Evening star., 1933-10-27

Which the Gopernor ansWers
the question, What shall dry
do now?" This article is the
fourteenth OF a series appearing
in The Star under the title,
latter Repell-What?"
am a dry. I am dry because ]
believe that prohibition is right
I am not only a dry, but I am dry.
do not talk one way and drink an
other. In my inaugural address in 1928
made this definite statement:
This administration will be dry. The
Executive Mansion will be dry, and the
personal practice of the Governor and
his family will continue to be dry, in
conformity to the spirit and letter OF
the eighteenth amendment"
That promise has been kept through
two administrations, and will be kept
to the last day Of my term.
No wonder am a dry. I have seer
the open saloon in full flower. The pres
ent generation does not know the sa-
loon and cannot realize what it was and
what 1t meant. For generations the
saloon was the hypodermic by which
vice and crime were injected into the
body polite. And in politics liquor was
the degrading home and hearth and
had We are cleaner without it 1t is
my earnest hope that no generation OF
Americans ever will know it again.
Cites Early Conditions.
I remember as a boy time which
not so many of those who are now ac-
tive in affairs are old enough to re-
70 ho
saloons at nearly every cross S-road-when
drunken men were so common In the
streets as not to excite remark-and
when the little town of Milford, where
live, resounded every night with the
yellS Of men half crazy with drink. This
is not hearsay. I heard them myself
Because of what I have seen and
known, I am deeply convinced that pro-
hibition is morally right I am con-
vinced that strong drink has ruined
more individuals, broken up more fam
lilies. and generally made more trouble
than almost any other single cause of
human disaster unless it be war I am
absolutely satisfied that morally we are
better off without booze
am equally convinced that prohibi-
tion is economically right. Drink always
has been and always will be a huge
economic handicap and loss.
In my view 1t is utterly ridiculous to
suppose that we can drink ourselves out
of the depression back into prosperity
To spend billion or two dollars year
for that which decreases human eff
cheney and lessons human working
power can never be anything but a
gigantic loss. Strong drink is an eco
nomic mistake.
Believing that liquor is moral
wrong and an economic mistake, have
done what I could to prove my faith
by nv works.
Denies Prohibition Failed.
In spite of the successful efforts
which have been made to wreck it, pro-
hibition has not been a failure, as its
enemies claim Both morally and eco
nomically prohibition has been a sue
cess Nothing like the success it would
have been If it had been given some
thing resembling a fair trial, but still
a success.
In this statement most people will
believe that I am wrong. The vast
propaganda against prohibition and in
favor of liquor which has covered this
country like a blanket has persuaded
our people, falsely I believe, that pro-
hibition has failed. I am convinced
that prohibition at its worst has been
infinitely better than booze at its best.
1t is widely claimed and generally be-
lieved that the orgy of crime which fol-
lowed the Great War was due to prohi-
bition. My view is that such orgies Of
crime have followed every great war,
and that if we had not had prohibition
the crime wave would have been not
less but greater still.
The great mass of American citizens
will agree, I believe, that the proper
object of government is the greatest
good Of the greatest number. But the
great mass of Americans commonly
disagree violently among themselves as
to what is the greatest good Of the
greatest number. And if they should
happen to agree upon what is the goal
to be reached, they will disagree, and
with equal violence, on what is the
best way to reach it.
Peaceful Settlement.
In olden days, when such differences
arose, our forefathers had direct and
effective way of settling them. Those
who were for one way as the best way
proceeded to take arms in their hands
against those who were for another way
and the two fought it out until unani-
nous conclusion was arrived at by the
simple process Of eliminating one side
or the other.
It was a method, but certainly not a
desirable method, of aScertaining the
majority opinion. In modern times we
do not find it necessary to eXterminate
the minority as a means of determin-
ing what the majority wants. We have
adopted less bloodthirSty procedure
We find 1t unnecessarily wasteful to
annihilate those who disagree with us
Accordingly, we conduct our disagree
ments with ballots instead of with
spears and swords.
When an agreement was reached by
the method of fighting, the decision OF
the majority was thoroughly binding or
the minority because the minority was
mostly dead Now when an agreement
is reached by the method of balloting
although the minority remains alive, the
agreement is just as binding.
We Americans have made a compact
among ourselves by which we have
ing instead of by fighting. We have
agreed that the will Of the majority
shall decide. And that decision, We
have agreed, shall be binding on the
minority. In this way we can all act
together public questions, and that
is why are nation
And not only nationally, but in every
subdivision of the Nation, public action
is determined by peaceful methods
based on majority rule.
Must Accept Decision.
Just as I demanded that every wet
should accept the decision of the Ameri-
can people when they went dry, SO now
I must myself accept the decision OF
the American people when they go wet
TIE iiWETeU