Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-12
Civilized Rise
Against Pests
OfProhibi+ion
I.50o-Yr.- Old Areument
ShouIdoBeot Them
BY BENJAMIN DE CAssEREs

~ WYNN sooSV
= were no wine because Of TIE
drunkards,' then you must ssy.
would there were no steel BE-
cause Of the murderers, would
thers werc no night because Of
the thieves and would there
were no women because Of
adultery."-St. John Chrysostom
in his 'Homilies."
You would think that that I'M
answerable argument Of q wise
old father against prohibition,
advanced 1.500 years ago, would
put the lid forever on those In
fernal pests, the blue-snooted
prohibitionists. But that pest n
on the way again.
This time, however, the civil
lied "wets" Of the u. S. A. win
be prepared to combat the
sanctimonious 'drys" and their
cronies, the bootlegger, the high.
jacker. the stickup and the of
ficials waiting around for ice"
The intercollegiate Prohibi-
ton Research Committee during
the infamous dry regime" in
the u. S. A. had bus called
Diogenes which went up and
down the land searching for
lone drunkard who had been
reformed by the passage Of the
Eighteenth Amendment" They
never found him.
This committee recently hsld
a meeting in New York and Or.
gained for war against the
menace of the bootleH-dryy. A
speaker urged as an Immediate
first step in smashing the pro-
hibitionists that c o m pu / . oryl
courses in the history of the
prohibition era. with its long
record Of murder, social de-
bauchery and political corrup-
ton. plus its bootlegging, high
school gin parties. hip TASKS.
bathtub connections, cellar stills
and home brewing" be given in
AL public schools and all
evangelical Sunday schools."
Prohibition Is one Of the major
domestic menaces that confront
us today. The battle against q
return Of the frightful Is years
OF national debauchery must be
begun now. IT Is q war within
war, and both are for the same
purpose--the freedom Of the
individual and the Staying Of the
dragon Of totalltarianism, for
prohibition Is the entering wedge
to state-slavery.
I ET'S stop this also! One Of
~ the most shocking revela.
tons Of the times Is that So
called Americans are actually
holding up production In some OF
our war-plants by a practice
known as cutting the wind"
In the Cosmopolitan Maya
zine there Is an article by a
! defense worker whose name il
withheld for obvious reasons but
who Is known TO the publishers
OF Cosmopolitan and whose testi-
mony Is to be believed. II bares
a condition that should be dealt
with by punishment SO swift and
so severe that II would insure
against an extension Of the
crime.
Here Is an authentic converse
ton as the shifts in a plant
change:
Morning, IN u m. What's
news: Tho incoming worker
grects the man who Il quitting
work on the machine they share.
And he adds, How N doingS'
Pretty good replies tie
other. Did " pieces today. but
! managed 20 Kill two hours
settin' up the Job. I've had this
last batch on tho machine since
$50 'cuttin' the wind"
That goes on in an eastern
factory where naval precision
instruments are being made. II
a man objects to "cuttin' wind"
he is sneered at as a flag
waver".
Donald M. Nelson In a fore
word to this amazing revelation
says that, happily. this is not q
general condition existing among
war workers. But zone is too
n:any," as the Cosmopolitan
says.
Such men. when discovered,
should be sacked pronto.
0T'HE century which elapsed
L between Waterloo and tho
outbreak of the first world war
was certainly the happiest and
the most creative in the history
Of Europe" says William Henry
Chamberlin in one OF his recent
books.
That is true. In those 100
years there is a longer roll Of
names in all the arts and
sciences that spell the word
civilization" than in any other
age.
It was the age of Victor Hugo.
Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin,
Abraham Lincoln, Robert Full
ton, erson, within a n [.
Thoreau, Goethe. Beethoven,
Pasteur, Nietzsche, Anatole
rance. Shelly. Huxley. Mill,
Ibsen, Marconi-to 60 on would
fill this page with a galaxy Of
names that will shine forever
s: long as man loves freedom
OF thought and speech.
And remember that was the