Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-29
The "Pocketbook Theory"
Made the Nation Drv

"HIRTY years ago young pro-
fessor from out of the West
went to the University of Kan
sas as member of the teaching staff.
He waited long enough to get his
bearings and then made his bow to
n Kansas City audience as a lecturer
His subject was booze, although it
was more fitly phrased as THE Eco
nomic Phase of the Liquor Prob
lem"
In that lecture the young profess
sor said:
'The settlement of the temperance
question rests not alone in morals.
nor alone in politics, but in eco
nomics."
1t was a new idea and the tenn
perance workers were all but scan
dalized, while the temperance lee
turers shook their heads in doubt.
But the young professor was not
discouraged. He was full of conti-
dence in his theory and full of en-
thusiasm over it. He continued to
lecture and write about.it, and twen-
ty years ago this month he stood be-
fore the State Temperance Union in
Topeka, and amplified his first state
ment by the prophecy:
"Once convince people that the
liquor traffic destroys the power of
labor. wastes their property, con-
sumes the result. of their years of
toll and degeuerates social life, and
the control of this gigantic evil, by
legislation will be certain"
The young professor, Frank Will
son Blackmar, saw his prophecy full
filled when the thirty-siXth state to
n constitutional
amendment against booze assured
dry nation a few days ago.
Pointing TO the Pockctbook.
The temperance lecturers had pic
tured the horrors of drink and the
temperance workers had appealed
to the morals of their communities.
but still the selling of booze had
gone on. When a drunken brute
beat his wife so badly that she could
not go out washing the next day to
earn money to buy him more booze,
the good people of that day sighed
and said: Its too bad; he's such
kind husband when he's sober"
And when one man shot and killed
another in a drunken brawl the jury
gravely decided that having been in
toxicated at the time, the s'ayer,
who was a good sort when he was
at illlllSClls NC W
go free after a few months in the
county Jail or year or two in the
state penitentiary at the most
But when a college professor,
without oratory, without appealing
to their emotions, recited' column af-
ter column of dry figures showing
what the liquor evil was costing
them in dollars and cents, the pub
lie began to think.
"Our pocketbooks are hit, and we
haven't known it," they exclaimed
in surprise, and the pocketbook
theory sounded the knell of the
| liquor traffic.
The young professor, whose hair
now has turned gray and who has
acquired added dignity with the
years, today is head of the depart
ment of sociology and is dean of the
graduate school at the University
of Kansas.
1T was the economic argument
which knocked out BOOZE" he said
in his office at the K. U. administra-
ton building day or two ago.
when the public realized the actual
waste and the expenditure for which
! they got no return, the dry move
ment spread over the country rapid
ly.
But L would be the last to min
imize the splendid work done by the
churches, the w. c. T. U. and the
! temperance organizations. They did
the pioneering, and when the time
came they turned the economic ar
| gument to good account. Their share
in the anti booze victory is large
one, which must not be overlooked" !"
That 2O-year Old Lecture.
| Dean Blackmar drew from an old
portfolio the manuscript of the lee
ture he delivered at Topeka twenty
years ago. 1t set out the burden to
the community imposed by liquor
/ the maintenance of jails, prisons, re-
formatories, asylums. homes for the
| feeble minded. hospitals and the
/ like. The old figures as figures
l mean nothing now. since the totals
grew with every year, but they show
! ed that the revenues received from
the liquor traffic did not begin to
! offset the tax on the community.
Then he set out the impairment of
Ithe earning power of the man who
i drank. His value to the commun-
| ity," he argued, lis measured by the
amount he earns over his cost of liv-
ing extended over the period OF his
earning capacity, say an average of