The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1922-12-01

by trains to the numerous smelling
furnaces OF the United States, which
produce more iron and steel each year
than all the rest of the world. Com
paratively few years ago, vessels
were unloaded by laborers with shovels
and wheel-barrows. The unloading
capacity under the I'D system was a
hundred tons day. Today electric
machines unload such vessels at the
rate of three thousands tons an hour
Even greater revolutions than this
have taken place i'll the electrical equip
ment of iron and steel mills.
Under the old system it was posi-
bic for an unskilled employee with a
brain well soaked with alcohol, to han
die shovel and wheel-barrow. The
intricate modern unloading equipment,
however, can not be entrusted to habit
ual users of alcoholic liquors The
same rule applies with even greater
force to the vast electrical equipment
now operating the iron and steel mills
OF the nation. When the iron and steel
industry of America advocates the let
ting down of Prohibition bars, Con-
eress may heed the suggestion.
Dealcoholizing the Mining Industry
During the last ten years modern
electrical inventions have revolution
lied the American coal mining indus
try. Electrical mining machines with
two operators today do the work which
a decade ago required twenty miners.
Seven hundred and fifty thousand
American miners who already are pro-
ducing more than 40 per cent Of all
the coal used in all the countries of the
world, can not begin to meet the de-
mands even with the installation of
modern equipment. Under the old
system a miner with brain fairly well
soaked with alcohol could produce a
few tons of coal day, but the man
who operates modern electric min
ing machine must be sober. :.
An Industrial Revolution
Perhaps no series of legislative acts
have so aroused the manufacturing in
tercsts in America to the absolute ne
cessity of Prohibition as the Work
mems Compensation Laws, passed
during recent years in all but three
states of the American Union. AS a
result millions upon millions have
been invested in safety devices for the
protection of life limb and health of
100000 American manufacturing
employees. Safety to workers and in
surance to manufacturing interests pre-
clude the possibility of those interests
accepting the hazard which would be
inevitable with the return of the bev-
erage liquor. traffic. .f&
An Automobilized Nation Without
"a, Prohibition -,
There are in operation in America
ten million automobiles. All the rest
of the world together employs two mil
lion automobiles. America therefore
may be said TO be the most thoroughly
automobilized nation in the world.
The great development of the auto
mobile industry has taken place in the
last decade, during which same period
Prohibition by state legislation was
rapidly covering the area of the nation.
The beverage alcohol system in oper-
alton in automobilized America today
is unthinkable. VIVA; degree OF safety,
under alcohol, could be vouchsafcd to
any traveller upon any highway or any
pedestrian UPON dry SiuSWdih Vi airy
town or any city? If America faces
such situation now what will other
countries of the world do in regard to
this important question, as the use of
automobiles rapidly increases?
Insurance Risks and Prohibition
Inseparable
Perhaps no department of American
business has developed SO rapidly as
life insurance. Insurance estates are
rapidly becoming important factors i'll
the financial world. In slightly more
than thirty years the amount of life
insurance in America has increased
from five billion dollars to more than
forty-two billion dollars. The num-
Der OF life insurance policies in exist
ence in the United States in 1900 was
5,202.475. The number in 1900 was
14,395,347. The number in 1910 was
29,098,2Sl, while the number in 1920
was 64,341 900. Investigations of ac-
tuaries covering long periods have es-
tablished decided difference between
the actual costs of risks on the lives of
abstainers as against those of nom
abstainers. With this remarkable in
crease in the number and amount of
risks carried by the American insur-
ance companies, the greater part of
which increase has come during the