Prohibition Of The Liquor Traffic

DEBATERS HANDBOOK SERIES PROHIBITION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC Debaters Hand book Series SELECTED ARTICLES ON PROHIBITION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC COMPILED BY LAMAR T. BEMAN, A. 11, LLB. Director of Public Welfare Cleveland, Ohio Second and Revised Edition THE H, W. WILSON COMPANY WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., AND NEW YORK CITY 1917 EXPLANATORY NOTE There are few social questions, says the report of the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic in Canada, which have been more anxiously considered than that of Prohibition, and so great and important is the question involved, that almost every civilized nation has given considerable attention to it. While the Civil War in this country diverted attention from Pro hibition to other public questions, the present war in Europe has had exactly the opposite effect. If drunkenness is danger ous in time of peace, says Guglielmo Ferrero, the eminent Italian scholar, in his article in the Pittsburgh Post of May 25, I 9 I 5, it is much more so in time of war, when those who go to fight as well as those who remain at home have need of all their judgment and reflection for the common safety. The knowledge of this fact explains why the war in Europe directed attention to Prohibition. The day after war was declared the sale of absinthe was prohibited in all France by military decree, and this action was later ratified and made perpetual by act of the French Parliament. Russia prohibited the sale of vodka a few weeks after the beginning of the war. Many of the prov inces of Canada have adopted province-wide Prohibition while somewhat less extreme measures have been taken by several others of the belligerent countries. In the United States within the same period of time thequestion has received more public attention than ever before. Since the beginning of the war sixteen states have adopted Pro hibition as a state-wide measure while a number of others have considered and rejected it. It is now certain that Prohibition will come before the voters in several more states within the next year or two. Public attention has been directed to the question in other ways than by the act of a legislature or the popular vote on state-wide Prohibition. National Prohibition by amendment to the federal constitution has been debated and voted upon in the House of Representatives, and while defeated, yet it received a majority of the votes cast in that body. The National Anti-Saloon League has asked for 2,000,000 a year vi EXPLANATORY NOTE to carry on the contest, and has declared that it confidently expects to make the whole United States Prohibition territory by 1920. Whisky and brandy have been dropped from the official list o drugs given in the United States Pharmocopceia. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, in their triennial national convention, voted uanimously to endorse national and state-wide Prohibition. Since Prohibition has received so much attention in this country, and is certain to receive so much more in the near future, there is some reason for adding to the enormous volume of literature already in existence. In the Debaters Handbook Series an effort is made to present fully and fairly both sides of public questions, to select the best of what has been written and to reproduce nothing that is bitter or passionate. Each Debaters Handbook is in the nature of a great debate, in which there are many speakers on each side. The readers are the judges inthis debate, and to these judges the question is now submitted. L. T. B. March I, 1917. CONTENTS BRIEF Affirmative xi Negative xvi BIBLIOGRAPHY Briefs xxi Special Material xxi Bibliographies xxii General References, Books, etc xxiv General References, Magazine Articles xxxi Affirmative References, Books, etc xxxix Affirmative References, Magazine Articles xliii Negative References, Books, etc Hi Negative References, Magazine Articles liv Special Negative Periodicals Ixi MAPS Ixiii INTRODUCTION I GENERAL DISCUSSION Coleman, Walter M. Human Biology...