The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1926-12-31

result is q kOhSl1tlA - d COChCoIAA Win
the kick of a mule, which keeps one
drunk for days if one just shakes
ones head.
One way of getting good liquor is,
of course, through the doctor and the
drug store. In Norway one could al
so get it through a veterinary. At
one time, 1924, the drug stores, ply
sicians and veterinaries were selling
alcohol at the rate of one-third OF
the whole record alcohol flood OF
l916-before prohibition. But that
also was expensive.
In 1923 Norway spent 100000
crowns for 2,257, 900 liters of alcohol
for medical" purposes. The doctors
got about 100000 crowns for pre-
scriptiOns alone. Medicine was
freely hauled by the trucklOad. New
er before nor since has the nation
been so sick, especially not since
new law passed in 1924 put liquor
prescriptions under far stricter con-
troll.
Nation Was Ravaged By Alcohol
Prescriptions dropped from 100000
liters in February, 1924, to below
10000 iters a month afterward. But
medical alcohol consumption is ris-
ing again as new ways are found to
get around the new law.
What this change from aquavite
to esprit" and "hjemmebraendt" has
meant to Norway is best described in
the words of Fru Ragna Hoerbye,
head of the Association of Welfare
Organizations and a member of the
city council of Oslo. Speaking from
her own experience as a welfare
worker and the wife of a physician,
she said:
81 know that many women voted
for prohibition in 1919, and with
good reason. Some of them thought
that when the use of alcohol was
prohibited its misuse would stop.
But they were mistaken.
"Never did alcohol ravage our ma
ton more than it does today. Never
has it made the nation more spine
less, morally and physically. De
strOyed homes, crowded prisons,
smuggling, home distillatiOn and
bootlegging- is the picture of
our country today-the country that
has gradually worked itself up to a
sObriety that was our pride.
cit will probably take generations
to rebuild what was destroyed. ]
don't hesitate to say that prohibition
has been a curse and is a crime
1t is a product Of either political con
sideration or of egotism and blind
ness.
LET US frankly confess we were
A,1- Fo
prohibition and we are willing t,
correct it.
What Royalty Did
Here's what prohibition did to Nor
way, a condition paralleling that i
the United States:
1. 1t made Norway a nation O
technical and actual criminals. Kin
HaazOn and Queen Maud laid gres
stress on observing the laws fo
themselves and for their household
They held this to be their duty as tn
first citizens of the land only to Sc
a good example, not because they be
lieved in prohibition.
On the contrary, they have a kee
appreciation of the pleasanter sid
of life, are enthusiastic followers {
all sports, and Queen Maud is consiC
cred the best Charleton dancer
Norway.
But outside Of them and the COZ
WINGED prohibitionists-and not a
who voted for prohibition are dry
there were few persons in Norws
above their teens, and even in the
teens, who have not broken the pr,
hibitiOn law more than once and mo
of them habitually.
One met forbidden liquor al
therefore criminals" everywhere,
the highest society and the lowe
hut, in the clubs and offices, in Il
restaurants and cafes. To offer al
take illegal drink was like a han
shake-you offered it to smooth Il
social machinery and you refused
at the peril of friendships. La
breaking became a sign of good fl
lOwship.
drinking a Sport"
To serve forbidden liquor with Il
coffee was a point of honor wi
every host and hostess who did n
want to betray lack of proper co
nectiOns, or, worse still, in a count
which prides itself on its hospital
-miserliness. And this applied
the high and low. The differen
was merely in the quality of the
quor served and the risk one ran
drinking it.
But drinking also became a spo
in itself, just because it was fC
hidden. And because it was a spo
it led to excuses more frequent
than before prohibition. People dra
to get drunk.
And these excuses were no long
found as reprehensible as they we
when liquor was free. They we
laughed off as a good joke, and I
body thought of cutting off anOtE
from his social list because he h
got drunk in his hosts home.
Something akin to a brutalizati
ton of life and manners was brOug
about by prohibition.
More startling and spectacul
however, than this slower process
social decentralization was the amoJ
of actual crime directly produced
prohibitiOn-smuggling, rum-runnil
bootlegging, hi-jacking, home-b~e
ing and violence by persons Graz
by bootleg liquor.
The same unholy elements Il
have created a gigantic bootleg
dustry in America duplicated tn
sinister, but highly efficient Orga
zati0n in Norway, too.
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