American Agriculturist, August 4,1923 
69 
“Greatest Good for the Greatest Number” 
But the Argument Is Over Which Is the Greatest Good—Be Sure To Vote 
A RE farm people for prohibition? I 
believe that the majority of them 
are in favor of prohibition. Prohi- 
bition is beneficial to the best in¬ 
terests of the farming people, as well as to 
other kinds of people. Prohibition may have 
hurt some people in the booze business, but 
there is no lack of demand for the labor 
(skilled or unskilled) of the men who for¬ 
merly were brewing beer or distilling 
stronger drinks. Prohibition is bringing 
about the greatest good for the greatest 
number. 
One writer of Bucks Co., Pa., asks, “if 
alcohol is such a terror to mankind, why has 
the Creator made it so plentiful?” Well, 
the Creator also made the deadly cobras 
plentiful in India and rattlesnakes plentiful 
in North America, and any sane man will 
admit they are a dreadful terror to man¬ 
kind. And yet the said serpents have their 
uses. The venom of both of these snakes is 
used for medical purposes. One school of 
medicine uses rattlesnake venom, highly 
diluted, for combatting certain cancerous 
disease conditions. 
However, mankind produces vast quan¬ 
tities of alcohol, whereas the Creator may be 
said to produce only small quantities of alco¬ 
hol, which, under natural conditions, soon 
becomes dissipated and quickly returns back 
to the elements. So man has gone far be¬ 
yond the Creator in providing an insidious, 
intoxicating and poisonous drug which is 
destructive in more ways than one to the 
life, liberty and general prosperity of man¬ 
kind. 
If the Volstead law is defied and broken by 
many lovers of booze, it is no good reason 
for allowing the law to become weak law 
and a dead letter. There are 
other laws against various 
crimes and minor offenses, yet 
the said laws are often broken 
by the reckless and desperate. 
This is no reason for repealing 
those laws, which are more or 
less protective to the public. 
I am for the Eighteenth 
Amendment as it now stands. 
Strict enforcement of all prohi¬ 
bition laws should be carried 
out. 
I am opposed to light wines 
and beers being put on sale or 
legalized for public distribution. 
Certainly, President Harding 
has taken the right stand when 
he comes out solidly in favor of 
prohibition as specified in the 
Eighteenth Amendment. The 
Volstead law is here to stay quite 
a long term. It all comes out 
to this showdown: the greatest 
good for the greatest number of 
people—children included, of 
course. The people of our coun¬ 
try have enough trouble without 
creating more artificial trouble 
by pouring more or less diluted 
alcohol down their throats. Long 
live prohibition and the backers 
of that great good doctrine! 
C. W. W„ New York. 
By A. A. READERS 
one of your 95% farmers who favors it with 
all my heart. I have lived in various local¬ 
ities for over seventy years and have had an 
opportunity to see the effects of the free use 
of liquor, also to see the effects of prohibi¬ 
tion. I know a good many farmers and 
among them all, I do not know one who is op¬ 
posed to it. The man who wrote the letter 
must be a bachelor. No man who loves his 
family could, for a moment, wish to have 
Song of the Rye 
I WAS made to be eaten, 
And not to be drank, 
To be threshed in a barn, 
Not soaked in a tank, 
I come as a blessing 
When put through a mill; 
As a blight and a curse 
When run through a still. 
Make me up into loaves, 
And your children are fed; 
But if into drink, 
I’ll starve them instead. 
In bread I’m a servant, 
The eater shall rule; 
In drink I am master. 
The drinker a fool. 
—E. W., N. Y. 
free liquor again. New York has made a 
dark stain on her fair name by revoking the 
law as she has. 
I spent the winter after the war, in Eng¬ 
land, near London, when there was such a 
terrible business depression. The only busi¬ 
ness that flourished was the breweries. One 
could but notice, as the bread line was 
SALOONS THRIVE IN SPITE OF 
BREAD LINES 
I N your issue of June 16th, I 
note the letter from a so- 
ealled farmer who is opposed to 
prohibition. 
I would like to know what 
kind of a farming community he 
lives in, if 70% of the farmers 
are against prohibition. I am 
PROHIBITION BALLOT 
OF THE 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
Are You for the Strict Enforcement of the f~~ | YES 
18th Amendment as It Now Stands ? j | no 
Are You for a Modification of the 18th 
Amendment to Permit Light Wines 
and Beer ? 
Designate your opinion by placing an X in the square opposite Yes or 
No on each question. Sign your name and address. Your name will be 
kept strictly confidential. 
Name. 
Address. 
Why You Should Vote 
Do the American people want prohibition? The Wets emphatically say 
“No” and the Drys are even more emphatically for it. Both sides claim 
a majority. Which is right? What do farm people think about it? The 
opinions of farmers on any problem, if they will express them, go far in 
determining the outcome of a controversy. 
American Agriculturist is taking a vote of farm families on the ques¬ 
tion of prohibition. It is a vital issue and whether you are for it or 
against it, be sure to vote in the spaces above. Mail this ballot to the 
American Agriculturist, 461 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
Get your friends to vote—More ballots furnished on application 
formed each day where thousands and thou¬ 
sands of starving people came for bread, that 
the saloons did a thriving business. There 
was liquor enough drunk every day to have 
more than fed this starving mass of people. 
I said to myself, “I am glad I am an Amer¬ 
ican and live in a country where prohibition 
exists.” You may set me down as one of 
your 95% men. C. R. H., Florida. 
PROHIBITION FOR ALL, OR NONE 
I AM sending you my vote on the prohibi¬ 
tion question, and want to give you my 
opinion of it here. 
In the first place, we have no prohibition, 
and never will have. Prohibition has been 
the most miserable failure of any law that 
we have ever had, and the. sooner we get it 
repealed, the better for the American people. 
I am a man that has always used beer in a 
moderate way, and it never did me any harm, 
and I don’t see why I have to give it up, just 
because some others have used it to excess. 
Why don’t our honorable lawmakers pass 
a law to forbid the sale of automobiles? All 
crooks use them nowadays, and some people 
are very reckless in driving them. Wouldn’t 
it be just as reasonable to stop the sale of 
automobiles, because they are used by crooks 
and reckless drivers, as to stop the sale of 
liquor, just because a few people use it to 
excess ? 
I said in the beginning that we have no 
prohibition, and I will try to explain what I 
mean by that statement. I mean that the 
working class, which produces the living for 
the Idle Rich, are forbidden from using 
liquor, while the Idle Rich have their supply 
in the cellar, and can get more when that 
is gone. I believe that prohibition was only 
passed to keep the working man 
from having it and was never 
intended to apply to the men 
with the “Brass Collars.” 
Before I came on the farm, 
one year ago, I was a detective 
for a well-known detective agen¬ 
cy and on one occasion I was de¬ 
tailed to a millionaire’s residence 
on a case of a private nature. I 
was there for several weeks, and 
learned that he had a large stock 
of wine and whisky in his cellar. 
And, I also learned that he was a 
strong advocate of prohibition. 
Still, he had his supply of liquor, 
but he didn’t think that a work¬ 
ing man was entitled to his liq¬ 
uor. That is the kind of peo¬ 
ple that want prohibition; not 
a man like myself, that likes his 
glass of beer with a lunch on 
a hot day. 
I also knew a woman in this 
same city that was a member 
of the W. C. T. U., and on one 
occasion, when I was shadow¬ 
ing her in an automobile, she 
went to get out of her car at 
home, the chauffeur had to lead 
her to the house. She was “in¬ 
disposed” as the Idle Rich call 
it; but just plain drunk as it is 
called in the working class. 
Now! The Prohibition work¬ 
ers state that the majority of 
the people in the United States 
want prohibition. Then why 
don’t they let it come to a vote of 
the people if they are so sure of 
a victory. I have never had a 
chance to vote on the proposi¬ 
tion myself, and I don’t think 
that any one else has. The 
(Continued on page 79) 
|~| YES 
□ no 
