The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-08-13
PROHIBITION POLITICAL
ISSUE IN GUATEMALA
Was One of the Wettest Coun-
tries in the World; Dry Prog
ress Made in Recent Years
TRAFFIC is RESTRICTED
Liquor Sales Prohibited Outside
the Towns and Greatly
Restricted Within
(By Paul Burgess

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OF all the wet nations of the earth
Guatemala is probably among the
wcttest. Her official per capita con-
sumption OF alcohol may not appear to
be as high as that of Denmark, but
official statistics do not take into &C
count the immense amount of moon
shine" consumed. Many towns have
received special permission to manu-
facture the chief alcoholic beverage
(sugar-cane rum) without paying tax
upon it as a reward for their services
in wars or revolutions.
\ very large proportion of the in
| habitants OF Guatemala are pure blood
Indians. The Indians do not manu-
facturc liquor, they consume a great
deal. When a child is born or when
it is baptized, whenever there is a
marriage or a funeral, when the birth
of the Savior is celebrated or his
death commemorated, when St. John
the Baptist has his day or San An
tonic his, there is always an orgy of
drunkenness in which women as well
as men join The school teachers are
as drunken as the priests, the laborer
misses about two days out OF each
week because he is on spree, and
the governor of the state does not
open his office for the same cause.
Four or five Indian towns which in
sisted on remaining dry had TO pay
heavy bounties to the government for
the privilege,
But even in Guatemala some whiffs
OF outside air manage to cause little
stir In 1917 Mr.. Benjamin Mazarie-
gos, a native Guatcmalan. teacher of
the Mems Bible Class in the Presby-
terian Mission Church at Quezaltc-
mango, invited the members OF his
class along with some outsiders
known to be friendly to the cause, to
his home and formed the so-called
Antalcoholic League. Its members
pledge themselves to total abstinence
and to work for Prohibition. This
League has grown to an organization
OF nearly 1000 members with
branches i'll several OF the principal
cities OF the republic.
Temperance sentiment had been
growing owing 10 effective propa-
ganda of the Mission Presses, and
the League served to crystalizc and
organize this sentiment. When during
the first days Of 1920 propaganda be-
gan to be openly launched against
President Cabrera who for p years
had been practical dictator i'll Guate-
mala, he began 10 look around for
friends and asked the Anti-Alcohol
League to submit a plan for the re-
stricton of the liquor traffic. This
| they did The revolution, however,
which overthrow Cabrera and brought
the Unionist party into power, made
this attempt at legislative restriction
fruitless for the time being.
The Unonist party was, however,
sympathetic to the cause. 1t was a
rule of the party that no drinks should
be served in any party gathering.
During the days when the fighting
was going on all the saloons were
closed. Since the Unionist party has
conc into power the sale of liquor
outside the towns has been strictly
forbidden and its sale inside the towns
greatly restricted. A wall is heard in
Guatemala, liquor dealers wailing for
their profits, and they will not be
comforted because they are not
We now face new elections. The
so-called Democratic party has writ
ten Prohibition into its platform. The
other parties stand for restriction.
At any rate the liquor problem is to
the front, and it is the general belief
throughout the country that we will
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