The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1929-02-01
DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?
a British Journalists Impressions

In five weeks journey from New Enc
land to California, have made an atten-
tive but necessarily superficial study of
the working of prohibition There are
two issues of practical Importance. and 7
have devoted myself to them: First.
Does prohibition prohibit? Second, Will
it last?
Almost as 1 write. the second question
IS answered in resounding tones. All
around me OH the night of this November
g. people exultingly acclaim the land
slide of votes to Mr.. Hoover in the presi-
dental election Governor Smith has
disappeared completely in the avalanche.
Mr. Hoover is dry" Governor Smith
is wet" So far as there was any clear
cut issue in the election it was Dry"
versus "Wet"-mixed up with Present
Prosperity versus Future Uncertainty In
extricably mixed up, for, in the minds of
millions upon millions of men, Prolibi-
ton and Prosperity are INTERCHANGEABLE
terms
At any rate. the election settles the
question of the continuance of prohibi-
ton. What it does not settle is the
question of enforcement. Does prohibi-
ton prohibit? I am going to be perfectly
candid. 1t does not. Nor will it until
the attitude of the administrators of the
law in many states is radically altered.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I am the guest of well-known man in
a great city, There is a crowd of other
guests. The occasion is important enough
to call for the courtesy of great police
officials attend II :e. IF, among the
pleasant and +" pitable people who press
upon me cocktails and "highballs," find
the great police official most asSiduous,
am TO be asked to believe there is the
least chance that prohibition will pro
hibit in his city or county? If I am, re-
main incredulous.
know that prohibition is a Federal af-
fair, and that Federal body exists to en-
force it. But in the conditions which pre-
vail in Tins country if the state officials,
and especially the guardians and pre-
servers Of the law, are genially prominent
among the laWbreakers. what infnitesi-
NAL chance of success has the haraSsed
and inadequate Federal authority to
maintain the law?
The circumstances differ from state to
state Some substantially in the Mid
Gle West and The South-are manifestly
fairly dry; others are, in a restricted
sense, soaking wet. Enforcement dressed
in somewhat vague language has been q
plank in Mr.. HooVer's platform. Will he
fling down the needful challenge to the
wealthy interests concerned in bootleg
ging, and. more important. to the politics.
ridden police and judicial departments?
Win he attempt TO enforce in fact? If
he will, and is courageous enough to stick
at it, he can undoubtedly enforce.
For the outstanding fact of this very
queer situation is that the defiance Of
the law is confined to definite and even
a small minority of people everywhere
In the main they consist of people of
quality corresponding to our middle
classes. Such is their fury against dis
turbance of their traditional habits that
they entirely overlook the fact that their
supplies of whisky and gin can be main
tanned only by copious lying, explicit or
implicit, and by other dishonorable
means. They deny the moral authority
of the prohibition law.
RULE AND EXCEPTION
This, then, is the sense in which prohi-
bition does not prohibit. But this rather
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