The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1922-12-15

greatest events not only of the past
e adoption of the policy of prohibition
f the greatest nations OF the world.
public health, the public peace and the
public welfare score heavily on the side
of Prohibition.
Even more significant is the contrast
! shown in what might we'll be termed
"a revival of learning in America" I'M
der the Prohibition regime, as that
revival is indicated by the records of
the public schools, the high schools.
the technical institutions, the colleges
and the universities.
There are, however, moi compre-
hensive, more fundamental and more
conclusive facts which tend to show
why America was compelled to adopt
Prohibition, why America must con-
tinue Prohibition and why return to
the reign of the liquor traffic in Amer
lea is essentially impossible.
This, in a special sense, is an indus.
trial and commercial age. The impli-,
cations therefore in the transformation
which has taken place during the in
dustrial revolution of the past few
years deserve thoughtful considera-
ton.
Railroad Prohibition
A few years ago, comparatively
speaking, it was not unusual for news
papers to ascribe railroad wrecks to
drunken engineers" Railroad lines
in America have increased in fifty
years from $4,000 miles to 264, 900
miles. Railroad development OF every
character has gone forward in Amer
lea until today twenty billions of dol
lars are invested and two million men
are employed at an annual compensa-
ton of three billion dollars. These
railroads carry annually more than
two thousand million tons of freight
and more than one thousand million
passengers. Yet with 10000 railroad
locomotives being driven on all lines
throughout America, how many
wrecks are today charged to drunken
engineers, or drunken train Dispatch
ers! American railroads will not en-
ploy an engineer who uses intoxicants
either on or off duty. This imperative
railroad law carries far greater de-
gree of punishment than any local,
state OF national prohibitory law.
Even the liquor interests in America
have long since ceased to defend the
personal liberty of railroad engineers
to drink intoxicants.
When American railroads modify
their rules which have stood for a
quarter of a century, so as to permit
engineers, train dispatchers, and tele-
graph operators to use light wine and
beer, the American Congress will
doubtless be ready seriously to con-
slider the ACCESSIBILITY of modifying the
federal prohibitory law.
Iron and Steel VS.. Alcoholism
The giant lake freighters, which
carry ore from the great Superior ore
districts, are unloaded at American
lake ports, when the ore is transported
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 in the electrical equip
ment of iron and steel mills.
Under the old system it was posi-
BILE for an unskilled employee with
brain we'll soaked with alcohol, to ham
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 prof.