POSITION IN AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 18

POSITION IN AMERICA

(To the Editor.)

Si rj The position in America is tnai. many of the seriously-minded people in U.S.A. are giving most thoughtful consideration, to discover sonic method whereby the scandals and abuses of Prohibition may be brought to an end. True, crime and lawlessness were never so rife as during the past decade. True prosperity and wealth never so speedy or abundant. True, unemployment and gaol population never so numerous as now. True, some are of one opinion, others of another: some converted to Prohibition, others, once supporters, convinced of its failure. Taft, on one side, Hearst on the other. Yet the concomitant evils, if not due to, have shocked and outraged the American conscience. Justice Hoyt won £5000 for the best proposal to lessen the evils of Prohibition, and President Hoover sets up a Commission to discover why the "violation of Prohibition law comprises more than one-half of the arrests." True, the church people —many of them at least —are still holding up Prohibition, and earnestly believe in it. Strange times, strange faiths! Of course, my ancient namesake wrote that "in these latter days men would give heed to seducing spirits;" etc. There is only One panacea for all human ills, and the serpent of Prohibition is only evidence of that tired feeling that seeks a stimulant, and the Bey. Mr. Armstrong must realise how dangerous that must be to the body of his church. The cause of all the evil in the position in America is that the . thing itself is blamed, damned, and' banned because of some users' want1 of self-control and selfreverence. The love and practice of any virtue—not alone Temperance—can never be enforced by law. The Americans are finding that Temperance is not coming to their country that way.' In the fable the dogs being hungry found some hides in the river; they could not get at the hides, so they started to lap the river dry—and 'burst. That is about the position in America.!;.Yet'it would be a pity to destroy Mr. Armstrong's faith in so seductive and so elusive a panacea.—l am, etc., •:■'.-• PAUL. [This 'correspondence is now closed. —Ed.] __4