“This would favor, no doubt, the well-to-do, who are well able to pay the price of replenishing their private stock.”
“Of course. The poor devil cannot afford a cellar full. His stock at best, no doubt, is a flask on his hip—if he has the coin, and then he runs the risk of being arrested for having it on him. They could even take his trousers away from him, if they felt like living up to the very letter of the law. His trousers would be termed the vehicle of transportation.
“That is the one reason why so much home-brew is being made. Some of it would make a rabbit fight a bulldog, but the people want it—and they pay the price. As you know thousands have died drinking the stuff.”
“Too bad. But what about our government which caused this law to be passed?”
“It is responsible for all this misery, for the lawlessness, that is seen on every hand. It is just as much responsible for such conditions as England was when she forced upon China the use of drugs. You know, China did not want the drugs, so England warred upon her, with the result that millions of Chinamen have died from the use of the drugs.
“Then, too, for years the unscrupulous Chinamen, or his agents, sells the drug to the ever increasing American trade. It is stated that since our country became dry, more of the deadly drugs are used here than in all other countries of the world combined.”
“And the government at Washington stands for that? Impossible!”
“But what can they do? The government tries to stop the smuggling of drugs into this country. But as the people want the drug, either because of the high cost of alcoholic stimulant, or the scarcity of it, they are forever devising new schemes for bringing it in, so that the government, while it does prevent the smuggling of some of it, is unable to prevent the drug from getting into the country. Once in the hands of the peddlers in this country it is an easy matter for it to be distributed among their customers.
“And not only are they supplying old hands at the game, but they are continually creating a new demand, by teaching the habits to others. Why, we read in the papers of school children and young girls barely out of their teens using drugs. Were conditions the same before prohibition? No! You didn’t hear of children getting drunk, and getting drunk is wearing a halo compared to taking dope.
“If half the money used in the enforcement of the dry law and the preaching of its propaganda was spent in an earnest effort to rid this country of the drug peril, there would be fewer jobs for keepers in insane asylums.”