The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-06-01

personal to gain from 1T. The only people
who should, from their own personal
standpoint, be interested in it, that is,
those who are addicted to drink, are al
most unanimously fighting on the side of
drink rather than against it. Nothing ex-
cept general interest in the public good
is adequately motivating the fight against
drink. This Is not exactly materialistic
end or aim.
Thus Thomas NJ Carver, Professor of
Political Economy at Harvard, and Hugh
w Lester in This Economic World and
How It May Be Improved" one of the
most interesting as well as one of the
most significant recent books on econo-
mics The co-authorS are emphatic in
their development of the argument that
the United States is prosperous because it
is not materialiStic They insist: "a
somewhat Sounder thesis would be that we
are prospecting precisely because our ideals
are not materialistic, that all these things
are being added unto us because we are
seeking first the sound principles of JUS
tice and the sound ideals of individual
behavior which are of the very essence
of the Kingdom of God, and that no
nation could help prospecting if it pursued
these principles and ideals wholeheart-
edIy"
Our national ideal, in their view, is ex-
pressed in the constitutional purpose ito
promote the general welfare" or, as they
rephraSe it: Whatever our purposes as
individuals may be, one OF our great ma
tional purposes has been to give every
man a fair chance, to free him from all
handicaps, and to provide for everyone
an open road to talent. This in itself re-
suits in great release of human energy"
1t Is interesting to note the way they
sweep away the personal liberty camou-
nage, SO frequently used by the enemies of
prohibition. One quotation will be suf11ci-
ent to show the attitude of Messrs Car
yer and Lester on this point: ct is some
times considered paradox to say that
some limitation upon the freedom of the
individual may be necessary for q larger
freedom; but it is no paradox at all.
Thousands of good illustrations of this
may be found. One will be sufficient. The
traffic policeman at a crowded corner &C.
casionally restricts the freedom of an in
dividual driver, but if he justif1es his ex-
fstence and regulates wisely, there is more
actual freedom of movement on the part
of all drivers"
Both the necessity for prohibition and
its comparative success in spite of weak
neSSes in enforcement which the authors
frankly recognize, are very wildly set
forth with special attention paid to labor's
gain from prohibition. One might quote:
''NeXt to killing, stealing, and lying, drunk
enneSs is the greatest factor in the waste
of man power in modern civilization, es-
pecially in northern ATTITUDES. The evi-
dence is overwhelming that, for the coun-
try as whole, drunkenness and other by
products of alcoholism have greatly de-
creased since prohibition. There are. it is
true, some thickly populated areas in
which prohibition has not been very well
enforced. Nevertheless, it is probably
more than a coincidence that the most
striking evidences of the diffusion of pros
perity, especially among the working
classes, synchronizes with the period Of
national prohibition, though the restric-
ton of immigration came about the same
time. These two laws are probably the
best laws ever enacted in this country in
the interest of the laboring classes. How
ever, not only is prohibition poorly en-
forced, but the restriction of immigration
is only partial. If prohibition could
be reasonably well enforced-that is, as
well enforced as other laws, such as those
against highway robbery (Which Is not
saying much) and if the American con-
tinent could be put on the quota basis
under our immigration law, there is not
much reason to doubt that wages would
advance still more rapidly and savings and
investments expand at a hitherto un-
heard-of rate" Or this: "As shown In
other chapters, there are sound and
logical reasons why the restriction Of i'm
s.n{or rI.1 -