The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1922-11-15

Dear Sir:
| We not that you have printed in Your
| issue Of the fourteenth. az some length.
an interview ct ono L. Ogden Gibson.
who halls from the city Of New York.
I; IS indeed surprising that mcH re-
| pUced 20 have a great understanding
| and more than tho ordinary share %
: brains will try 70 foster upon the peo-
: pie such childish assertions and ex-
: pect them 20 swallow them.
! This individual! has ;he child!srncss
! - say that prohibition IS the cause or
tho increase of crime when 4 ter-year-
. DID hoy who has q mind to tieur-
things on, for himself Knows that his
assertions are not true.
/ Might Just as we'll say that the law
J against murder !ucr"a sed crime, that
/ the law against stealing Or any other
! Of our prohjhitire laws increase crime
as TO say the prohibition law does.
! Certainly the population OF our peni-
tert.ar!es has Increased. hu; let us sec
! :. prohibition has done It?
! OF course We have sen; several men
and a t.w women 10 the penitentiary
! because they have continually violated
. the prohibition law. and there Will he
many others 20 60 also, for the same
reason. and Il is a fact that II you
would do away with tho law against
murder. stealing. adultery. and IN fa't
all ~ our proh!hitary laws. that before
year our jails and penitentiarieS
would b. empty. but such a condition
would exist IN our land that causes US
20 Shudder when We think OF y.
/ No one would want that condition 10
exist.
We say that crime wave has swep.
! over the country and We are inclined !"
believe that such Is the casa, but did
the prohibition law cause L"
Most aSSurcd!y 0o;, we lind that
other issues we're directly responsible
ccr this crime wave.
N the first place. history Will bear
on, ;he truth Of the assertion that after
every crea, war there has always toi-
lowed a crime wave. Why this IS tru"
we do not know unless war breeds as
content ard n lust for evil.
/ In the second place. We have. and are
Just passing through great industrial
adjustment. men have been arrested b.
the hundreds and convicted. and SEN
fenced - confinement. this has caused
hatred and lures: and men have turned
20 crime "a an Quiet as they say TO
get even"
And IN the Third place. IL we take tbs
Bible for H. We are nearing the end OF
things and are entering upon the peril
Gus times that must needs come.
There are other reasons why crime
waves have swept over the country.
This man SAYS that dope tiendS have
Increased: that may b. true. they were
whisky f!ends before, bu, does that
stSn.fy that because a man has the ten
dercy and blood IN him 10 ruin his body
= ha'1 that shall
sanction II with the laws CT our coun-
Try?
He SAYS It's either dope. or whisky. or
wine. and | will grant YOU that there
are some who will destroy themselves
and ruin their lives no matter how hard
We try 10 prevent them. but these un-
fortunate men will die some day and
the future generation Will grow up
/ clean and strong. both physically. men
tally, and spiritually. because they VIII
have no knowledge Of dope or the
/ licensed saloon.
lie brings in the old. WORKOUT issue
OF Personal Liberty" Well. every
other mans liberty ends just where my
nose begins. ard IL some one stretches
OF. ,heir arm too far and strikes me on
the nose I will have them arrested.
though they may claim that their per-
soual liberty gives them the right 10
stretch out their arm. Every mans
liberty ends when It infvinges upon the
rights OF Others. The man who drinks
his wife has some personal liberty and
his children. Wha, about their personal
liberty? I, IS poor rule that does not
work both ways.
The wife and children have Just IS
much right 70 th"!r personal liberty as
the husband and father. ard ife ne. un-
justly, !nterferes with their rights 20
live and be happy then his personal
liberty mus be taken away.
And then in our talks with men we
r.c., chat many hundreds who once were