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"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
We Need Prohibition
Earl F. Dodge
This article first appeared as a guest editorial in USA TODAY in 1985.
The Prohibition Amendment was not enforced by the Republicans or Democrats. Incredibly,
supervision of this new law was entrusted to Andrew Mellon, a major distillery stockholder.
Enforcement agents were deliberately underpaid to make them susceptible to bribery.
In spite of this deliberate policy of non-enforcement, Prohibition:
• Reduced the fatality rate from cirrhosis of the liver by more than 50 percent.
• Reduced the consumption of absolute alcohol by almost 70 percent.
• Closed down most alcoholic clinics and hospital wards for lack of business.
• Greatly reduced the crime rate and prison population.
• Increased bank deposits from $15.8 million in 1920 to $28.9 billion in 1924.
• Increased assets of savings and loan associations from 2.03 billion 1920 to
7.08 billion in 1929.
Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, said in 1930, “I feel that Prohibition is
the greatest experiment yet made to benefit man.”
President Charles W. Elliot of Harvard University vigorously opposed the adoption
of Prohibition, but in 1922 he said: “Evidence has accumulated on every hand that
Prohibition has promoted public health, public happiness and industrial efficiency.
Prohibition is actually sapping the terrible forces of disease, poverty, crime, and
vice.”
Today, most people of the U.S.A. believe in prohibition. They favor prohibition of
heroine, LSD, cocaine, marijuana, and other illegal, antisocial drugs which claim,
at most, a few thousand lives yearly.
Because of the powerful liquor traffic and its allies in the news media, most do
not support the Prohibition of beverage alcohol, simply because they do not know
how well Prohibition worked from 1920 to 1933 in spite of poor enforcement.
Millions living today under local - option Prohibition testify that their communities have less crime, drunkenness and other alcohol-related social problems than do “wet communities.”
Efforts to deal with the results of the consumption of beverage alcohol such as a
crackdown on drinking drivers and rehabilitation programs are needed. But none of
these deal with the CAUSE of the problems.
If we ban drugs that claim relatively few lives, how much more needful is it to prohibit beverage alcohol which kills hundreds of thousands yearly?
Abraham Lincoln said, “Alcohol has many defenders but no defense.” If you share Lincoln’s
viewpoint, join us in working for a sober U.S.A. (and Canada.)
Editor’s Note: The
Baptist Pillar reprinted this article to continue to sound the alarm against this
evil poison.
It is interesting to note that while the article is from the U.S.A., it no doubt
could apply to Canada.
Here in Manitoba, many government agencies were forced to close their doors once
a week for sixteen to twenty weeks in order to save tax payers money. This practice
was dubbed “Filmon Fridays,” after the Manitoba Premier, Gary Filmon. However, the
Manitoba Liquor Commission stores (which are government subsidized and government
operated) were exempt from the grip of Filmon Fridays because it was deemed a necessity
to keep them open!
Perhaps this is a necessity to our government because statistics showed that the
Manitoba government collected over $200 million in taxes last year from the sale
of alcoholic beverages. That’s from a province with a population of just over a million
people in it!
How much of this money and more is used to cover the medical costs of ‘rehabilitating’
these people, caring for the victims of violence, of accidents due to drunk drivers,
and of broken homes.
Many Scriptures could be sighted against all this wickedness, but sufficient are
the following:
Isa. 5:11, “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow
strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!”
Isa. 5:22, “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle
strong drink.”
Isa. 5:23, “Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness
of the righteous from him!”
Hab. 2:15 “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also.”