Prohibition.] That prohibition involves the ruin of a great industry
is true; these millions of workers will be free to give their strength
to productive labor, these millions of dollars can be invested in some
industry useful to mankind. Confiscation will work hardship to the
brewers and distillers; so it does to the opium-growers, the makers
of indecent pictures, and counterfeit money. A trade so inimical to
the general interest deserves no mercy. The States that have unwisely
used the "tainted money" drawn from the industry by license will have
a far richer community to tax in other ways; for every dollar got in
liquor-license fees, many dollars have been lost to the State. As
Gladstone said, "Give me a sober population, not wasting their earnings
in strong drink, and I shall know where to obtain the revenue." Pending
the enactment of legal prohibition, what is called industrial prohibition
is proving widely efficacious. Growing numbers of manufacturers, railway
managers, and storekeepers are refusing to employ men who drink at
all. The United States Commissioner of Labor reports that ninety per
cent of the railways, eighty-eight per cent of the trades, and
seventy-nine per cent of the manufacturers of the country discriminate
already against drinkers. The only other point to be noted is that
the saloon-the "public house," the "poor man's salon"-must be replaced
by other social centers, that give opportunities for recreation, cheer,
and social intercourse. The question of substitutes for the saloon
will be alluded to again, in chapter xxx. [Footnote: See Raymond Calkins,
Substitutes for the Saloon. H. S. Warner, op. cit, chap. VIII. Forum,
vol. 21, p. 595.] The nation-wide campaign against alcohol is on, the
area of its legalized sale is steadily diminishing. We who now discuss
it may live to see it swept off the face of the earth; if not we, our
children or children's children. And we must see to it that no other
drug opium, morphine, or the like gets a similar grip on humanity.
Our descendants will look with as great horror upon the alcohol