The Washington herald., 1917-02-02
Interesting Chats
From Hotel Lobbies

You would not think that within three
hundred miles OF one OF the worlds
greatest educational centers that ignor-
ance OF the worst sort has existed for
over 100 years, would your" asked j.
F. Moulton. Wlnston-Salem, N. c.,
stopping at the Willard
7 hardly expect that many Of you
viii believe It, but It is true, and Uncle
Same does not seem to be very willing
to dive into this mountainous country
and see that these hill-billies get an
education.
II have taught school up until a year
ago among some Of these people and the
number of genuine Americans of fine
Anglo-Saxon stock who could not read
their names in letters a 100 feet high il
amazing. They do not know, some of
them do not, that there is a great war
going on and 1 am sure lots of them do
not know we had civil war or the war
with Spain f'~ =
The most distressing part of the con-
didon Of the mountain peoples of my
State. South Carolina, and Georgia is
that such abject ignorance leads to
everything else undesirable. Due to the
ignorance of sanitation, many of these
people are suffering with 'pink-eye' q
disease of the eye, transmitted by the
common family roller towel
The boys learn to drink and smoke
at about Z years of age and they can
swear a trooper to sleep. The roads
leading into these towns and hamlets are
SO bad that a Statewide campaign will
have to be started before any change
can be made. These people do not need
religion, they need common school
education, they need to be taught the
principles of sanitation and better
methods of farming, and when they do
get a start they will outstrip a great
many OF US. Not all of them make what
you call mountain dew but a great
many of them are trying to farm on their
hills using the methods of the level land
farmer, and here Is where Uncle Sam
should step in"
A z. Benzler, Of Portland, Me-, who is
stopping at the Ebbitt, is an authority
on the liquor question.
'T do not believe" said Mr.. BenBler,
that the states which permit traffic In
liquor are as bad as some prohibitionists
try to paint them, and you can be sure
that the dry States are not being wrecked
investigated both sides of the question
from an economic standpoint and not so
much from a sentimental angle.
There are some communities that will
suffer severely IL we ever have nation
wide prohibition, and there are some Of
them that will be benefited when the
liquor is unobtainable. We cannot Judge
the effect of prohibition on some States
or communities as being the same in
every place. For instance, the prohibi-
ton laws of Virginia will work differently
from the proposed laws of Michigan
Owing to the larger foreign element and
tho greater number of industries, the
State Of Michigan WILL be benefited even
though the process is painful to the
masses of European born who are ac-
customed to their regular portion. As
for Virginia where factories are not 50
plentiful and the working classes are not
so numerous, prohibition will have a
tendency to slow things down consider
ably until they get down to a solid basis
'On the other hand the matter of reve-
nue. viii be a harder proposition for vir-
ginia than it will be for Michigan. Mich
igan has more resources to fall back on.
she has more to tax and business is IN
creasing constantly, but Virginia cannot
boast OF these things.
THE ones who violate the dry laws
are really the people who violate the wet
laws when they existed. There is always
an organized campaign to discredit every
set OF dry laws ever enacted. There is
hardly dry State that has a set of fool
proof. judge-proof and lawyer-proof laws
and what can you expect IL the dry laws
are broken by the very people charged
with their enforcement"