The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-07-15
....TAE CRIME
.A0AlN(T TEMPERANCE
O\/JAMEf AIRED FORMER
10Y Us. SENATOR FROM r1LsSo2EI~
!. SENATOR FROM MIsS00HI.
ARTICLE NINETEEN
Conclusion and Summary

ARTICLE NINETEEN
Conclusion and Summary
T Ell us sum up the case against
IL the advocates of prohibition.
They charged that the saloon was
the principal and almost exclusive
source Of crime. immortality, and
poverty. and asserted that the clos
ing Of the saloon practically would
abolish these evils.
The iniquities they promised to
abolish have increased tenfold.
They have substituted for the
saloon. conducted in the open under
constant police surveillance. the
speakeasy, the dive, and the secret
brothel.
They have made the illicit sale OF
liquor the most profitable business
in the world and placed it in the
hands of desperate men, willing to
violate any law to gain easy riches.
They told us the jails and peni-
tentiaries would stand vacant.
They are filled to oyerfiowing.
Humans are herded in foul-smelling,
disease breeding cells so horrible
that the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals instantly
would protest if brute beasts were
tortured similarly.
They told us the courts Of GRIM
inal Jurisdiction would be without
occupation.
Their corridors and ante-rooms
are crowded with moonshiners, dope
fends. thieves. highwaymen, rob-
bers. murderers. interspersed among
whom are people who, but for this
atrocious law. would be useful ana
law-abiding citizens.
They told us that prohibition
would prohibit.
It has net prohibited.
They told us drunkenness would
decrease.
1t has increased more than four
fold.
They told Us the waste of human
life caused by intoxicants would
cease. and the eneI gies of those who
wasted their me and substance in
drinking would be employed in gain
full occupations.
THIRST and last, they have raw
Il ished from their homes and oc-
cupations not fewer than a quarter
million men and women to be sup
norted at the expense of the state.
Upon this army they have placed
the brand of Ielon, but worse than
that they have reduced to shame
and frequently to misery and want
more than a million innocent wives,
sisters. fathers, mothers, and chill
dren of the condemned.
They have imposed upon the tax
pavers a direct enforcement burden
of nearly five hundred million dol
lars.
They have caused a loss of rev.
enue to the federal government OF
approximately four billion dollars,
and upon The states a loss equally
large.
They have recruited the criminal
world from a class of people largely
heretofore law abiding, and financed
it with a stream of bootleg gold.
They told us youth would no lon
ger be tempted and liquor would be
beyond its reach.
The legal Equations forblddlng
the sale of liquor to a minor no
longer are effectire and liquor is in
common use by millions of boys and
girls.
They told us the manufacture OF
intoxicants absolutely would cease.
They have transferred the bust
ness of the brewery and diStillery to
the bypathS and creeks of the coun-
try and the cellars and garrets OF
the cities.
They have restored the forgotten
art of homemade liquors, and
taught hundreds of thousands to
produce intoxicants from every
sugar or starch yielding fruit and
grain.
They have directly killed by
poison, mostly administered and
/ prescribed under the supervision OF
/ the prohibition department, thou
sands of unsuspecting people.
THEY have repudiated the
i declaration that AL men are
endowed by their Creator with the
one inalienable right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness" and
have substituted therefor a new
legislative and constitutional doc
trine that the pursuit of happiness
shall be in accordance with the Will
of the Anti-Saloon League.
How ridiculous, how tragic, IT all
is. Federal government was not in
tended to have jurisdiction over
crimes, except those committed upon
federal territory. or where the act
constituted a violation of some ex-
press authority granted by the fed
eral government.
BY the eighteenth amendment,
they reversed this policy as to in
toxicating liquors.
The anomaly presented is that we
still trust the states exclusively to
punish murder, arson, rape, robbery
and all other crimes, however helm
nIs hit hold that the states can