Evening star., 1935-12-22
BY REV. DR.. HOWARD HYDE
RUSSELL,
Co-Founder. the Anti-Saloon League,
Written for the Associated Press.

WESTERVILLE, Ohio, December
2l.-With my greeting Merry Christ
mas to all " recall holiday conditions
in American cities before prohibition.
On Christmas day, 1897, DR.. Purley
A. Baker. then our district Superln-
tendent at Cleveland, went through
deep SnowdriftS with the Salvation
Army wagon which distributed pres
ents in the SlumS. A big brewery
with its saloons had brought condi-
ton of pitiful poverty over large
area # tenementS.
There they saw that day scores of
thinly clad, uncared-for children
waiting for their gifts, many of them
standi.g barefooted in the snow.
Evangeline Booth testifies that these
conditions of terrible squalor and of
drunkenness were changed entirely
after prohibition came in 1920.
False Propaganda Blamed.
The repeal of amendment 18 was
brought to pass by false economic
propaganda and political conspiracies,
especially during the years of deepest
financial depression.
Comparatively few citizens now re-
member that in 1880 the files of the
Association Opposed to Prohibition
were seized by committee of the
United States Senate; that the Senate
examination of these files revealed
the fact that supporters of that asso-
citation controlled property worth 40
billions of dollars and that they were
supporting with large contributions the
propaganda against prohibition.
Also it was shown by their letters
that their object was to bring back
revenue to the Government by repeal.
Thus they would be relieved Of mil
lions of their income taxes by the re-
turn of liquor.
Repeal has come, but instead of the
promised era of no saloons, of no
bootlegging and no drunkenness, there
are now more than twice the number
of licensed rumShopS which were
closed in 1920 by the eighteenth
amendment. They are now much
more demoraliZng because the bars
are open to women and girls, with a
lower age limit.
The multiplied taverns and other
drinking places are making alcoholic
liquors more accessible today than ever
before. Jack London. who knew too
well the facts, said: The trouble about
liquor is, it is too accessible"
Abstinence Unit Formed.
These terrible conditions resulting
from repeal are now made much more
dangerous by the new scheme for O
poses by every method of publicity and
propagation to teach the Nation to
drink gently and moderately. To offset
and defeat this new danger for both
youth and adults the Lincoln-Lee Le-
gion, abstinence department of the
Anti-Saloon League, has been tncor-
porated and will be reorganized and
expanded into very active educational
organization. More than 5,000,0O0
persons between 1905 and 1920 signed
Abe Lincoln's pledge. Gen. Robert E.
Lees name was united with Lincoln'S
because Lee was constant and ardent
total abstainer. Now for 100000
new abstainers led by level-headed
youth!
Moreover, by united efforts of all
the temperance forces we must de-
mand and command again the teach
ing of the effects of alcohol upon the
human body. 1t is astonishing what
general ignorance now prevails about
the real nature of alcohol This poison
actually hardens all living substances.
Also 1t destroys the cells of the human
body, especially the cells Of the brain
and nerves.
Previous education for 20 years in
the schools regarding alcohol united
q majority of the informed voters at
the polls and helped to secure local
option victories and at last prohibi-
tion. This most valuable education
during the past IS years has been
for the most part expelled from the
schools
Truth in Schools Fought.
The Association Against Prohibition
has spent immense sums to prevent
the use of physiologies in the schools
telling the truth about alcohol The
failure to continue this school educa-
tion was one of the errors of the vot-
ers who won the victory in 1920 and
who then mistakenly believed the
battles were all over.
often I am asked whether there
will be a second war and at last a
renewal of prohibition This is my
reply: I heard Prof. Walter Miles of
Yale say, Two bottles of beer taken
by the driver make the taxicab I'M
safe!" When I behold our bloody
highways where, partly because of
liquor, $4,000 we're killed last year and
safety experts expect much more deaths
this year; when history shows more
highway slaughters during the past 20
years than the number of our young
men who have fallen in all our wars,
and the automobile is rapidly passing
from a pleasure to a dread; when
nave recent reports that in every one
OF our States there is increasing regret
1or the mistake of repeal; when in
every State the second dry war is
started, with more than 200 local
option victories in the Fall elections
IN pennsylvania and Ohio, I am now
confident that, much sooner than we
thought in 1888, public sentiment will
strongly swing, sobriety will triunph.
and the organized liquor traffic in
America will be as dead as human
slavery.