Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-22
CONTRAD|CTS
GOV. EDWARDS
m Wilson, Anti Saloon
League Leader, Declares
Prohibition is Success

Prohibition is a flat failure"
says Governor Edwards, in a press
statement, to which the Anti-Saloon
League replies, through Samuel
Wilson, Assistant State Superinten-
dent. Our misft governor is fully
qualified as an expert to speak about
failures but in his statement he
betrays his usual bias or ignorance
on the subject of prohibition.
Apart from its falsity, it was
certainly undigniied for the govern
or to speak so insultingly of u
senators and members of congress
when he makes the statement that,
all but a dozen of them carry liquor
on the hip
THE governor, himself, has the
chief responsibility for enforcement
of the laws of New Jersey, and it is
humiliating to read his confession
that, the principal s. for the
failure of prohibition is that those
entrusted with the enforcement of
the law are the most persistent vio-
lators.' There are a lot of judges,
prosecutors and other officials who
have respect for their oaths of Of
flee, and who have the right to de-
mand an explanation of this serious
charge.
" oN oSNi 10
bad company to justify his state
ment, L have seen more drunken
ness in the last two years than ever
before Two weeks ago 1 met a man
who was lit up but since then l
haven't seen a person who showed
the slightest indication of %intoxica-
ton, or even smelled an alcoholic
breath; and during hat time 1 have
been in all parts of New Jersey-but
l haven't mixed with the governors
associates.
I'VE both live in Jersey City, and
If drunkenness is on the increase
there, isn't it strange hat in the City
Hospital the cases Of acute alcohol
ism-for the last six months of this
year-fell over twenty per cent, as
compared with 1919? And that in
Christ Hospital there was not n
such case during the first six months
of this year, as against twenty-one
cases two years before? The Satur-
day night ambulance calls in Christ
Hospital fell from ten or twelve to
only one or two, and Superintendent
Hyde was so impressed that he wrote
to me as follows: AS a hospital eX-
ecutive, 1 would have you know that
I regard the prohibition movement
as a tremendous humanitarian bles-
sing
"If drunkenness is on the increase,
isn't it strange that the asylumS for
in~ebriates and the Kelley Institutes
have all gone out of business? And
how can we account for the down.
ward scale of cases of alcoholism, as
shown by the New York City Health
Departments weekly reports, as fol-
lows: 1916. 6S7; 1917, $50; 1918,
252; 1919, 176; 1920. 9S?
Il am pleased to be able to agree
with the governor on one point; he
y L am glad the saloon has been
abolished, for it was the greatest
curse of the nation What vas it that
killed the saloon? Prohibition. There
was nothing evil in the saloon itself
the bar, brass rail, mirrors, spit
toons, bottles, glasses, etc., were
quite ~innocuous. The evil was in the
booze-the whiskey. gin, rum, BRAN
dy, wine. ale. beer; in brief. alcohol;
and prohibition said, 1t can't be sold
for beverage purposes just as prohi-
bition, a few years before, outlawed
the traffic in other habit-forming
drugs.
The governor makes a bad break
when he tries to talk theology. He
says: There can be no character
WlLnOu leIlpldllou, Jul odNAoui
preached this My Bible teaches
that the Saviour said to the tempter,
Get thee behind me. Satan;' and all
Christendom prays, Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil
Then. again, he us that,
There always will be sin. This. be-
ing interpreted. means that the mis-
sion of Christ is a failure for of Him
we read that. He hath appeared to
put away sin by sacrifice of himself
There are two things that Edwards
does not understand, one is theology
and the other is prohibition.
Lastly, our governor for
the poor immigrants Who are
more oppressed here than they were
in Europe One wonders why they
come here. They don't have to-. The
words of Attorney General Daugher-
ty are an appropriate reply: Those
who do not believe in our govern
ment and the enforcement of our
laws, should go to a country which
gives them their peculiar liberty"