Evening star., 1932-06-28

president OF Yale University. Mrs.
Woodman is the widow Of Paul Wood
man and the mother Of six children.
DR.. Angel is a widower. Mrs. Angel
died about a year ago. "A. +. Photo
been nullifed by the States, which thus
try by force to impose their will upon
unwilling sisters.
1T is considerations such as these
that must be taken into account in
the movement for temperance in this
country. I say for temperance be-
cause, after all, that is the goal and
that ought to be the goal of all good
people, no matter to which side they
belong. I have profound respect for
those who sincerely differ with me on
this subject, but whether we agree
about it or whether we differ about it,
1 do ask that we have the courage
to face it and to face the facts, for
in no other way can conflicting views
ever become reconciled.
MY concern, as I intimated at the
beginning, is not all whether this coun-
try is to be wet or whether it is to be
dry. My concern is how in this land
of diversified people, Of diversified con-
ditions, how can government best deal
with this perplexing problem, how can
government deal with it? The question
is a question Of government.
MY observation of recent history is
that our country's greatest progress
toward temperance was made before we
mixed morals and politics and legisla-
tion all up together in the same crucible
and broiled the eighteenth amendment
and the Volstead law. Our progress
toward temperance was made before we
tried to do by governmental force and
by constitutional right what can only be
done by education and by popular sane
ton and consent. Our real progress
toward temperance was made before we
put prohibition in the Constitution,
where, as q matter of sound govern
ment, it ought never to have been, and
where we we're leaving it to the States,
where, as . matter of sound govern
ment, it ought to be.
Those States and those communi-
ties--and here my friends is the crux
of the whole thing want pro-
hibitory legislation, they are entitled to
have it. If that kind of legislation
meets the circumstances, meets the
needs or the desires of any of the States.
then such States should be free and
undisturbed In the right to have the
legislation they wish. More than that,
effective Federal measures should be es-
tablished to protect those States against
shipment from other States which
would contravene their laws and the
will of their people, but other States
and other communities whose problems
are different they also should be free
to enact such laws within their own
borders as are best suited to their needs
and their conditions and which in their
experience are best adapted to promote
temperance, to promote morality and to
promote order and law among their own
people.
Now, I am entirely confident that
in the event of the repeal of the eight
zenith amendment every State in the
country in establishing its own system
Of control or regulation could be relied
on to guard against the return Of the
saloon and to adopt effective measures
to promote the cause of true temper
ance.
There Is another point about 1t. If
national prohibition were repealed and
State control substituted, the Federal
revenue thus derived would give infinite
relief to an over-burdened and an over
taxed people. On the basis of condi-
tions existing prior to the adoption OF
the eighteenth amendment, I am ad-
vised that prohibition Is costing the
Federal Government a minimum of
$532, ,000, 900 a year. that is in decreased
revenues and in the cost of the Prohi-
bition Department. Estimates which
believe are more reliable place the loss
in Federal revenues nearer one billion
dollars a year.
Pictures Revenue Need.
Now, II national prohibition were re-
pealed and those revenues were to be
free to come into the Federal Treasury
again, then it would not be necessary
to have at least many of the emergency
taxes which, in the emergency Of an
unbalanced budget, Congress has had
to impose.
Bring this home to yourself in this
way: The Federal Government is going
to charge you cents postage on your
letters instead of 2 cents. 1t is taxing
you on your movie tickets, on your
checks, on your stock transfers, on
your land transfers, on your automo-
biles, your radio, and SO on, and so on,
almost ad inf1nitum
IF the Government must do all this,
it must impose all these nuisance ex-
else taxes for the simple reason that it
must make up the revenue which it
lost because Of national prohibition.
Those things, those additional taxes on
your daily necessities, daily conven-
fences, and daily comforts-those are
the things which national prohibition
is costing the American people. Do
away with it, abolish it, discontinue it,
and not only will the American people
be relieved Of these new taxes which
Congress has had to impose when they
are already standing more taxes than
they could bear, but in addition to the
benefits already referred to, there
would be employment for thousands
and thousands of people who need work
but are now without it; new markets
will be open for the farmer, and crime,
the gangster and the racketeer, the
curse of modern America, will not
longer be financed by the outlaw
proflts Of an outlaw trade to victimize