PROHIBITION COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 19782, 4 February 1928, Page 15

PROHIBITION COLUMN

[Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.]

ECONOMIC, MORAL, AND SOCIAL BENEFITS COME FROM PROHIBITION. FEWER NEW RECRUITS TO THE DRINKING CLASS. New recruits to the class of drinkers are rapidly diminishing under Prohibition. Data of the finger-print bureau, New York City Magistrate’s Court, show a steady and pronounced decrease in the number of single-time offenders for drunkenness, from 20 per 10,000 population for the year 10.14, to only 4 per 10,000 for the year 1925.—Fr0m official court records quoted by Irving Fisher in his book, ‘ Prohibition at Its Worst.’ I SAFETY FIRST. Many otherwise well-balanced advocates of personal liberty m persuading themselves that the Eighteenth Amendment ought to be repealed or nullified have apparently overlooked the folly of allowing any or all of our more than twenty million motor cars to be operated by potential drinkers. There is a large measure of truth, I an', sure, in the remark attributed to Henry Ford, that the era of the automobile is necessarily bringing to an end the era of intoxicating beverages. "That the manufacture and sale of intoxicants can be assumed to be a matter affecting only the person who consumes the stuff is one of the most amazing examples of rationalisation of which the human mind has ever shown itself capable.—Harold S. Bnttenheira, editor of the ‘ American City Magazine,’in an address before the National Safety Congress, Chicago, October, til:.

DRY BOATS POPULAR. Personally 1 would not approve of again restoring bars on United States ships even if authorised by law. Prohibition does not retard our bookings, and in many cases passengers with wemen and children prefer the American ships because there is no drinking at bars and there is no place on the ship that women and children cannot go.—President Dalton, of the Merchant Fleet Corporation, in an interview given the Associated Press in September, 192 7. VOICE OF 4,000,000 YOUTH. The International Society of Christian Endeavor held its convention in' Clevend, Ohio, in July. At least 25,000 young people participated in the sessions of the convention. A great demonstration in behalf, of Prohibition was made at the evening session when Senator Fess and Ira Landrith were the speakers. The convention adopted a resolution from which the following are excerpts:— “Resolved, that the thirty-first.con-vention of the International Christian Endeavor, representing 4,0U0,000 young people, with an annual growth in membership totalling tens of thousands, puts itself squarely and irrevocably on record as favoring the strict enforcement of all law, and especially the support and maintenance of the Constitution, including its Eighteenth Amendment.

“ V\ e announce our determination to see that, so far .as our votes and influence are concerned, the enforcement of the law shall he put in the hands of those who both personally and politically believe in it, and are conscientiously supporting it We call upon the great political parties for an unhesitating and clear-cut declaration of their principle npoi the matter of constitutional Prohibition, and for the nomination of such men as can bo, trusted to support the Constitution and its accompanying statutory legislation."

CHIEF SOURCE OK DEBAUCHERY GONE. With, the ousting ul' the American suloou nine-tenths of the drunkenness has disappeared. Of all welfare workers none were more closely in touch with this burning thirst than my faithful officers and people, and their uniforms aiid irrefutable testimony shows clearly that the chief source of former debauchery is gone.—Commander Evangeline Booth, of the Salvation Army, in an address in London in October, _in which she discussed the Prohibition question in America. LIKE ANOTHER WORLD. Here, around Hull House, we used to watch whisky and beer being left at saloons by the drayload. The ooverty and suffering from drink were appalling. There is such a difference now that it seems like another world. Our poor are moving away into better places. The whole .standard of life is rising for them. Drinking has decreased, and so lias our work of rehabilitating families wrecked through intemperance. Wq have hardly any more squalid homes and neglected families to deal with. The stuff folks get now makes them uglier, but its evils arc offset by the difficulties of getting it. 1 would not see the old system again for anything.—Jane Adams, founder and superintendent of Hull House, Chicago. OBVIOUS RESULTS. 1 have now lectured from New York to San Francisco since in nearly every State in the Union except in the south-west. Everywhere the splendid results of Prohibition are becoming more and more plain. _ This country will never go back on it.—Dr W. T. Grenfell, well-known missionary, of Labrador, in a letter in the Loudon ‘Spectator,’ March ’26, 1927. SURPRISED GERMAN VISITOR. HERE TO STUDY MANUFACTURE METHODS, GERMAN MARVELS AT WORKMAN’S SKILL; MISSES HIS

BEER. Chicago entertained a visitor last week from Germany, one Herr Fritz Krischer, distinguished engineer, of Dusseldorf. Herr Krischer is in this country studying the manufacture of machinery. He is quoted in the Chicago ‘ Evening Post ’ interview as saying:— “Prohibition is a bad thing for a German. I drank only water all the way over, and since I have come to the States I have had nothing strong to drink.” _ Herr Krischer is to be congratulated for his display of good sense in not patronising Chicago blind pigs. No doubt he misses his beer, but he was not taken by surprise on this score. Ho knew before ho came that the United States is a Prohibition country. He did have a surprise, however, as expressed in this interview in the following words:—"l am surprised at the accuracy and exactness of the work, Herr Krischer is quoted as saying, in commenting upon our manufacturing industries : “ You pay your workmen well, and therefore they work well.” The ‘Post’ says that he was.impressed with the organisation and efficiency of our manufacturing. Now, if Herr Krischer will only permit his reasoning ability to operate, he may discover a relationship between the “ accuracy and efficiency of our work ’ in the factories and the Prohibition policy.

THE REAL CHRISTIAN REGRETS. The ‘ Australian Sunday Visitor ’ is a Brisbane Sunday Catholic paper, and if the publishing of temperance pars and the absence of any liquor adver-

tisements is any indication, then the ‘ Prohibitionist ’ has a friendly ally in the 1 Visitor.’, The following paragraph is taken from its columns: — “ Human slavery existed for thousands of years, and some people defended it on Biblical grounds. Others argued that it was impossible to eradicate it. The drink traffic has also existed for thousands of years, and its advocates also quote Scripture. And the question is still debatable Does Prohibition prohibit? ■ But a beginning has been made to send booze the way of the slave master’s whin. Why should djristian rcurra-k'