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Show f . f Now for World j I Prohibition I By Frederic J. Haskln. f WASHINGTON, D, C, July 15. As it is tho duty of tho commander of any military unit to "estimate the situation" before going into action, so nro the leaders lead-ers of tho movement to "mako the world dry for democracy" just now very busy in taking the measure of the job in hand. John Barleycorn's future from pole to pole, they hold, will depend largely upon the success or failure of prohibition in the United Slates, where a great people has pioneered by voting itself dry. If, within the next half decade, prohibition will have brought about the good results that the "dries" claim it will, then the other countries of the world will be more likely to adopt it than If it failed to euro the evils that are charged to the use of "likker." ' So does the United States become he great demonstration plant to prove the virtue or fallacy of prohibition. Prohibitionists tho world over are staking stak-ing everything upon the results they expect ex-pect wiU accrue In this country from the abolition of intoxicating drinks. Within the next few years they hope to be able to point out to the people of "wot" countries coun-tries how the United States has been bettered economically, socially and civ- i illy by the elimination of booze. This 1 will be their trump card in their fight for world-wide prohibition. The attack i upon the world's liquor forces already has been launched. "The wholo world will be dry bv 1030." said one enthusiastic prohibitionist who 1 had a leading part in tho successful campaign waged in this country. "Old John is doomed to a fate similar to that of Bill Hohenzollern and Jess Willard. His days are numbered. Jn this country folks laughed at us five years ago when we predicted that the United States would be dry by 1920. We exceeded our own expectations in putting prohibition 1 over a year earlier than the most un- . daunted prohibitionists had expected vie- ! tory. We'll do the same in our world- ; wide fight. Wood row Wilson made the ' world safe for demoeracv, and we're going go-ing to make it dry for democracy." I With this challenge to the "wets," the : prohibitionists already have begun to organize or-ganize and lino up their supporters In every country in the world. The first International mooting of the "dries" held for the purpose of mapping out plans for the big campaign took place in this city recently when thirty-seven nations were represented. Sixteen sent delegates direct di-rect to tho conference, whilo the other twenty-one were represented by missionaries mission-aries or others located In this country. The international prohibition organization organiza-tion will be known as the World League Against Alcoholism, and will have permanent per-manent headquarters in Washington. At the initial conference of the league It wan decided to raise five million dollars in this country with which to begin the world-wide war on booze. Large sums also jvilL bo collected fn other countries. 'Leading prohibitionists in this country who actively worked for the cause will not be permitted to rest on their oars now that the country has become a veritable veri-table desert. Men and women who toured the United States fn the interest of prohibition will be pressed into foreign service. Numerous countries have called upon the Anti-Saloon League of America Amer-ica to supply speakers, and also men to conduct the business end of the prohibition prohi-bition campaign. lid win C. "Dinwiddie, natioTial legislative superintendent of tho league, has been invited to England, Scotland and Ireland to open the campaign cam-paign in those countries. According to Mr. Dinwiddie, much of the groundwork for world-wide prohibition prohibi-tion has already been accomplished Jn a number of the countries. "A few days ago we received a cablegram cable-gram from Finland," he said, "bringing tho good tidings that that new-born nation na-tion is starting out right by adopting prohibition. The prohibition law went into effect in Finland, June 1, 3919. "Scotland haa what is called local veto, which is somewhat similar to local option. op-tion. The British parliament passed that law in 1912 . but it does not become operative op-erative until 1920. We expect to start campaigning In Scotland next year, and the prohibition forces are daily gaining strength there. We hope to do considerable consider-able work in Ireland within the next few years. "We expect to have trouble in England, because the members of the house of lords hold office for life and it is not an easy matter to bring pressure to bear upon them, as it is in this country with our national- legislators. Then, I understand, under-stand, a number of the members of the house of lords have money invested in breweries. This condition will tend to I make our work all the harder, but' such things as that will not daunt us in our fight. "In France, Spain and Italy we have been able to mobilize a great deal of sentiment in favor of total abstinence, but In these Latin countries we are going to have our hardest fight. For many centuries light wines have been used at the table, just as we use tea and coffee in this country. Then the making of wine is a very profitable industry in the Latin countries. We will have to educate the people to make some other use of the grapes and other fruits used in making wine. We have accomplished something in this direction in northern Italy, where a million-dollar plant has been built to make a beverage from grapes by a new process. The new drink is made after the fashion of grape wine, containing about 6 per cent alcohol, but before it is placed on the market for sale it Is put through a process for dealcoholization. All the alcohol1 is extracted, but the wine reLains its luster nad taste. The alcohol alco-hol is sold for commercial purposes I have been informed that a concern in California is contemplating erecting a similar plant. "Sweden is making a brave fight for prohibition. There are a number of Good Templars (an International temperance temper-ance organization) in the Swedish parliament. parli-ament. Norway has made considerable progress and there Is a strong upward trend of prohibition in that country. Denmark has the unique distinction of publishing the only paper in the world that is devoted exclusively to prohibition. Lars Larsen-Ledet, the editor, has been advocating prohibition in his country for many years. Since the Bolshevists have taken over the reins of government in Russia, we have very little information of what is going on there, although the use of intoxicating drinks was prohibited prohibit-ed by the former czar soon after Russia declared war upon Germany. "The situation in the Latin-American countries is quite similar to that of the Latin countries of Europe. In South America and Mexico we intend to carry on an intensive campaign and we are hopeful of getting some good results. 'Tn Japan the national drink is called 'sake. It is made of rice and has a powerful pow-erful kick in it. An officer of the imperial im-perial Japanese navy recently called upon me and told me of the splendid headway head-way that is being made by the 'ant is' In Japan. China is not so strong for intoxicants in-toxicants as it is for drugs. There is some liquor used there and American missionaries are doing much good work to eradicate the evil." |