New-York tribune., 1919-08-03
II Is the Public viii

! ION for the Anti-Saloon League to work
upon. This opinion is not mainly relig-
lous, although the organized churches
were the spearhead of Prohibition in
its earlier stage. The fact would seem
to be that liquor has been condemned
by the commercial as we'll as the social
conscience of America. For ten years
or more an irresistible tide has been
running in the direction Of total ab-
stinence. True, the saloons are bla-
family in evidence in most of the large
cities. The great breweries have con-
tinued to be vastly prosperous. Among
the wellto-do classes the cocktail habit
Is still sufficiently common. But none
the less the country has been moving
steadily in the one direction. The
In every region, the result of con-
vergence of influences. America has
carried further than any other country
the scientific management of social
service, and its whole colossal organiza-
tion is arraigned against liquor. Public
hsalth, child welfare and the Safety
First crusade; the study of insanity
and eeblemindedness, of crime and
juvenile delinquency, of prostitution
and venereal diseases; the systematic
survey of civic and industrial condi-
tions-all these furnish an armory Of
weapons against alcohol.
Women's suffrage and the women's
clubs must be counted in. And, as an
influence more powerful than almost
any other, the modern religion of bust
ness, the worship of standardization
and efficiency. The large employers,
the great business corporations, make
men who drink will be Disseminated
against. They proclaim that for such
there| is no hope of promotion. 1t is
impossible not to see that this is the
dominant spirit in American business
Again: more than the preachers, far
more than the flaming evangelism OF
Billy Sunday, the plain argument of
material wellbeing and the extinction
Of the greatest single cause of social
misery wins its conquering way. The
American citizen can recognize dry
town almost at q glance. He knows
the facts about the reduction Of crime
and insanity, the increase Of savings
the emptying of the jails, the reduced
/ police, the rapid expansion of civic
pride. And whenever on his Western
! journeys he passes through the abound
ing lands beyond the Mississippi, he
needs no one TO tell him that this is
the America of to-morrow-prospero
conscious of triumphant energy, and
dry. Moreover, in East or West, he is
aware of one pervading and undeniabe
fact: wherever the saloon is there is
interests have been unimaginably
stupid. They have trusted to the power
of corruption in politics. They have
debased the methods Of self-govern.
saloon is being swept away-by tht
votes of men who, not themselves By
instinct or conviction total abstainers
have voted dry in order to cleanse the
politics of city, state and nation.
Mr.. Ratcliffe then considers the
forces marshalled against enforce
ment and in favor Of repeal, touch
ing chiefly on the "2.75 controversy
and the, mo beer, no work" move
rnent He winds up.
"The conclusion, I am aware
sounds incredible. But it seems that
the United States is going dry
with the approval of a majority Of
the electorate, upheld by an over
whelming sentiment among the hun
dred millions"