Prohibition Great Success Say Leading Business Men, Aug. 5, 1925

Prohibition Great Success. . . So Says Judge Gary and Other Leading Business Men. . . The Manufacturers Record Devoted 20 Pages to the Prohibition Question. . . Strong Boost for Prohibition

Baltimore, July 29—The Manufacturers Record of this week will public from Judge Gary, President Edgerton of the National Association of Manufacturers, and many other leading business men throughout the country nearly 20 pages of that paper. These letters are in reply to a questionnaire from the Manufacturers Record as to whether these men, who three years ago had written in favor of Prohibition, had seen any reason for changing their views by reason of the lawlessness existing throughout the country. Out of considerably more than 100 letters so far received, only three express any change of views on the Prohibition question both from the moral and economic standpoint.

It is claimed by these letters that there has been a vast improvement in condition of the laboring classes; that men are now saving money which they formerly spent in the saloons, that the women and children are better clothed, better housed and better fed than ever before by reason of the men taking their weekly pay home instead of spending it for drink on the way home. This is the almost universal testimony of manufacturers from all parts of the country and of leading physicians and bankers.

Specific cases are given by bankers showing how saloons have been supplanted by savings banks, and how real estate formerly used for saloons has greatly improved in value under present conditions. Many of these letters criticize sharply the disposition of men of affairs, and of social leaders to violate the Prohibition law without regard to the influence which this has upon the development of that spirit of law violation among all other classes.

With the exception of these “higher ups,” to which many references are made as law violators, it is claimed by many of the writers that Prohibition is in no way whatever responsible for the criminality of the day, but that, on the contrary, this is a world condition and is largely an aftermath of the World War. Emphasis is laid upon the fact that with the enormous number of automobiles on all the streets and highways of the country, life would be far more endangered that it now is if the open saloons were in existence; indeed, it is claimed that the automobile industry and the open saloon business practically could not exist at the same time.

From the front page of the Roxboro Courier, Wednesday evening, August 5, 1925

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