The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-08-08
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 1892
Our Greatest Evil

After reading what Winston Churchill. former Chancellor of the British Ex- chequer. ha sto say about prohibition in the United States. we are more than convinced that in stead of proving boon to this na- ton it has contrived to set us back many years of progress. More and more people are becoming incensed at the attitude of our officials who refuse to recognize the Ill ei- fects of the prohibition amendment. Perhaps we are prejudiced. but we are certainly try ing hard to keep an even balance in this wet and dry argument But we can't help feel ing that the United States is battling with windmills Our purpose IS admirable but our method is deplorabe.
 In Great Britain liquor problems have vexed the nation for centuries; good many more than the United States ever existed In fact what European country hasn't battled with similar problems and in the end come to the conclusion that human habits are not to be regulated by laws. Now they regulate their liquor industries and the sale of all intoxicating beverages. When we do that in the United States on big scale then we may start to move towards true temperance. Of course we know that prohibitionists claim that every known system of liquor control has been tried out in the United States. All right then place prohibition in the same category and also place it alongside of those that have proved failures.
 Mir Churchill believes that the United States today imports as much liquor illicitly as it did when such was permitted. He says. The Canadian authorities have become uneasy at a growing flow of smuggled liouor from the United States into Canada, thus affecting their government monopoly.
 {" natural retort to this might be that Canada tighten its border patrol to prevent such smuggling. But why should any nation help the United States enforce it, laws It IS costing this nation pretty penny every year to try to enforce prohbl- tion. If that effort ceased tomorrow and liquors were legalized our entire debt could be speedily wiped out, trade improved, and business in general speeded up to point where optimism would replace pessimism.
 Speaking of liquor control in his own country Mir Churchill says, Like the United States we have had mass of misery and poverty, directly attributed to the abuse of strong drink Like the United States we have attacked this evil with vigor But we have used different weapons. Our two main weap- ons are high taxation and strict regulations which are enforced and obeyed.
 ."The results have been impressive. The British nation drinks today only half the beer, less than a quarter the spirits. which, with a smaller and lesser afluent population. drank at the beginning of the century.
 Tn the year 1913, the last complete year before the war, there were l84,OOO con- victions for drunkenness in our island. In 1850, the last year for which the figures are available. these l84,000 convictions had fallen to 5000. A similar decline can be shown in the crimes and diseases of drunkenness.
 High taxation has yielded an immense revenue to the State. When was Chancellor of the Exchequer. received between S6OO.- 100000 to S7oo,ooo,0o0 per annum from taxes on liquor
 Need we add anything to Winston Churchll's statement other than to say that nere IS an oPlHlon ol all ou.oiuei' oei'a'ii'| he should not be prejudiced one way or the other. He is merely showing us the path we are following. It is nothing to him if we decide to follow 1t to disaster or retraee our footsteps in time to regain lost prestige and lost world power. Certainly some po- litieal party or some particular candidate has it in their power to lead us back to nor malcy. We believe Franklin D. Roosevelt can do it. Therefore it is up to us to say it with votes