Denver labor bulletin., 1917-05-05
PUSH THE BOOZE
OUT OF TRENCHES
NATIONAL WAR PROHIBI-
TION COMING SOON.
Governors, Statesmen, Writers and
Workers Unite in Plea That Food
Shortage Be Corrected by Shut
ting Down Liquor Factories.
BY IRVING FISHER.
Especial Correspondence.)

WASHINGTON, D. c., April Pa
A growing demand for war prohibi-
ton is coming from wholly unexpect-
ed, influential business sources. Gov
ernor Harris of Georgia, after con-
sulting with other governors, has sent
out call for a governors congress to
meet in the national capital on May
a to consider effective state prohibi-
ton purely as war measure.
kilograms urging national war pro-
hibition have been received at the
capitol from Governors Brumbaugh
of Pennsylvania, Aldrich of Nebraska,
Cats of Florida, Alexander of Idaho,
Capper of Kansas and Bilbo of Mis-
issippi, while more than six hundred
telegraphic demands have been re-
ceived within the last week from such
men as Howard Elliott, president of
the New York, New Haven and Hart
ford railroad; F. A. Vanderlip, presi-
dent of the National City bank of
New York; David Forgan, Chicago''s
leading banker; Joseph Boyer, presi-
dent of the Burroughs Adding Ma
chine company; H. c. King, president
of Oberlin university; F. L. McVeigh,
president of the University of North
Dakota; N. F. Hinitt, president of the
Washington and jefferson college;
George F. Bogardus, president of the
University of Southern California; ST.
mon Patten, economist, of Pennsyl-
vania Among a big contingent of
editors demanding prohibition are Van
Valkenburg of the Philadelphia North
American; Schermerhorn of the De-
troit News; Buttenheim of the Amer
lean City, and Holt of the New York
Independent. Out of a group of nearly
fifty authors may be named Upton
Sinclair, Booth Harrington, Ray Stan
nard Baker and John Burroughs.
When the Democratic caucus by a
vote of 81 to 60 declared for national
prohibition during the war, the world
was dazed and amazed. There is no
occasion for it. 1t is the logic of
events. The nation is confronted with
an alarming food shortage, and we
must feed not only ourselves but our
allies Prohibition will divert enough
foodstuff from the waste of the liquor
traffic into it's legitimate use to give
every one of the twelve million men in
the armies of our European allies a
pound loaf of bread every day.
The best actuarial authority was
brought to Washington and asked what
effect moderate drinking had upon
/ life, and told in the cold calculation of
science that 180 men die among mod
crate drinkers for every 100 that die
among abstainers. We need men.
This presented practical proposition
No sentiment. No moralizing. This
is language that the brusque business
brain grasps. We need more men for
farms, factories, and the ranks. Con-
gressmen were told that there are
some hundreds of thousands of men
engaged in the manufacture and sale
of liquor which, with the traffic pro-
hibited for the war, would help meet
the labor crisis. In addition to this
it is said that the use of liquor de-
creases the efficiency of labor from Is
per cent to 80 per cent.
Then the doctors came with the tes-
timony that the liquor traffic is largely
responsible for those forms of conta-
gion that are most prevalent and most
disabling among soldiers. The de-
mand for war prohibition comes from
newly aroused business interests that
are seeking, in practical way, to help
adjust the nation to the strain and
stress of the war.