The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-01-26
RIoIcULINe PROHIBITION.
lpearborn Indepenaent.l

tDEdIHttA 4AItREtiItll.i
Evidence abounds on all sides that
the American people have been made
the victims Of a country wide system
Of propaganda in favor OF the out
lawed liquor traffic. This propaganda
has taken the form Of ridiculing pro-
hibition-that is to say. ridiculing the
constitution and the laws of the United
States.
We are an y-going people and
especially susceptible to the species of
humOr which consists of exaggeratiOn
Our risibilities are stirred especially
by the newspaper cartoon, or the thea
ter or film joke, or the sly allusion
which in some sort demonstrates how
we'll we have gotten rid of the bump
of reverence. In essence, there is
much wholesome common sense in the
democratic instinct which is not de-
tered by ancient tradition or conven-
ton from laughing at pretense or stu
pidity in high places Not even a SEN
ator is safe from the shafts of our sa-
tire or caricature.
by our wet" propagandists just now
is not American. There is nothing
spontaneous or good humored about it.
It's artificiality and generalization are
obvious and give it a false and hollow
ring. There is something sordid in it,
mocl<ery-a suggestion of the laughing
jackass or the hyena And that sort
of campaign is very likely to overshoot
the mark and prove a boomerang. In
the oft-related story of Congressman
Tim Murphy's telling President Cleve-
land that "a little thing like the con-
stitution should not stand betwixt
friends" it is Tins notion we laugh at
not the constitution.
The present propaganda of ridicule
is based on a fundamental misconcep-
ton of American mentality. 1t is as
if our laughing at Artemus Wards
declaration of his readiness to sacri-
flee all his wife's relations on the altar
of his country should be interpreted
as proof that we harbor murder in our
hearts against our own mothers-in-
law
whether prohibition can be made to
work" says Bishop Lawrence. of Mas
sachusetts. depends largely on the
support of public sentiment" The
good bishop may rest assured that, the
American people being sound at the
core stand ready to listen to the ap-
peal from Philip drunk to Philip sober
A reaction toward stern reality is al
ready apparent in refusal to see any
cause for mirthlessness in wholesale
murder or in the deliberate attempt of
an alien element to bring our laws and
our nation into contempt. New
York daily may feature under first
page headlines a cable dispatch. Our
Dry New Year a Joke for London;
American Brand of Prohibition Gets
Huge Laugh; but cear-thinking and
right minded Americans understand
very we'll that it is the fault of the
and not of the friends OF
if our country is made the
laughing stock abroad. They will
hardly thank the "wets" for bringing |
this reproach upon American institu-
tions.
The cold horror of the whole thing /
is being brought home to all of us, day |
bv day incidents of which the follow
ing is typical: On the morning of New
Years Day. a bright and popular IL
vear-old youth in Ann Arbor, Michi-
gan. was found lying dead in an auto
mobile left standing before his par
ents' home. He had gone out with
several companions the evening be-
fore to celebrate the coming in of the
New Year. They INDUCED in moon
shine" whiskey and when they return
ed. this boy told his companions to let
him "sleep it off in the car" as he did
not want his parents to see him in an
condition. An autopsy
showed that he had drunk more than
a pint of a poisonous decOction called
whiskey" and contained a high per-
centage of wood alcohol. The man
who supplied the poison is held on a
charge of manslaughter; but his pun
shment will not restore the young and
promising life nor lift the gloom and
yrief cast by the tragedy on the home
IF his S,ther and mother and on the
entire neighborhood This is not funny