Milford chronicle., 1929-10-11
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Some Economic
Aspects
Of Prohibition
By Thomas Nixon Carver Of Harvard
University.
PART II.
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Westerville, O., Oct. 10.-Dr. Thos
Nixon Carver, of Harvard Univer-
sity, believes prohibition, even i'm
perfectly enforced, is working better
than restriction ever worked. In the
second of his articles on Some Eco
nomic Aspects of Prohibition" writ
ten for the World League Against
Alcoholism, DR.. Carver says:
"We in this country have limited
the sale to medicinal and sacra-
mental purposes. Badly as it is en-
forced it works better than the mild
er restrictions of other countries and
vastly better than the mild restric-
tions of preprohibition days in this
country. Some of our younger gen.
Grafton can not remember the old
days. AS President Hoover has said,
if it were possible to go back for
six months to the old conditions it
would be so convincing that there
would thereafter never be any more
interest in the repeal or notification
of the prohibitory law.
"The opposition comes mainly
from those who want freedom to
drink. They call it personal liberty,
but nobody cares a fig for personal
| liberty in the abstract. What they
want is freedom to do what they
want to do. The drugs and narcotics
act is just as much a restriction of
personal liberty in the abstract as is
the prohibitory law. The difference
arises only in the minds of the per-
son who wants one kind of liberty
and does not care for the others. The
one who wants dope but not booze
finds more interference with his per-
sonal liberty in the restriction of the
sale of narcotics than the restriction
of the sale of liquor. The one who
wants booze but not dope finds it
otherwise.
''This insistence upon liberty to do
what one wants to do is going direct
ly contrary to the whole trend of civ
ilization. Living together in larger
and larger numbers requires us all
to modify our personal behavior in
the interest of a larger group life. 1t
requires us all to fit our conduct
into that of the great team of which
we are a part. The individual men,
Der of an athletic team who insisted
on his own right to do as he pleased
would soon be put off the team. 1t
is just as essential that the members
of the Great Team conform their be-
havior to the needs of that team as
that the members of small team
do the same. The principles of team
work are much the same whether
the team consists of eleven men or a
hundred and twenty million of men,
women, and children. In the long
run, it is not certain but that the
Great Team must be exacting than
the small team.
"The ordeal through which we are
passing is really bringing out the
differences among men, as every
sist on their personal rights and
privileges, others consider their du-
ties and obligations. Some think that
social needs must give way to their
own pleasures. Others are willing
to deprive themselves of certain
pleasures if it is good for society
that they should. This difference
comes out very strikingly as men !
face the question of obeying or dis
the prohibitory law.
"In President Lowell's Atlantic
article he admits, as every |
unbiased observer must, that prohi-
bition has doubtless done good, es-
pecially to laboring men and their |
families. In spite of this, however, |
there are some persons in the coun-
try who refuse to give up the privi- |
lege of drinking when they please. |
What about the social mind? Does
it exist in such people?
"If, as social workers testify, the |
places where working people live
seem like new worlds since prohibi-
ton, does the mild deprivation in
volved in giving up cocktails and
champagne seem like too great a
price to pay? The socially minded
are willing to pay the price for such
a good, the egoistically minded are
not. Fortunately for the future
civilization the socially minded
seem to increase more than the ego
istically minded. If that were not
true, we could not live together in
such large numbers as at present.
If it should not continue to be true,
we could not live together in larger
and larger numbers in the future.
(TO ha oOufinuadl