AMERICAN PROHIBITION

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2271, 3 May 1921, Page 1

AMERICAN PROHIBITION

This generation has been witness of three memorable advances for good and for evil in the history of mankind, writes Professor Gilbert Murray Regius, professor of Greek at Oxford University. In the first place, we have seen the conquest of the air, an extraordinary landmark in the gradual triumph of mind over matter. Secondly, we have seen the formation of the League of Nations —a project which aims at banishing both war and .he dread of war, that dread which poisons and paralyses the whole international atmosphere of politics. The third great phenomenon we have seen is the adoption of prohibition by the United Stales of America. 1 say deliberately that in my judgment that is an event not merely of passing consequence, but a great event, judged by the standard id world history. A nation of one hundred millions of white men, the greatest, strongest, richest, and in many ways the most progressive nation in the world, has, by absolutely overwhelming majorities, decided that alcoholic drink of any sort shall be neither manufactured, nor sold, nor imported, nor consumed within its territories. Some people speak of American prohibition as if it might be a passing phase —the facts are verv plain. AN e all know that the American Constitution is an exceedingly tough bird—an eagle of

advanced age. It is very difficult to change. It- i.s very difficult to get any amendment introduced into it, but when an amendment is there, passed by a two-thirds majority in each of the two Houses of the National Legislature, and then ratified by three-quarters of all the States, it is practically beyond the range of human possibility that it should be revoked, and this particular amendment, which had constitutionally to be ratified by thirty-six out of the forty-eight States, was in reality ratified by no less than forty-live States.