending to be virtuous, invoking the law for their -constituents, and bootlegging in secret. For at least the rest of -the people who conscientiously break the law, are not on record as -approving it. - -No one is sacrosanct on this flaming issue. Government buildings are -said to contain plenty of liquid refreshment for the parched throats of -these eloquent advocates of a “dry” country. So long and loudly have -they proclaimed their insincere doctrine that at the end of a forensic -day they doubtless require a long, cool drink. Let them be seen in all -their inglorious hypocrisy. Let the whole land laugh at them; for it is -only through laughter that they can be reached and hurt. A law that is -winked at by those who framed it is not worth the cost required to set -it up in type. - -But of course nothing will be done. No names will be named. The -same hypocrisy will be practised here. When someone higher up is to -be uncovered, the loudly proclaimed “investigation” will come to a -sudden end. There are too many criminals in exalted places. We are -the laughing-stock of the world as it is; but if the whole truth were -known!... - -Economically, the people will have to have it driven home to them that -Prohibition is a mistake. We are forever talking about the tariff; -yet the most that our tariff can bring in is about $350,000,000 a -year gross. The year 1914 was the banner year in the United States -in producing beer. There were 66,000,000 barrels sold. If we had not -had Prohibition thrust upon us, the normal growth would have been -a production of about 100,000,000 barrels. The Government always -collected revenue at the source--there was no bookkeeping, merely a -stamping, a labeling of each barrel, and that was all there was to it. -Think of the tax upon this one product alone which we are losing! - -In 1918 Canada imposed a tax of 15c on a gallon of beer. In 1922 it -was 42½c a gallon. There are thirty gallons in a barrel, which means -$13.60 a barrel now, or more than two and a half times as much as -before. Multiply 100,000,000 barrels by $13.60, and you arrive at -$1,360,000,000 revenue collected at the source, with no obstructions. -This is four times as much as our tariff bill would give to the -country. Moreover, if beer were restored, innumerable collateral -businesses would be given new life. The bottling industry, corking, -glassware--all these would be resuscitated, everyone would be happy, -and personal taxes would be immeasurably lessened. As things now are, -we are burdened with surtaxes, etc., which impoverish all kinds of -industries and make for intense ill-feeling. - -Crying out for no change in our laws, it is the Prohibitionists -themselves who have altered our statutes. Can they not be changed again? - -It may be that the Eighteenth Amendment will never be annulled. There -are those, however, who are hopeful even of that. But Congress is -privileged to define what constitutes an intoxicating beverage; and the -Volstead Act is not static. The people will elect men to represent them -at Washington who will liberally interpret the Eighteenth Amendment. -Therein lies the remedy for much of our discontent. - -Prohibition rose, like a great wave; it is falling back now. The tide -comes in, but it goes out again. And one can begin to hear the surge of -a mighty people. They will speak at the polls, in every election; for -Prohibition, until it is modified, will never be taken out of national -politics. - -A sane compromise would clear up the situation almost overnight. And -when the people speak, the Government must heed their voice. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Simple typographical errors were corrected. - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they -were not changed. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by -Charles Hanson Towne - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RISE AND FALL OF PROHIBITION *** - -***** This file should be named 60617-0.txt or 60617-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/6/1/60617/ - -Produced by ellinora, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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