The commoner. [volume], January 01, 1918, Page 5, Image 5

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The Commoner
JANUARY; 1918
K1WNBfci:'mr'''
National
f .i;,l.:'y-
Prohibition and National
Patriotism
Both .houses of congress have voted by dec!--give
majorities in favor of prohibition. By more
than, the requisite two-thirds vote, congress has
referred to -the several states for ratification a
constitutional amendment prohibiting the manu
facture, sale, transportation, export or import
of any kind of intoxicating liquors for beverage
purppses nywhere in the United States.
Twenty-seven states are already dry, by vote
of their state legislatures. It is reasonable to
expect that all of these states will ratify the
federal amendment. Then favorable action by
only nine more states wll be required. I believe
the result will be achieved within three years.
In other words, when the constitutional
amendment, which congress passed Dec. 17,
has been, approved by only nine of the follow
ing twenty-one states (assuming that those al
ready dry have ratified it), the amendment will
be carried:
New Jersey
New-Ycrk
Nevada
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Texas
Vermont
Wisconsin
Wyoming
I
California
Connecticut
Delaware .
Florida
' Illinois
Kentucky .
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
NEW ARGUMENT AGAINST SALOON
The war has added a fhird argument to the
case against the saloon. The economic argu
ment has been growing in force, witb. the ages,
and its strength has been greatly increased dur
ing the last few years. It- is now demonstrated
. beyond the possibility of a doubt that alcohol
"ls'"a tfoiso'n which when taken into the-system
even in moderate quantities produces certain
well-defined injurious effects. It causes diseases
in the body and grows into an appetite which in
turn increases the disease. It establishes a
deadly circle t.nd in. the end totally destroys the
health and vigor of the body.
Alcohol increasingly impairs the productive
value of a man by depriving his brain of clear
ness and his nerves of steadiness. He misses
the mark more frequently at target practice; he
makes more mistakes insetting type; he is more
often the victim of accident In industry; he finds
when he applies for insurance that his life ex
pectancy is lessened.
Each year adds a new count to the indictment.
The community finds it more and more difficult
to defend the licensing of an institution that
can not live.except as it does injury an institu
tion whose success is measured by its crimes
against society. Employers find thejf can not
entrusj: important business to a man who be
fuddles his brain with liquof, and mine pper-.
ators plead for dry zones around thejlr mines
because the sale of liquor materially reduces the
output. . " ' ' '
v ONE REMEDY AT HAND -
We are face to face with a condition that de
mands a remedy, and only one remedy is in
sight, vi'z., the abolition of the saloon a fester
ing evil, the breeding center of crime and im
morality. Why, if I may employ a brfttal simile,
de we appropriate money to exterminate cholera
among hogs and then, for pay, license men to
propagate delirium tremens among human be
ings? Why do we auction off, for a few hundred
thousand dollars, the priv.lege of making pau
pers, criminals and insane, and then spend mil
lions in an effort to care for the delinquents
that graduate from the saloons?
TLe moral argument has been ever present
throughout the centuries; but we are becoming
more and more sensitive ,to it as ethical stand
ards rise and the consclencejs more and more
awakened. . "
The saloon needs three things besides cus
tomers. It must have capital to run it, liquor
to sell and not less important than the other
two--votes that permit it to exist.
'The man who furnishes the capital receives
interest or dividends on his money. The man
-who furnishes the liquor collects profits on his
product. But what does tho man receive who
furnishes the votes? Not Interest, nor divi
dends, nor profits. His is the disgrace of being
a secret partner in a business with which ho
would be .ashamed to connect himself publicly,
and he has less excuse for favoring the saloon
than the distiller, tho brewer and tho liquor
dealer.
POLITICIAN WITHOUT EXCUSE
"The love of money," we are told, "Is the root
of all evil," and we know from the past that
men have committed crimes of every kind for
money. For money, some men have been will
ing to steal; for money, a few have oven been
willing to kill; on rare occasions a man, for
money, has been willing to betray his .country;
and th Bible tells us of one man who, for
money, was willing to betray the Master him
self. But the man who, without pay, votes to
keep the saloon in existence has not even the
poor, miserable excuse that he is making a pe
cuniary profit out of the evil.
If one would know what moral responsibll'ly
he assumes when he sides with the saloon, lot
him put down in black and white his confession,
viz., that ho knows the saloon to be an evil and
that, without knowing who his partners in the
business will be, ho is willing to share moral
responsibility with them for all the harm that
the saloon does; and then let him leave a space
below his name so that he can write, "I am the
partner of the man who sold the liquor" when
he reads in the newspapers instances where tho ,
saloon has made drunkards out of young men,
has robbed a wife of her husband, children of
their father and sometimes has even taken from
the home wives and daughters.
PATRIOTIC APPEAL LARGE
' But the patriotic, argumenti will appeal to
many who have resisted the economic argument
and been deaf to the appeal to -conscience.
' The government is trying to protect its sol
diers by making it a criminal offense to sell in
toxicating liquor to a man in uniform; and yet
so shameless are those engaged In the traffic
that they violate the law whenever they think
they see a prospect of escape from punishment.
So much greater is their passion for dollars than
their patriotism that they would, If they could,
make drunkards of the entire army, and leave
us defenseless before a foreign foe.
The law against selling to soldiers is in itself
. a terrible indictment of alcohol. This protec
tion is not thrown around the soldier because he
is a weakling, for the soldiers are the- p'ck of
our young men. It would be an insult to our
soldiers to say that Jjquor is denied them be
cause they are below the average man in resist
ing power. No; the law, is an indictment against
alcohol, kand, being an indictment against alco
holic beverages, it can be used to support prohi
bition at home, as well as in the army.
The' food producer and the maker of mun'
tions are as necessary to the winning of thewar
asthe soldier himself. The man at the front
must be supplied with food, and with the weap
ons of war. If we would keep the nat'on's
strength at its maximum, we can no more afford
to permit the liquor deajer to rob our farmers
and artisans of their efficiency than we can af
ford to allow him to paralyze the usefulness of
the men in arms.
CANNOT SPARE FOODSTUFFS
There is another economic argument whose
Increasing weight is being daily more and more
recognized, viz., that we can not spare the food
stuffs that have heretofore been converted into
alcoholic liquors. We have already taken one
step toward conservation; we have prohibited the
conversion of foodstuffs into alcohol during the
war. But this saves only one-third of the waste.
The brewers have been using about twice as
much of our foodstuffs in the making of beer as
the distillers use in the making of whiskey. Whv
not save three-thirds, Instead of , one-third? It
would strengthen our appeal to the housewives
If we could show that we were saving on a large
scale by denying to the brewers the bread needed
for the table. To urge an increase in garden
i space while we turn over to the brewers the
product of broad and fertile prairies looks like
"saving- at the spigot and wastin at l&o bung
hole." Prohibition ought to triumph, on economic
grounds alone. It ought to triumph even more
surely on moral grounds; it can not fajl to tri
umph now, since it is also demanded by patriot
ism and by tho spirit of democracy.
The ratification of the amendmont by tho
states within tfeven years? as required ' by the
joint resolution of congress submitting It, seems
certain. ,
It must be remembered thut In most'CMsc it
s easier to ratify a national amendment than 1t
Is to originate an amondment for a state consti
tution. While It only requires a nrajorlty to
ratify a national amendment It usually reqiilftis
a three-fifths or two thirds vote of ft, lq legis
lature to carry a state amendment. - " ' - ,
It must also be remembered that 'pn such' "a
moral question as prohibition the' country'1 dis
tricts have a greater weight in a legislature than
in a popular vote, becauso tho big wet majorities
in the largo cities do not have such a dominating
representation in tho legislatures.
, W. J. BRYAN,
AN ANONYMOUS LETTEll
Dear Mr. Bryan,
Just a word of humble apology for past mis
demeanors and crimes, hearty congratulations
and a warm handshake across, the editorial
table. ;
You win 100 joints.
We've cussed ypu, cartooned you, dad-burned
you these many yearj, and now wo doff bur mil
linery to you,'
From todays New York Sun: ' '
"THE MAN WHO WINS BY LOSING
"The price of silver,. which in. 1$9G was about
73 cents an ounce, is hcv about ,8,7 conts. ., ,
"Prohibition awaits the judgment of,.,tbe
8ta,s.. t , . . , .,;', . ,,,.
"Government control, If ,,npt .ownership,) of
railroads is here. . ,, ,r
"What democrat, peering into tho future for
a presidential candidate for his party in 1920,
can see any featurss more distinguishable than
thosd of Mr. Btyah?
"Ho cqul4.be nominated Pn tho! strength, of
what had been Accompl'shed after the fact of bis
defeats.
"But perhaps the next democratic 'national
convention will be operated by a dhector general
of polit'cs."
And we've ji.ct threshed 'or all out here In
this bit of a newspaper fo'castlo, and polled a
majority yote for you in 1920.
THE BUNCH.
(From a newLpaper editorial room, Now York,
December 29, 1917.)
HYLAN SAYS HE GOT WHITMANS PLED.GE
From The New Yo:k World, Dec. 18.
.Gov. Whitman agrees with Mayor-elect Hylan
that a bill should be put through at the coming
-session of the legslature providing that the con
tributions to all political campaign funds should
be made public five days before election.
At a. conference between the governor and the
mayor-elect in Albany yesterday, Gpvcrnor Whit
man told Judge Hylan he would affix his signa
ture to a bill of that nature should it be passed
by the legislature.
Judge Hylan urged Mr. Whitman to favor a
measure of this sort after the two had discussed
what Judge Hylan described as the "outrageously
extravagant" expenditures of the fusion cam
paign committee during the mayorallty election.
Democratic Senate Leader Wagner already has
stated that he will father a bill containing these
features; The governor's announcement that he
favors -such a measure, in the view of politicians,
makes it practically certain that the two houses
of the legislature will put it through.
The farmer who has to pay. forty and fifty
cents a pound at the meat niarket for the hog
that he shipped to Chicago for fifteen cents a
pound may be rardoned for refusing to believe
that the development of transportation and the
progress of invention have been of much prac
tical benefit to mankind.
f
What in the world will most of the state legis
latures have to do next winder, when there are
no railroads at hand for them, to pass regula
tory bills for? , . :
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