Life — January 30, 1919 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JANUARY 30 “While there is Life there's Hope" MOGs Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY Anvatw Mittex, President and Treasurer James S, Mercatre, Secretary ty West Th sh Offices, Re VIDENTLY we must keep on sav- ing the world. It hasn't come to port yet by a good deal, but efforts in its behalf have by no means ceased yet. The Peace Council has got to work, and, though at this writing the Commissioners have hardly done more than make their bows to one another, the prospects work tos ¢ good that they will ther harmoniously, contrive & peace-league, settle the general terms of pe ization nd set up an orgs which will work out a program for the Balkans and all other particulars. All kinds of breakers invite the Council to shipwreck, but the senti- ment is very strong that no shipwreck can be afforded meat in the house. Something must be done, and the Supreme Peace Ce cil is there to do it Meanwhile, the Uplift, tioned observers and petitioners at the It is a case of no ing sta entrances and exits of the Council to see that it doesn't miss anything, nas gone humming along about its other business, and has just given this coun- try the surprise of its life by putting over the bone-dry amendment to the Constitution. There is no need to reprint the amendment here. Everybody who is interested in the consolations of this life knows that it provides that at the end of one year after it is ratified, the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage pur- poses shall cease in the United States What one has in the house when the hour of doom strikes, he may consume at convenience, unless some legal means is found to get it away from him, but rst Street, New York sc, Breams Bldgs., Lor Jon, E. C, he may not lawfully get any more—no red wine, no white wine, no wine with bubbles in it, no gin and consequently no gin cocktails, no whiskey, no brandy, not even for a stomachache, and, of course, no rum, nor any beer, nor any of the other ingredients of stimulation Is it the will of the people that the in- habitants of this country shall never more have drinks, except soft drinks? Apparently not Rum as adminis- tered to our necessities has been a ough one that seemed great nuisance, to be steadil power. ognized that it was a nuisance as handled, and ought to be abated, b lessening in destructive ne has ree- there is not evidence that a rity of the people were disposed to abolish it altogether. The job was not done by ar vote. The papers agree that a pop: it. was accomplished by a very able and persistent political organization, the Anti-Saloon League, well managed, attentive, observant, adroit and abun- dantly supplied with money by people t could get abundant who hated rum support because rum has hurt so many people, Rum has no true friends who are willing to fight+for it, except the men who make and. sell. it The buyers and drinkers are only lukewarm friends. Most of them would vote against Prohibition, but they would not give time and money to fight it. Nei- ther would they take the necessary trouble to get traffic in it properly reg- ulated. They left the traffic to distil- lers, brewers and liquor dealers, and left them to fight for it. Now they have lost, and all the people, a very great many, who found a little drink pleasant and not unwholesome, have lost with them. They let the distillers and the brewers exploit the country, and flood the cities with salov » make too many drunkards, cultivate too many bad habits, and separate too tauch money from the working popu- lation, and now the amendment says that the whole manufacture, importa- tion, transportation and sale of all kinds of intoxicants, good or bad, mild or strong, shall cease about this time next year | T is trying, but while the world is I ing done over to make it more comfortable for mankind, perhaps it is right ry, thy detail of drink should get due atten- tion. For our part, although we are very much of the man-from-Missouri’s disposition to be shown, and though nd even necessa this all opinions based on past experience of life seem subject to change, we do not suppose that human beings, in the , will long consent to do without intoxicants, or will be better off or happier from total abstention. But they can get along without saloons of the type that we are used to; they can do without the government revenue produced by the rum traffic, they can destroy the political power of the whiskey men and the brewers, and diminish the harm done by drink to a point where the benefit of it exceeds the detriment. This has been done fairly isfactorily in the S mass ilisfa andinavian coun- tries. Itcan be done here. But, perhaps it will come better after a all existing rt an sweep of » and liquor laws such as seems to have been provided for, Then if absence make the heart grow fonder, and if unaleoholic existence is less blessed than was. ex} velops more dopes and devilment than ed, and de- were anticipated, vet some drinks back on some civil- ized basis, the same in all the states, it may be possible to comicbooks.com = —— ,