PROHIBITION IN AMERICA 461 



dominions. But various areas, possessing local self-government, in 

 he English-speaking settlements, have sought to enforce abstinence 

 >n their working-classes by prohibiting, not drinking or the 

 mportation of alcohol, but only the manufacture and sale of it. 

 'This modified form of prohibition has been adopted at various 

 times by seventeen entire States of the American Union. " It is 

 now retained only by three, and in those it cannot be looked 

 upon as a success. Parts of prohibitory States have always been 

 in open rebellion against the law ; drinking has never been impos- 

 sible ; the sale of liquor has always been profitable, and seldom 

 disreputable in the eyes of the public. Violation of the law has 

 been open and avowed. Federal law requires the payment of a 

 special annual tax by retail liquor dealers; and most States, 

 including those under prohibition, provide that the payment of 

 the tax shall be prima facie evidence of a sale of liquor having 

 been made, thus utilizing the Federal officials in the detection of 

 illegal traffic. During the fiscal year ending June 3<Dth, 1906, the 

 number of retailers in malt liquors were, in the State of Kansas, 

 4019 ; in Maine, 599 ; and in North Dakota, 1582 these being the 

 three prohibition States. 



754. "In urban districts, at any rate, it has not been found 

 possible to find any sound ethical basis for the law, or to persuade 

 the majority to regard its violation as immoral. Without the backing 

 of public opinion, no enforcement of prohibition has been obtained 

 except at the price of raising animosities between rival factions 

 of such intensity as seriously to disturb the community. Juries 

 have violated their oaths ; judges have hesitated to impose 

 statutory penalties ; blackmail and corruption have been directly 

 instigated, and the law in general has been brought into contempt. 

 Persistent disregard of the liquor laws is supposed to encourage 

 disobedience to other enactments, and an example is cited in 

 Kansas, where the fact that an anti-gambling law is almost a 

 dead letter has been attributed to the lax enforcement of 

 prohibition in the cities of the State. 



755. " It should be mentioned that prohibition prevents a 

 community from passing any laws for reclaiming or protecting 

 its drunkards. Where in theory there is no drinking, in theory 

 there can be no intoxication ; but from the practical point of view 

 such arguments cannot be justified." l 



1 Report on the Liquor Traffic Legislation of the United States, prepared by Mr 

 R. C. Lindsay, Second Secretary to His Majesty's Embassy at Washington, and 

 issued by the Foreign Office in April 1907. 



