Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-10
Speaking of Prohibition
Prominent Women Discuss the Nations Most
Debated Topic.
interviewed by BECKLEY.


II am an absolute, consurlmate tee
total dry. If we knew the harm liquor
does us I'VE would all be drys. But
If Congress had asked me how to
make people dry l would have said.
BY propaganda, education and bit
by.bit legislation. Otherwise you will
have lot of perverse children on
your hands,"
"Dr. Lena" as Chicagoans call her
to distinguish her from DIR. VIII. y
her husband, also a physician and
surgeon. comes from family of med
ical folk. The name is associated
with Battle Creek.
DIR. Lena and DIR. Will married be-
fore they were fairly out of medical
| college and have been practicing
together with the same teamwork you
would expect of the Siamese Twins.
They have two youngsters, and DR..
Lena says she brought them up with
one hand and made pills with the
other
II know children" she began, land
I know that if mother says. I'm 60
| ing out; now you be good babies and
don't put any beans up your noses,
they'll certainly have beans up their
noses when mother gets home!
"We're Grown-up Babies"
MEN and women are only grown
| up babies, with the same naughty de-
sire to do what they mustn't. The
| proof is that l have more patients
| than ever before suffering from dis
eases brought on or aggravated by
alcohol. More women drink nowadays
! than ever before-in the large cities,
anyhow
But despite all this I am for pro.
hibition. 1t was a bungling way to do
the trick, but 1t may work in time
although it does put mischievous ideas
into peoples heads.
II have never tasted a drop of
liquor myself, and have never pre-.
scribed it. 1t has a reviving effect
for a few moments, but this is fol-
lowed by q depression and slowing
down Of the body mechanism which
counteract the good. Even when do
ing it socially, to produce cheer, one
has to keep on drinking to hold the
spirits up, and so the bad effects are
multiplied.
IF people could drink very spar
ingly and then stop. l might favor
modified prohibition. But the vast
majority cannot, and the ones who can
must deny themselves the doubtful
Joys of conviviality that the whole
Nation may be helped"
Reforms Work Two Ways.
Doctor Lena can never see anything
with complete solemnity. Her humor-
sense invariably swings her sober
judgment around to a point where
she finds a cheering aspect even to
such evils as fractured prohibition
laws. She thinks law-breaking might
helm ND get rid of thousands of I'M
desirables.
Every reform" she points out,
works two ways. We have a char
acter hereabouts called Old Liz. Liz
produced q bad baby once each year.
She was always drunk and IL prohibit
ton had not interviewed. she would
have been dead long ago-and prob
ably have died most happily. in the
midst of a beautiful orgy. But now
she can't afford drinks and Is we'll and
husky. She still presents annually to
Chicago a degenerate infant for the
taxpayers to take care Of, for while
Liz has a healthy body, her mind and
character are not the kind to be re-
produced.
Just as prohibition is not alone re-.
sponsible for the bad progeny of Old
Liz neither Is it for lots of ills the
race is burdened with, thinks DR..
Sadler.
lit isn't fair" she declares. I'VE
overeat, overstrain, overhurry and
everyday in an attempt to have a
good time (which we generally don't
have after alp. Then we rush to il
licit booze to relax our weary nerves.
This makes us in the end more spent
than overland we lay 1t all to the
vicious law Of prohibition that makes
- nx.I fAn 90 eraf n1IN
forting liquor, and when we do man.
age to get it it's such bad quality!
We shove the blame on to the dry law
when it should be put upon ourselves"
Women "Think Right"
In Illinois and other midwestern
States, DIR. Lena says, women are or.
ganizing and using existing organiza.
tons to get law enforcement. Women
naturally think right" she insists,
and realize the need for future gem
Grafton free from the taints of alcohol
and the serious evils its use directly
or indirectly brings about.
1.-The people of America" adds the
doctor, "have really reached a correct
judgment concerning the drink ques-
ton. To repeal or modify the law
would be like marching backward. We
shall all be proud some day that we
were the first nation to stick to the eX-
pertinent of doing without liquor.
when scoffers get after the Spirit
ualists and call them charlatans, the
Spiritualists sometimes retort that If
orthodox religion had even one-tenth
the proof Spiritualism can offer, the
whole world would believe In life after
death. They point out that each man
can prove for himself whether COM
munication with the other world is a
fact or not.
IT say the same thing regarding al.
cohol. Let each one of us prove for
himself the benefits of total Austen.
ton. That's not too much to ask,
surely. And If you aren't better, hap.
pier and more successful without it,
then I'm crazy, that's all!''