* * * * Sir Auckland Geddes's report to Lord
Curzon on the effects of Prohibition in America has been published as a White Paper. Its chief purport is to show how little reliable information is obtainable from any source about the actual workings of Prohibition. Our Ambassador quotes the figures of the Anti-Saloon League, the Federal Prohibition Unit and the Association against Prohibition. The figures are chiefly interesting because they vary within such wide limits. Conflicting as they are, however, they deserve to be read carefully by all who are interested in the question—and who, indeed, is not nowadays ? The reason for this conflict is not difficult to find. First, each reporting agency has some axe to grind. Secondly, it is difficult to determine what part Prohibition actually plays amongst the various factors producing the measur- able results. Thirdly, it is now, and may always be, impossible to gauge the extent of the bootlegging and home-brewing trades. Who can count the moths about a street lamp ?
Previous page
