THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 163 



ago. Uninstructed by the past they still hope 



for success. Clearly success, even temporary 



success, has become impossible. Permanent 



success was never possible. But let us for the 



sake of argument, and for the moment, admit 



that prolonged success is possible. Let us 



suppose that through an immense upheaval of 



public opinion, of a strength and unanimity 



hitherto unknown among civilised peoples, it is 



possible to enforce Prohibition by laws so stjingent 



and efficient that they are also quite unknown. 



Let us make this great concession, and let us 



even suppose that this law could be maintained 



for ages. What then ? The result would be 



disaster on an enormous scale. The price in 



lives and misery would have to be paid with 



compound interest. 



Including the British, all races which alcohol 

 has afflicted have plainly undergone evolution, 

 protective evolution. They began their experience 

 with a great proneness to drunkenness, but have 

 ended with a lesser proneness. But a race which 

 has undergone evolution does not mark time when 

 the eliminating agent, which caused the evolution, 

 is withdrawn. It reverts with a rapidity, propor- 

 tionate to the previous evolution, to the ancestral 

 type. If, therefore, Total Prohibition, the reformer s 

 ideal, were enforced, and drunkards were no longer 



