PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.
[To the Editor of the SeEerAroa.] SIR,—With all respect to the judgment of a good friend of America, Major Wrench, I cannot agree that the articles in the Times " are the best summary that we have had in the British Press recently of the effects of Prohibition and its reactions on American opinion." The articles in the Morning Post by Sir Maurice Low are far more accurate. To say, as the correspondent of the Times does, that " the American people, by a large majority, are, and will remain, in favour of Prohibition, and this after sufficient experience to justify a decision," is to shut one's eyes to obvious facts. As a matter of fact, there is great and growing resentment against a policy thrust upon us by a body of fanatics, who played upon the fears of cowardly politicians by tactics none the less shameless because of professions of a moral purpose. And the utter failure of enforcement has converted many who were Prohi- bitionists to a belief that this attempt to dictate the habits of a whole people can never succeed.
While the repeal of the Amendment may be hopeless, a modification of the enforcing Act is not. There are many indications that this will be accomplished. The President, taking the " dry " side in the hope of having the Anti-Saloon League influence exercised on his behalf at the next election, grieves because so many of our best citizens ignore the law.
Is not the very fact testimony to the badness of the law ? Nemo repente veldt turpissimus. If those who obey other laws disobey this, the natural conclusion is that it is a law which does not deserve obedience. Why should we be expected to submit passively to the invasion of our constitu- tional liberties ?
However, I did not set out to argue this question, pro or con. The point is that the Prohibition experiment has not been successful, that no one who is not blinded by fanaticism really expects it will be, and that the farce will end either with modification of the law or with an abandonment of an insincere effort to enforce it. The figures at recent elections show what the popular feeling am, Sir, &e.,
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