The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1923-04-20

which any phenomenon becomes part
of the household life, to that extent
will there be an inevitable reaction on
the life of the child, with the very
language indelibly imprinted on the
delicate photographic disk, and the
scenes photographed on the sensitized
Photographic plates of the child mind
In the same way young girls and
women have been brought into unpre-
pared contact with liquor drinking
in its most Objectionable aspect.
With them as well, the character of
association is with that which in their
previous experience stood for all that
was protective and beneficial. And
thus the tippling habit is fostered in
a sphere and under circumstances
which lack the safeguards which the
old saloon system, through the very
fiagrancy of its evils, afforded.
1t is by way of no disparagement
to womanhood when it is said that the
illicit phase of the present system
exercises a peculiar fascination, for
the male youth of the country are
also amenable to its insidious appeal
The danger lies in the prevalent con-
viction that the existing prohibition
laws involve definite blow at per-
sonal liberty, and that any infrac-
tions of such laws do not, per Sc, con-
comes in dash of the brigand in the
young man who surreptitiously gains
possession of a bottle of ''hootch," To
cap the pride in his possession, the
next step is to display the evidence of
his hardihood to the young female of
the species, under tNe sway of the
same mingled emotions that led Der
tie the Lamb" in "The Henrietta" to
furnish manifest tokens that he was
devil of fellow" although normally
he was quite harmless and innocent
individual. The girl is duly impress
ed, for the incident answers to la
tent demand that the male distinguish
himself after some such fashion
These conditions are as we'll known
to the forces engaged in the illicit
traffic as to the more learned inves-
tigators in the field of human psychol-
ogy. His wits preternaturally sharp
oned by the hope of gain, the boot
logger takes advantage of those in
nate tendencies of human nature and
goes after" this new and hitherto
undeveloped market In the old days,
the swinging doors opened inward to
admit the voluntary customer The
worst dive-keeper never went out
after his victims. Today the bootleg
ger carries his wares to the home.
The serpent invades paradise. The
future of the illicit industry is de
pendent upon the ability to create an
enlarged demand. In the hands of
the most unscrupulous element to be
found in the human race, there is no
compunction but rather the most per-
sistent effort to create an enlarged
clientele. 1t is no longer a contest
Of equals. Organized cunning meets
a comparatively weak antagonist, and
has for its allies those very tendencies
of the spirit of male and female youth
already mentioned, which it turns to
malignant uses
None of the foregoing, of course,
is intended to be defense of the
saloon against the return of which
the Association Against the Prohibi-
ton Amendment is definitely opposed.
Yet, in the relative picture presented
of the workings of the old system and
that by which it has been supplanted,
it cannot be denied that there existed
condition of voluntary self-regula-
tion in the old that protected the
young and innocent, which is entirely
absent in the new, and that the latter
has brutally made serious breaches in
strongholds which the former never
had the temerity to attack. More
over, there was measure of control
by the government under the old sys-
TEN which it was to the interest of
the legalized liquor traffic, if only in
self defense, to support In the
bootlegging era which was superven-
ed, that interest on the part of those
engaged in the traffic is not only
lacking, but they vie with each other
in spreading the evil. And the COM
bined forces of the government are
powerless to cope with the situation.
National Association Against the
Prohibition Amendment Press Bulle-
tin