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The Commoner
.$pX NO, 5
10
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The Progress of .
Prohibition
(From the Pontocostal Horald.)
' "That you may appreciate the progress of the
toinporanco reform, I will give the first pledge
wo have any record of. It was as follows: I
aolomnly promlso I will abstain from everything
that will intoxicate except at public dinners, on
public holidays, and other important occasions.'
"The first law regulating the sale of liquor
was passed in a village on Long Island and ran
thus: 'Any man engaged in the sale of intoxi
cating liquors who sells more than one quart of
rum or brandy to four boys at one time shall be
fined one dollar and two bits.'
"From this beginning, the movement has
grown into one of the greatest achievements of
human civilization, national prohibition.
"Yot whilo I rojoico with you over where wo
came from, I am dfeposed to ask in the words
of the doughboy's war song, 'Where Do We Go
From Here, Boys?' Wo can't stay where wo are.
"The Eighteenth amendment, though signed
by a thousand pons, does not mean final victory.
A custom a thousand years old cannot be de
stroyed in a single year, any more than can a
stagnant pool be turned into a crystal spring in
a moment.
"It is said, the eaglo's greatest difficulty is in
rising from the earth. It must get above the
tree tops into the upper air bofore it can strike
with equal vans. But the higher it rises the
faster-it flies. This national prohibition eagle is
only a year old. It hasn't had time tov spread
its wings. Give it one-tenth of the time license
had, then, gather to celebrate and you will find
the oagte soaring above the storms of opposi
tion and the Eighteenth amendment as firmly
set In the constitution of our republic as tho
fixed stars are setin the heavens.
"A few more years and the drunkards of now
will be gone to their Potter's Field. We honor
the boys who sleep in the poppy fields of France.
As long as springtime comes and flowers bioom,
tho highland heather, the shamrock and the rose -will
koep Mizpah watch over tho graves of
America's dead who sleep beyond the sea. But
what about the millions strong drink has slain.
Lot them write their own epitaph:
4In Potter's Field whore ragweeds grow,
In graves neglected row on row,
We drunkards lie.
We envy those in Flanders' Fields,
Who .died brave warriors on their shields
Their glorious deeds can never die.
Ragweeds will shut us from the sky,
In Potter's Field.'
"Ton years hence drunkards will be "few and
far between; tho boys of now will be young men
reared under a different regime. The present
stock of liquor in bond will be exhausted. The
hillside by the illicit stillside will be still
men will take their toddies from the ripples of
the rill, boys will grow up soberly, mothers
cease to cry, and then we'll sing 'Glory Halle
ujah, the nation's gone .dry!'
"I do not moan there is a day approaching
when there will be no liquor made orTsed ? and
the Eighteenth amendment not bo violated All
the prohibitory laws from the Ten Command,
ments down to the traffic laws to contrthe
automobile drivers of Lexington are violated'
every day. The penalty for murder is death on
the gallows or in tho electric chair, yet murder
13 a common occurrence. The penaltv for tpni
ng is the penitentiary, yet bSnks are robSd
hours y S and bUrfilars Prol "10 night
''The question is not does prohibition prohibit
but, does it lessen the evil it is designed to cure
la less hquor sold and .used in Lefington now
than when one hundred saloons were open' SJ
wo see as many drunken men on the streets Sat
urday evenings? Has North Limestone wJl
Main and Short improved' Jjlmestono between
"Recently, Charles Wendlo, of Chicago n
sorted crime had increased in Chicago ?' S"
hibition went into effect Rev Scott Wf
lqpked up the record, and he says- Thnr ilde
twenty-eight less murders Tana nineteen tin!?
BUS .ZK
ol Kte
Oct. 16, said: 'For forty ? year, iT?1 of
its workhouse, its inmates ran mhlZ ?ad
hundred at a time. Since Jul? fi
'mate, and since his time recontly expired the
workhouse is only a memory.'
"Lot me give you a concrete example of wnac
prohibition does where it has had a fair trial.
I gave eighty address in tho campaign for con
stitutional prohibition in Kansas thirty years
ago For two years after its adoption conditions
wore discouraging. Saloon keepers became
bootleggers, blind tigers hid in alleys and cellars.
The order was 'violate the law, break down pub
lic sentiment and got resubmission.' That's the
policy now. At the end of five years tho liquor
men of Kansas asked their leader, Senator Lo
well, to lead he fight for resubmission. His
reply was 'You have waited too long. Empty
jails, prosperous business and happy homes aro
the results of prohibition. Tho procession has
gone by. Now after thirty years Kansas is the
richest stato in tho union per capita, over fifty
jails are without an inmate, she has less paupers,
more homo owners and less renters. In 1880
her illiteracy was 25 per cent, now less than 2
per cent.
"Listen to what General Leonard Wood said
of Kansas soldiers in the late war. He said:
'I find Kansas men and boys grade higher in
morals, obedience and stamina than the men in
other camps. Tho percentage of disease is tho
smallest and the discipline tho best I have ever,
seen. They were brought up in a clean atmos
phere, they started right. Tell the Kansas peo
ple for me that they have, the finest, tho cleanest,
the healthiest and most vigorous soldiers in
point of endurance we have ever seen, and the
records show this.'
"What prohibition has done for Kansas it will
do for Kentucky, and before it is as old as the
Kansas law, sunhine will take the place of moon
shine in tho mountains of our- state. What it
has done for Kansas,, it will do for the United
States, making this the most prosperous, the
happiest people of the sweetest century of the
grandest country the eye of God ever looked
down upon.
"Personally, having come up through great
tribulation, through the tangled forest of preju
dice, persecution and dangers, I rejoice with ex
ceeding joy in this anniversary celebration.
When we consider the progress of the past, we
have both faith and hope for the future. When
license laws were back of the saloon we had
cause for worry, now that we have the- law back
of us let the other fellow worry..
"Recently in Chicago tw6 hotel men were
brought before the Federal court for violation
of the prohibition law. They pleaded guilty,
doubtless expecting a light fine. Judge Landis
fined one ten thousand dollars and six months
in Prison, the other twenty-five thousand dollars
and three years in prison. Let the other fellow
worry. In San Francisco, Dec. 22, one law
breaker was fined five thousand dollars, another
ten thousand dollars,, and both sent to prison for
two years. v l
JL3?f7elX lr.Kentucky. Virginia and North
and South Carolina, 775 illicit stills were de
stroyed, 376 moonshiners arrested, and The fln
KdollafsOVernment reaChed nearly a hal
"The brewers and saloonmen are plannine a
campaign to elect enough congressmen in 1 923
to restore wine and beer saloons. They propose
ment beMnd'tt SJ ? Vent?
SiUjfiey1' wMf aTeaai? TS
against their hopes. On their way toWashine
wHhthbayilo J1,8? miliion? of Amricamn
wun pailots in their hands, sayinc na im .
French at Verdun, They shall nofpasB UJ
SALES OB WomiH OA1LED. GRAND
of MaShimiFs, in his canacUv iT Asaocl
of tho People's HeconstrulLn t'C prcsl"eI
stan ent issued iF3Z2t2gl&
6.7 per cent and tor a familv'liM, " W0.nId ba
of n.000, assuming approxtaiLlTtL? inoome
chase of necessities, it wouW b J amo I)UI"
"Because of the- nyramdinJ ?-6- P2r C6nt
however, since the payedd ?a nrn'SW ta
cent ot tho uJZlX" aX'witV
incomo of $1,500, 11.4 per cent; for a famil?
with-an income of $1000, over- 17 per cent
These figures aro approximate." '
"One of the bankers advocating the sales tax
before tho House committee-on ways and meana
remarked that poor folks who could not pay
the tax had the alternative of merely refrain,
ing from consuming.'" Washington Star.
A GOOD DEMOCRATIC MEASURE
President Harding and the Senate are to bo
congratulated on ratification of. the Colombian
treaty.
It is, in all respects, a good Democratic meas
ure. '-.,,
It was made necessary, by. the -hasty act of a
Republican administration. M ,
It was conceived by a Democratic secretary ot
stater ,..., ,',.
It was first presented to the Senate by a
Democratic president.
It failed because Republican senators opposed
it in obedience to a party call.
Democratic senators who voted for it at tho
request of a Republican president took a stand
consistent with a position .which they have
maintained for seven years. - K
-Republican senators "who joined them did
quite a flipflop. .
Fifteen Republicans boltedtlie administration,
which may mean nothing, or a, great deal, as ono
prefers to believe. -
President Harding won his point but only
through the co-operation of Democratic sena
tors. His point was WilSonian to the core.
A fourth of his own party proyed Insubordi
nate, and bitterly so.
The shadow of Theodore Koosevet still lies
athwart the path of Republican harmony.
The influence of Woodrow Wilson is still a
factor to be reckoned with. ... "Vagii...
President Harding finds more or Ies3 assur
ance in following in the footsteps of his pre
decessor. ' .
He also finds more or less.probability of a
party split. -HoustoVTexas1, Post.
WHISKY liOSlNG CASTE AS A MEDICINE
In 1914-1919, when tho battle was raging for
the adoption of the Eighteenth amendment, tho
saloon interests raised the dry that prohibition
would prevent the physicians from securing
whisky necessary fonmedlcinal use.
It now appears that either the -wets or the
doctors are in error as to the medicinal value
of whisky.
According to the American Medical Directory
there were 112,238 practicing physicians in
those states that were wet at . the advent of
? ial ?ronirtion. . Of these physicians, only
-i'?;9 Physicians 29 per cent took out
whisky permits. Seventy-one per cent did not
regard alcohol as sufficiently valuable in tho
practice of medicine to take out permits to pre
scribe it. Evidently the medical profession is
rapiaiy adopting the view that whisky has no
therapeutic value. American Issue,
A LOSING SLOGAN
wiSeurJ Patterson wants a Democratic party
K? S Sel1 Wlth Prohibition" as its slogan,
Mr. Watterson's ignorance of- the dry senti
S! voters of this country is inexcus
able, for last November a referendum was had
on tbe question of weakening thd-Volstead code
w- ivoterf overwhelmingly sustained tho
law as it stands.
nSe m,?7 ?ot ave cognized 'It as a referen
Wtw ,fn intents and Purposes Ht was
innVoY , it:,was aD lssU6 ta Practically every
Sffnw,ial,d,8triot whore the Hquor inter
SeLman ope of electing a wet con-
that n?Vbtful i any blean ftfild be devised
KS more ly put any party into tho
WegTt suggested by Mr,
Publica?Ga i0Elslat"re, almost solidly Re-
?ery cISsp nfU!ed ,caao of cold th0
X thS wi h s,es3lon and lill0d aI1 of tl&
to law tKera ?ad declded mu enacted in
a larL in o restorTe1 the convention system in
mm law 0.1?'. Jtead lt amended" the Pri-
system of flAltllat il ent bacIc to th caucu3
and SttJLiectil? ?oimtF convention delegated
11 co&ot9 Sg2?i WJ5 to .ation-
throat ?0f a vrSrt tha,fc oy re t wlth a
w?aJ W a re'eren'dunt. and thv 'irVAw what
tf
lo'heit'e-lectfoh; H'"
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