Evening star., 1926-08-22
v. c. T.U. DEFENDS
YOUTH AS MORAL
Union to Fight Insinuations
That Prohibition Has
Corrupted Morals.
BY Consolidated Press.

BY Consolidated Press.
EVANSTON. ILL.,. August 21.-Wet
leaders who have been vOc1ferously
bewailing the fate of modern youth
under the prohibition regime nave
stirred up a hornets nest.
The flaming youngsters OF this moo.
ern age are not leading SUCH WHO
careers as some ti-prohibitionists ad-
vertise. and those that are cutting the
most capers aren't doing 1t because
of the Volstead act,' according to the
Women's Chris Jar Temperance
Union, which now announces that II
is jumping back into the liquor ngnt
with the same sort of active program
it had before the eighteenth amend
ment went into the Constitution
Since it essayed to defend the youth
of today against the charges OF the
vets, the w. G. T. U. says, 1t mas re-
ceived such a widespread response
that it is sure the right chord has
been struck.
Seek to Arouse Nation.
Mrs. Ella A. Boole, president of the
orga nization, in explaining further TO-
day Just what it is that the women
temperance advocates are aiming at,
said
I'VE are going to arouse the United
States to q sense OF Indignation
against professional wet politicians
who are attempting TO defame the
character of our youth ana draw at
tention TO the many similarly untruth-
full arguments the w.ts are using, to-
tally ignoring the actual proved facts
of the case"
What rileS the women particularly
is the statement being used by wet
politicians in many States in their
literature which says: "Nolsteadlsm
among the youth of the land-glrls
as we'll as boys-is producing condl-
tions that make fathers trenble and
mothers weep in agony"
There has been no cheaper trick
in all American politics. says Mrs.
Roole, than this false plctur1ng OF
youth. No meaner political slander
has ever been invented than this
business of rubbing smut on the boys
and girls by the liquor interests and
their friends.
Horace Taft Denies Charge.
I'VE had no tears or pity from
these gentlemen in the days when we
were fighting the open saloon. with
it's grip on the political machinery:
none Of these crusaders against pro-
hibition came to our help in the days
when dance hall keepers were al
lowed by law to sell liquor all night
long; nor when the brewer owned
saloon, with it's sordid back room and
surreptitious side entrance, was an
aid to the commercialized vice which
has real cause to make parents
tremble. We have never heard a
word from most of these men until
the liquor interests were Cramped.
That observation brought this re-
sponse from Horace D. Taft. brother
of Justice Taft. and headmaster Of
a boys school at Watertown, Conn.
THE grOanS about the doings of
young people began long before pro-
hibitien. Troubles of society set,
small circle, are not due to prOhibi-
ton. because trouble of that sort was
growing before we had any prohibi-
ton at all. AS to the general effect
of prohibition among young people, /
have no doubt on the whole it has
been very beneficial"
The w. G. T. L. said that before is
suing its first statement attacking
vets for using their argument con-
cerning drinking among young peo-
pile, a careful investigation was made
in several hundred communities.
SchOOlmasters Laugh at Idea.
THE situation was the same in
ALL" Mrs. Boole says. young people
who drank were rare in 1918 and are
even rarer today. Nearly all the
schoolmasters laughed at the idea
that drinking is on the increase or
that it is problem among youths.
THE only places where drinking
ever showed its effect on the young
was in the old-time laboring class
neighborhood, where beer was a part
of a child's diet. and where today,
milk is the accepted drink"
The W. c. T. T.. with it's 200
local unions in nearly every commu-
nifty of the country. was an impor
tant factor in the old prohibition
fight. It's officials say that from now
on it's going to be heard from again.