The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-25
BIC PUBLISHER
 IS OPPOSED TO
 ''BONE DRY" LAW
Henry Holt Does Not Be lieve Present Condition
 Will Last.

ana, at e1gnty, editor or the On- partizan Review, believes that Pro- hibition will not last long, or, if it should, 1t will be greatly modified. He bases his belief primarily upon the old doctrine that tits az in hu- man natur'
 Believing that MT. Holt's statement might be fathered by his personal hopes, his interviewer asked him if he had any rational basis for his prophecy.
 Another reason for my assump- tjon,' MT. Holt replied, Sis that I be-. Eeve that most of those who passed the law went for the most vigorous measure possible; and it has been accepted so much more obediently than they expected it would be that they probably would have faith that a more moderate measure could be enforced.
 ''They were fooled, as I was. have always held that there are certain things that laws cannot affect. The latest attempt has disil1usioned men as to the power of the law. We have always seemed to have an effective element who were ready to revolt against tyranny. Prohibition has helped me to see a new body of American people,
 In accounting for this power of the law MT. Holt said that he has de- cided that it has arisen because the people today are more law-abiding than they have been in the past. Per haps indicating that we are more civilized, he ventured.
 That may sound odd,' MT. Holt added humorously, when today most men under forty are Bolshe- viks. And I hold responsible for such conditions the poor pay that teachers receive. Anybody receiving starvation wages will become a Bolsl1evik, and, if a teacher, will influence his pu- pils.'
 Are you BoIshevik?" MT. Holt asked, smiling.
 The reporter had to confess that he was not starving.
 In explaining the law abiding character of the people today MT. Holt said that it was particularly ! noticeable in two clubs that he at tends. In the University and Century Clubs, he said, the law was obeyed to the letter. However, he informed the interviewer that he knew a club in this city and one in a large city l farther south where drinking was more prevalent between war prohibI- 1 ton and constitutional prohibition than ever before.
 l MT. Holt expected a violation of 1 the new law comparable with that which prevailed in the days before 1 the Civil War, when negroes were regularly aided in their escape from l their masters.
 1 "The pendulum has swung too far! MT. Holt exclaimed as he leaned earnestly forward in his swivel chair. 1 Ut will have to come to a sensible 1 point of resi-
 "Where will that be?" he was 1 asked. Will it be the point that the i Scandinavian countries have reached in abolishing the saloon and substi- l tuing the cafe, where liquor is sold at cost under Government control and other drinks and food al a profit? This encourages temperance because it makes the sale of soft drinks profitable"
 s'Very likely" MT. Holt answered.
 'Tf we are to return to the old status that seems to be a sensible solution" What are your personal reactions | to prohibition, MT. Holt?''
 Its the worst example of the tyr ! amy of the majority I have ever | heard of" MT. Holt replied grimly,
 And I am inclined to believe the 1 majority in this case is a doubtful one. Many men in the Revolutionary
 days would not have tolerated it. But
 as I said before, we are more law
 abiding today and that explains why
 it has gone so far"
 Are you law-abiding yourself
 MT. Ho1t?"
 "No!" he laughed. "Fd rather dis
 obey the legislators than my phy
 sician'
 MT. Holt was referring to his arti
 cle, "GarruIities of, an Octogenariar
 Editor" in the current issue of th'
 Unpartizan Review. In this he say about his harmless indulgences: Since I reached the Scotch whis key age my doctor has insisted on { tablespoonful of it at lunch and din
 nuer. American whiskey has dis i agreed with me, possibly because drank too much of it between meal in my youth, as everybody did then But it is a queer fact that very man. men have an idiosyncracy of diges ton against one or the other. In m
 late twendes and early thirties, whel I worked very hard, champagne; a split at dinner for a few weeks was my sovereign defense agains dyspepsia, of which I had the ner Tous variety. A son of the Presiden ? of the American Temperance Societ
 
 pagne had been his salvation, but h
 hadn't told his father so.''
 MT. Holt confessed that he believe
 in the old-fashioned doctors advice | Any young man who drinks whiske
 is a fool, and any old man wh
 doesn't is another"
 At six, MT. Holt told me, he was V hollow-chested boy, "an unpromisin e brat as you can well imagine.' To l day one cannot see the hollow chest ! | ed youth in the man. He is a deep
 chested person, nearly six feet tai V and at eighty he is vigorous an S genial enough to hold thee oat of hi D interviewer, fifty years his junio, 2 when he departed from his office i V 44th Street. His broad shoulder 1 support a massive head with a broa r brow, surmounted by fuii head ( = hair, frightened with gray. H V hearing is good, his voice clear, h
 speech unfaltering.
 - Besides being an in1hiber of stron
 liquor MT. Holt is a moderate smol
 er He has followed the belief or a
 old SJlr2eCT who said th3