What Seven Influential Men Said for Prohibition
A GROUP of men casually came together at a dinner-party the other evening, and one happened to look over the table, which the women had just left, and commented on the little alcohol that had been consumed. And here is what these men said. The first was a business man of large interests. "I wouldn't think of voting for state prohibition; but let national prohibition come up, and it will have my vote in a minute. Drinking has become an economic issue, and I am willing to give up my whisky and soda for the good of the many." The second was a large employer of men, some eighteen thousand. "I am ready for national prohibition. Up to this time it has seemed a far-away ideal to me; now I see it as a pure efficiency measure." The third was a clear-seeing Irishman. "Alcohol has been the curse of my people. I have stopped taking it, after forty years of occasional drinking, and my vote is ready for national prohibition." "Go ahead," said the fourth man, a railroad official of high standing. "I am ready for it personally, and so are all the officials of our road." A physician was the fifth. "Medicine can do without it. Science is against it. The old idea of alcohol as a food is exploded. I am all ready for my vote for national prohibition." It was a club man who spoke next. "When I see drinking among the caddies at our club, and our caddy master silly with it, I am ready to give up my cocktail and vote against the whole business." And last of all was a wholesale dealer in liquor, who started the talk, and who finished with this significant statement: "You're right. We are seeing the handwriting on the wall. I said at a meeting of our wholesale liquor dealers the other evening that we didn't have five years' life ahead of us. Strange as it may seem to you, I would vote for national prohibition. It's for the best all around." Not a dissenting voice! — Ladies' Home Journal.