New Britain herald., 1930-03-06
AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND PROHIBITION

advocates before the Congressional committee turned to opinions about the wonderful economic advantages of tho noble experiment.
 One writer for the Saturday Eve ming Post, journal that favors maximum efficiency on the part of the working classes and minimum of beer drinking, induced Henry Ford and Thomas A. Edison to send telegrams which told of the "eco- homie benefits" of prohibition.
 The workingmen, other telegrams said, are spending less for liquor, though some of the industrialists re- luctantly admitted there was con- brew. They were pleased to state, however, that the manufacture of home brew did not run into much money, thus bearing out their con. tention that less money is being spent for prohibition.
 There is report on prosperity un- der the noble experiment that will not be read by the prohibition forces before the Congressional committee. It is from the recent valuable work of Dr. Paul II. Nystrom, en- titled Economic Principles of Con- sumption"
 The para graphs we are about to quote are culed from a press notice sent out by the Chain Store Age. in reply to the recent charge in the Senate that employees of five and tens were grossly underpaid. The paragraph from Dr. Nystroms book to fortify it's position is important in view of the fact that one of the 1 nations leading chain store mag. mates is a devout prohibitionist be- cause of the economic benefits" to his own business. He figured from the first that if Demon Rum wero slain consumers would spend more money in his stores. Consequently ho has been a staunch contributor to the war chest of the Anti Saloon League.
 Says the Chain Store News:
 According to Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, in a speech deliver ed June 22, 1927, there were then several millions of unskilled laborers in the United States whose wages were so low as to constitute a moral and economic misfortune.
 We have among us from ten to fifteen millions of people, he de- clared, who do not share as they should in the prosperity enjoyed by the rest of us. Morally, economically, and on the grounds of simple hu- manity, this inequality should not be allowed to exist in this richest na- tion in history
 "unfortuntely, the Secretary ot Labor's estimate of the number ot people in this country who do not share as they should in the pros pcrity enjoyed by the rest of us is far too modest.
 Not ten to fifteen millions. but forty millions of our people fail tc share in the national prosperity a; they should. Dr. Paul II. Nystrom, 1T his recent valuable work, Economic Principles of Consumption reveals that we have between 100000 ant S,000.000 living in a state of poverty l2,000,0 ,000 more whose names do no permit them to enjoy more than tho barest necessities for existence, anc another 20.000, 900 whose scale U living is described as the loves standard consistent with American ideals ,000 people who dt not earn eonugh 10 bring them with III HIS Illlllllllull1 COlillOIl CldoSll lCd
 tion."
 If this is what Mr. Ford. MT. Edi 5 son. and the w. C. T. |. are boastfu : about, they are welcome 10 it. The attempt to prove that prohl . bition is vast economic benefit il
 the face of such facts-which b, s the way other writers from time t time have shown to exist-is farce !, And by the way. if the noble ex . pertinent is Of such an economic ad 2 vantage as this, how is it that We r Canada Is also showing quite re | lnarkable economic advantages?