The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-05-22
PROHIBITION PRosPERs PEOPLE

The Manufacturers Record of May
18th, collects interviews from scores
of manufacturers over the country
telling of the things which have come
about because of prohibition.
We of tine South have been told
that the movement gained headway
here, and that National Prohibition
is not popular except in the South.
If you read the daily papers of the
big cities of the North; if you read
the articles in the magazines, some
of them written by preachers; or if
YOU talk to the man on the streets
in many places, you will gather the
idea that there is no real prohibition
and that it really amounts to nothing
except down South, and that while
it is in force as a matter of form in
many places, it is not really in force.
In fact it is stated that prohibi-
ton is not doing much good down
this way, but every observing man
knows to the contrary. One of the
evils which the dispensary and the
gallon-a-month law brought to tn !
country was the storing and drinking
of liquors in the rural sections where
there was no police protection. All
of this is gone. There is no liquor on
the farms of Abbeville Cuonty, ex-
cept here and there perhaps where
some culprit tries to manufacture a
little. And little liquor is to be had
in the towns and cities as compared
with what flowed in former times.
There are a few people who persist in
buying from the bootlegger and who
persist in drinking his connections.
The more they drink the sooner will
they depart hence and as they pass
out the line of liquor drinkers in this
country will grow. thinner.
The real people to be benefited by
prohibition, the people who needed
prohibition, were the laboring people
of the country-the people who labor
ed with their hands in the mines, in
the workshops and in the manufac-
turing plants of the country. These
are the people who have been bene-
fitted and who are prospering because
of the enactment of the law. The fol-
lowing extracts from interviews as
published in the Manufacturers Rec
ord will show that prohibition is do
ing for the North what it is doing
for the South:
Judge Gary of the United Steel
Corporation in reply to a question
naire as to whether he is still oppos-
ed to the liquor traffic to the extent
that he was when he signed a petition
to Congress some years ago, heartily
commends Prohibition and writes:
"Yes, results have fully justified
Prohibition legislation" and he says
that he can see no reason to change
his opinions, and adds: 81 endorse
the admirable expressions of Presi-
dent Harding on this question"
The expression of President Hard
ing to which Judge Gary refers is as
follows:
"1n every community men and wo-
men have had an opportunity now to
know what Prohibition means. They
know that debts are more promptly
paid, that men take home the wages
that once were wasted in saloons;
that families are better clothed and
fed, and more money finds its way
into the savings bank. The liquor
traffic was destructive Of much that
was most precious in American life.
In the face of so much evidence on
that point what conscientious man
would want to let his own selfish de-
sires influence him to vote to bring
it back? In another generation I
believe that liquor will have disap-
peared not merely from our politics,
but from our memories"
In closing his statement Judge
Gary adds that drunkenness is not
as common at present, so far as he
can learn, as under the open saloon
and free liquor traffic.
R. A. Cochran, Treasurer of the