, 1924-06-25

per month. Since 1922 the number has
f~luctuated between 1900 and 2,100.
This record shows an average in
crease of monthly failures under pro-
hibition of 700 per cent. Ha dthis
damming record been made before
the Inauguration of V~olsteadism, drys
would have blamed the legitimate IL
quor business. Business men would
have been told that most, if not all,
of these failures occurred because
the people were buying beer instead
of bread and spending their money
for booze instead of shoes.
az have here a copy of the Econ
omist' for January Z, 1922. On page
80 l find the record of business fail
ures for 1921. l shall lonly take time
to read the caption:
Failures in 1921. All records
broken as to number and liabilities.
South and West show great increases.
Bank and large commercial failures
numerous. Bank suspensions most
numerous since $685.
$50 much for the first full year of
prohibition. ta4 r.
81 also have a copy of the Econ
omist' for January 6, 1923. On page
80, I find another significant caption,
which l shall read. Here it is:
"'A big year in failures. Record
number and next to record liabilities.
The South leads in number as in 1921,
despite higher priced cotton
at should not be forgotten that the
South has had prohibition longer and
more OF. it, than any other section, or
most any other section of the
try.
Judging by the promises, predic-
tions and claims of its advocates and
defenders, V~olsteadism is the great
est fraud, the most s~tupendous fail
ure, ever recorded in the annals of
a nation.
"Workers are buying bread instead
of beer but the wheat farmers of
America are facing bankruptcy for
the first time in our history. How
does it come that prohibition can put
so much money in savings banks and
so little in the pockets of thefarmers?
1,50O,0O farmers and farm laborers
have left the farms in the last two
years. In the state of Missouri alone
there are 1900 farm houses uonccu-
pied.
"Of what economic value is Vol
steadism if it makes law breakers
rich, but cannot save legitimate bust
ness from bankruptcy? Prohibition
has not only failed to help the farm
err, but it is already responsible for his
present condition. Anything that in
lures the farmer harms everybody.
Nobody can deny that the demoraliz-
alton of the rye and barley market is
directly due to the operation of Vol
steadism.
eff you were TO pass a law prohib-
iting the use of automobiles, except
for the purpose of hauling ministers
to church and taking people to the
hospitals you would wreck the auto
mobile business, just as the Volstead
Act has ruined the rye and barley
business.
taking 1918, the last full wet year,
as a basis for our comparisons, the
Volstead Law prohibiting the use of
rye and barley in the manufacture Of
alcoholic beverages has cost the Ame-
rican farmer to date-on these two
crops-the enormous sum of $685.
900 1000. You cannot reduce the pur-
chasing power of the farmer $685.
100000 and not indirectly injure every
other line of business. 1t has caused
great distress among manufacturers
of farm goods, and is responsible for
the recent bankruptcy of the Avery
Company. one of the Oldest manufac-
turers of farm implements in this
country.
att may be said that it is unfair to
make wartime prices the basis of COM
parison in figuring the cost of Vol
steadism to American farmers. But
he is paying wartime prices for what
he has to buy. Why should the price
of every other commodity except
grain remain neal the wartime level?
What knocked the bottom out of the
rye and barley markets? Prohibition
forbids the use of barley and rye for
certain purposes. The law has de-
strodev its value to a great extent. 1t
is still lawful to make rye bread and
barley soup. Give the American far
mer the billion dollars that prohibi-
ton took from him and he could solve
his own problems without calling up
on Congress for special legislation.
Give him back the money prohibition
took from him and it would not be
necessary to devise artificial measures
to save hi mtoday from economic
ruin. ?
make prohibition a success, en-
force the law, and prohibition will
ruin the Crane growers Of America
more completely than il ruined the
barley growers and rye farmers.
prohibition in the last four years
has cost the American people in this
one item alone S1,260. 600, 900. In the