The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-05-28
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
pe5sIg,TloN 1Nb r4E FUr1sURE


Gently made the prediction that prohibition Will
come hack within FIVE years At the time the re-
mort was published it was greeted in many quar-
tiers with jeers Lately not few political leaders
Some Of them formerly known as vets, nave
been quoted as saying that we are at least heaaGu
in the direction Of prohibition-and that IN the
light of present conditions they will have no re-
grets when it comes. . ... y... DO
The increase in drunkenness that Is apparent
according to reliable observers, in practically every
large city has changed many former opponents Oh
prohibition into ardent "drys." Even bootlegging'
which was everywhere set forth as one OF the
foremost reasons for repeal of the 18th Amend
ment, has showed no signs of diminishing. lhere
has been an increase in government revenues, It
Is true-but at what price!
/ Writing under the title, "As People We Are
Permitting Our Own Moral Distraction" DR.. Harry
T E. Woolever, editor of the National Methodist
Press, describes a social function that took place
in Washington. He says:
youth seems to be paying the penalty of the
rashness of the generation which has been in con-
troll since the war. On the very day the President
returned to Washington from Florida one of the
fraternities of the great Central high school held
dance at the National Press club, two blocks from
the White House. The ballroom filled with
BOYS and girls, most of whom were not out Of the
nursery when the armistice was signed. They had
never seen saloon until this year. and they never
had "tested themselves out to what they could
Fstand'' These were high school students, mostly
fifteen to nineteen years of age. We saw them as
they went in and later as they staggered out of
the room, sick, oh, how sick some of them were,
10 70 ali cnharpntlyt a
this fine group of boys and girls were carried out.
on the following day that "the mess was so bad
that this fraternity had been put on the blacklist
\ and can never rent the room again"
i 'In a generation of Journalism during my col
tfege days and since, never saw so many children
i who were just dead drunk. It was : new sight >
La sad sght-and it was evidence of new and
raw deal the people who are past twenty-five years
/ of age handing to the youth who never knew
4 What poison there is in a liquor bottle. In the
niue leading countries of Europe during study
of conditions on five different trips the writer has
i never seen such a sight of drunkenness. In fact
in the past three weeks we have seer more drink
ing and drunkenness than during the twelve years
of constant travelling over this nation preceding
prohibition repeal. The individual who says pub
tlicly over the radio or in print that repeal has
improved the liquor conditions is either ignorant,
| deliberately lying, or intoxicated. The youth of
today are paying a terrific price for the moral
slump which the United States suffered as regis
tered in the twenty first amendment The morn
ing following the high school party two blocks on
! the main avenue of Washington had the wreckage
! of three serious motor smash-ups and the Blood
stained pavement told the story again that alcohol
and gasoline make a fatal onnbnation-that the
/ liquor traffic is harder on youth than warp
4 This incident cannot be explained away as un-
usual. Many hotel men, in spite of the profits that
are accruing to them conplaia that such incidents
are far from unusua 1t is just such conditions
I that led great newspaper of the far western
part Of the nation to say: Don't laugh when the
W.C.TU. says prohibition will be back in FIVE
\ years. There's more than little comnonsense in
I, the prediction We repealed prohibition because
we believed we could control liquor better if il
was made and sold legally. If they 1.-THE lauor
interesssa continue as they are now operating
it is mighty good bet that prohibition will come
back with a vengeance" --Christian Observer.