PROHIBITION EFFECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18692, 24 April 1924, Page 7

PROHIBITION EFFECTS.

INSANITY IN AMERICA. AN INCREASE ALLEGED. Australian and N.Z. Gable Association. (Reed. 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 22. Dr. J. W. Hall, a noted physician, who is chairman of the Chicago Lunacy Commission, gave evidence before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which is considering 59 bills to liberalise the Volstead Law. He declared that alcoholic insanity in Chicago had increased more than fifteen-fold since the advent of prohibition. Dr. Hall urged-' modification of the Volstead Act, saying that in 1916 the Lunacy Commission sent 98 alcoholic insanity cases to the psychopathic hospital, whereas in 1922 the number was 1100, and last year 1500. Moreover, continued Dr. Hall, the addict was formerly merely indolent and shiftless. Now, with poisonous liquor in his system, he became a murderer, a maniac, a wife-beater, or a train-wrecker. I believe, he said, that light wines and beer will cure the situation. It is worth trying, because the present law must be changed. A Federal Judge and a priest from Missouri alleged that prohibition had been effected by an extravagant expenditure of money to create a public sentiment. The Judge added: My experience on the Bench convinces me that the "dry" law as written can never be enforced. It has made America a nation of hypocrites. If we could obtain the vote of every citizen who violates the Volstead Act we could repeal it to-morrow. Doctor J. C. Vorbeck, a recognised authority on human metabolism, asserted that the adoption by the American Medical Society of prohibition influences in 1917, when it was denied that alcohol possessed food or therapeutic value, had had a large effect. If Congress followed the resolution by the society in 1917, it should also follow the association's resolution of 1922, which declared that alcohol taken in liquors aids the functions of the body.