Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-23

The greatest scare in sensational
legislation and bugaboo journalism to-
day Is typified by the heading over
half-page article which appeared
not long ago In prominent daily:
Warn Your Children Against the
Evils of Dope" The article was a
sorry appeal to mothers to become
hysterical over the fear that their
little ones were already dope fiends.
"Oh, mothers. call your children to.
gether this minute. Ask them If any
boy or girl has ever spoken to them at
school Of heroin."
children using drugs today, and each
one-by the very nature Of the drug
will draw another child every week,
and that one another every week,
where will the nation be-" If
The same article almost answers
that conundrum with another prob
lem: IF you put / cent in bank on
January /, and cents the next day,
and 4 cents the next, and so on
doubling each day, then you will have
$21 100000 in bank at the end of
one month" SO If we have 10000
dope children in school to start on,
anu QOuUlc IIIdC HuUlUoT the next
week, and double that the next, we
will have x children dope fiends next
month";. .. O." or whatever the
mathematicians say when they get the
answer. The only weak spot In the
problem is that there are not that
many children in the world, and dope
has been preying for many years. Be-
sides, it costs dope flend from Sc
to 500 day. at peddlers' rates, to
keep up his daily dozen, and not all
children, even in this day, have that
much spending money allowed them.
Surely they can't get heroin at drug
stores with ice cream cones, where it
costs legitimately about 1 per cent
Of peddlers prices. Even the most
hysterical agitators do not SO accuse
druggists.
X X X \,
In the last session of Congress, a
resolution was introduced calling for
the printing. at Government expense
OF 6O,000,000 pamphlets exposing the
horrors of dope. 1t was an article
fathered by the International Asso.
Of which Capt. Hobson, the hero of
the Cuban War, is president. 1t had
the support Of several Congressman
Fifty million copies!
With our total population Of 49,.
| 900, 900, the United States contains
approximately 25,000.000 homes, in
elusive of flats and boarding houses,
so II was proposed to provide at least
| two copies for each family-all in
English, too. though there are said to
be 100000 aliens, not counting
Senator Wadsworth's recent addition
of wives and young children yet to
come. This being an administration
featuring economy" the pamphlet
! was not ordered.
! The hackers of the dope scare de-
I, clare that we have more than a
| million addicts now in the United
| States. and that the number is In
| creasing. The experts of the Mar
| cotic Division of the Internal Reve-
nue. Bureau assert that there are not
| in excess of 100,00 addicts in Ameri
ca, and the number is decreasing
| They are sending 5000 q year to the
penitentiary for peddling or possess
| ing the stuff. They claim to prove
their data with various surveys ano
tests, covering all the country.
| Both parties recognize that prac
| tically all of the evil comes from
opium and it's derivatives, which are
smuggled into the country. 1t is far
| easier to Smuggle narcotics than II IL
| alcohol, because narcotics are con
densed into bulk easily concealed.
| X X y X
| Today, the Department of State
makes public that 1t has issued in
structions to all it's diplomatic repre-
sentatives in countries signatory tc
The Hague convention regarding the
control of the international traffic In
narcotic drugs, requesting such gov
ernments to enforce more strictly the
conventions agreed upon at The
Hague Narcotic Conference Of 1917
against smuggling of the derivatives
Of opiurn and to control within theii