Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-02-27
BREAD and Beer"

national prohibition amendment. Mon
tana is the latest to take the decisive
action. The tally stands Mississippi,
Virginia. Kentucky, South Carolina,
North Dakota, Montana. Thirty rati-
fications remain to be effected. One
sixth of the road to national probibi-
ton has already been covered. 1t is
not without interest to remark that
in the first three Legislatures to ratify
the amendment the aggregate vote in
favor of ratification was 1888, while
the total vote opposed was but ia
preponderance of prohibition senti-
ment of to /. This is significant
hint of the tone of the public mind
on the question of the elimination of
alcoholic drink.
While the necessarily slow process
OF legislative ratification Of the con-
stitutional amendment is in progress
there is another and more imme-
diate pressing aspect Of this great
question that demands attention.
The food problem that confronts
this country is critical one. We
must feed our allies. That is one of
our most vital functions in the great
war. Meanwhile we must not starve
ourselves. That way lies national in
efficiency.
AS people we have responded
cheerfully and Fundamentally to the
proposals of our Food Comptroller as
to personal sacrifice in the use of
foodstuffs Thrice a week we go
without wheat products; twice a week
we go without meat; once a week we
go without pork. We have learned to
mix with our precious white flour
other cereal products for the making
of war bread. We are glad to do our
share IN the saving of the wheat -four
to go across the seas for our soldiers
and our allies.
But there is still gap in our pro
gramme of saving. Nationally speak
ing, we are still using great quaint
ties of cereals in the brewing of beer.
Fifty million bushels Of barley went
last year into the breWeries to be
destroyed as food for the making of
drink, and several million bushels Of
corn and rice. What We drink we
cannot have to eat.
1t is by 10 means necessary to argue
that beer drinking is an unhealthful
or Il reprehensible practice in order
to contend that in a time like this the
drinker of beer should make at least
an equivalent sacrifice Of his refresh
ing glass on behalf of the general food
supply. He should make it all the
more cheerfully since he is only a
fraction. greater or smaller. of the
all 90 l,,;
but every enc Of US eats bread.-New
York Sun.
With one great newspaper Of New
York telling the facts and treating
moral conditions and considerations
iii a rational way. we have hope of
even the New York World in time It
no longer deems slavery an issue and.
we expect, after a few years of nation
al prohibition, the World and some
interests.
And again we hope that sometime
indignant people that the brewery
waste of food and fuel be stopped,
may reach battened ears of the adj
ministration.
The New York Sun. in the above
editorial points to the I to pre-
ponderance of prohibition sentiment.
\ survey of the wet and dry situa-
ton throughout the country, Just
completed by the Board Of Temper
ance. Prohibition and Public Mora Is
of the Methodist Church, shows that
there are 18Th dry counties and 6l5
wet counties. This is dry gain for
the year 1917 of IS counties.
The year 1917 gave the drys State
wide victory i'll New Hampshire. Utah
and Indiana by legislative action and
in New Mexico by vote of the people.
, Iowa failed by very small majority
70 make its prohibition constitutional.
Ohio redu ED its wet majority almost
to the vanishing point. New Jersey
elected local option legislature and
Kentucky elected one pledged to sub
mission of State prohibition and rati-!
fication of the national amendment.
New York added 105 towns to its dry
list. and Illinois closed saloons in the
State capital.
The United States Supreme Court
upheld the Webb Kenyon anti ship
ping law and sustained the rigid
OHIO bone-dry law.
Congress voted the District Of Co.
! lumbia dry. passed the Reed bone
dry law. shutting liquors out of all
prohibition States, enacted law
prohibiting the sending of advertising
of liquors through the mails into
States where it is forbidden, enacted
prohibition for Alaska in response to
the action of the people at the polls.
made Porto Rico prohibition territory.
forbade The sale of liquor to soldiers
and sailors, prohibited the manufac-
ture and importation Of distilled
| liquors during the war gave the
+, President power TO stop brewing to
b \