The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1926-11-12
The Cherry
- Where with our
Tree 1.'.1s i =, II a.,ss;, ,.s;s he
about many things, sometimes pro-
foundly, sometimes flippantl-.
sometimes recklessly. -. -.

w nat WlCH TcleISIuuiIlS Oil CIlS
subject and the report Of the coast
guard that supply ships at the Canad-
ian rendezvous are scarce, the SUBJ
ject of prohibition and that which it
supposedly prohibits is of recurrent
interest.
Topping the supply of interesting
information on the subject at the mo-
ment is report just made public by
the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company. Deaths from alcoholism
among that company's 100000 in
dustrial policy holders during the first
nine months of this year increased Ia
per cent over the number of deaths
from the same cause during the same
length of time in 1925.
This means that in that particular
group of Americans there was clear
gain of IA per cent in the number of
victims of bad booze or too much
booze.
1t would seem that prohibition
somehow doesn't prohibit very effec-
lively.
There are sections of the country
where there hasn't been bar in oper-
ton for many years. But there are
today few to whom the information
is of any interest who don't know
where to locate at least one wide open
bar, if they live in any section where
there is a real demand for liquor.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company's report should rank beside
the Chicago gang war to focus public
attention on the effectiveness with
which prohibition doesn't prohibit.
Every indication is that enforce
ment is becoming weaker day by day.
1t will take more than the benign face
of Mr.. Andrew Millionaire Mellon to
make enforcement real thing, and
that's one large certainty.
In certain college city crowd OF
students from denominational uni
versity exemplifed the effectiveness
of prohibitino at a Halloween soiree.
There may have been twenty or
thirty in the crowd, each with his lady
fair. Nearly all drank. Several were
carried out helpless. Two or three
Girls went out in the same condition.
One empty bottle crashed onto the
dance floor and put it temporarily
out of commission. Dancing was of
a type that could well be called OBJ
scene. And the place was under the
management of a conservative, stald
old hotel, Before prohibition, social
ed, no such orgy would have been
thought of except in those places call
ed "dens" by the morals squads and
the Sunday papers.
Authorities continue to impress
upon the public mind that bootleg
liquor is vile poison and hospital rec
OfQS continue 10 pIOVc tiioc viz "esA -
ings are no idle scares.
But all this seems to matter not a
bit to the thirsty and determined
souls who are going to prove above all
that they can have a drink if they
want it.
The saloon business used to be a
power in politics. Chiefly this power
was exercised in ward and city poll
tics. 1t was bad and everyone knows
that it was bad. Perhaps if it hadn't
been so bold the deluge of synthetic
gin might not have come so soon.
But the power welded by the oil
time saloon was piker stuff compared
to the power welded by the bootleg
industry which readhes into high
places and carries bribery, perjury
and murder wherever it goes. Inas-
much as it operates entirely outside
the law it has no need for even such
scruples as formerly limited some
what the saloon political power It
is of necessity criminal and therefore
entirely without scruples.