Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-10-29

Mr.. Asbury, who wrote 1.-The
Barbary Coast" and in other books
excavated other entertaining
areas of Americana, has written
what he calls an informal history
of prohibition. 1t is a more i'm
portant contribution to recent his
tory than the title or subtitle
might indicate.
While THE Great Illusion" is
in Mr.. Asbury's usual engaging
style, never stuffy or indignant,
1t is carefully documented and
presented with judicial fairness.
Our experiment in prohibition
still is recent enough to be pretty
we'll remembered. And yet since
repeal a generation has grown up
depending on reading and hearsay
for its appraisal of those turbu-
lent IA years. The amount writ
ten on the subject would fill ware
houses. In fact, Mr.. Asbury ex-
plains that he intended to pub
lish in connection with his book
q complete photography of tenn
perance and prohibition litera-
ture, but found a mere listing
would require another book. In
diving into this vast accumulation,
he had the formidable difficulty
of separating truth from what is
euphemistically called propaganda.
He explains: The drys lied to
make prohibition look good; the
vets lied to make it look bad: the
Government officials lied to make
themselves look good and to
frighten Congress into giving
them more money to spend; and
the politicians lied through force
Of habit"
Makes Order and Sense.
Mr.. Asbury has done extremely
well in his attempt to make order
and sense out of this welter of
contradictions. At least there
was a lot of factual material
which could hardly be disputed.
The story of the speakeasies,
rum-running, underworld organi-
cations, gang wars and official
corruption that spread over the
country with prohibition has
been told often, though Mr.. AS
bury sums up as well as any one
has these concomitants of the dry
millennium. He makes a more
definite contribution, it seems to
me. by tracing the history of
drinking habits and the temper
ance movement back to the begin
nings of the Republic. There is
material here which has hardly
been touched. The most intem-
perate period. Mr.. Asbury con-
cludes, was the last half of the
18th century. In those days en-
ployers were required by unwrit-
ten rule to furnish their employ
ers with drinks and there were
pauses in work at suitable in
tervals for alcoholic refreshment.
1t may come as shock to some
readers to learn that Protestant
sacts which a century later took
a leading part in the prohibition
movement were not always averse
to liquor. Circuit riders carried
jugs in their saddlebags, and such
religious ceremonies as ordina-
tons were described by temperate
clergymen of the time as drunken
orgies.
What Brought 1t On.
Mr.. Asbury hardly could be ex-
pected to see the 18th amendment
as anything but a failure which
did the country incalculable
harm. And yet he is no
apologist for the liquor traffic.
Refusing to view the oldtime sa-
loon in a mellow, nostalgia light,
he says that as an institution it
was "a blight and public
stencil" It encouraged drunk
enness. 1t ignored the law. 1t
corrupted the police, the courts
and the politicians. 1t was a
breeding place of crime and vio-
lence, and the hangout of GRIM
inals and degenerates of every
type"
He considers the saloon and the
greed Of the liquor industry, espe-
cially the brewers, with their null
aple ownership Of saloons. more