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Show TEMPERANCE NEEDED The eighteenth amendment came into existence because be-cause the American public believed that no step was too drastic to outlaw the evils that had appeared in the liquor problem'. Millions of thinking American citizens," who were not "dry" in the sense of believing it a crime to take a drink, had seen the power of the saloon appear in politics, degrading city and state government, and had intrenched interests successssfully violate both the latter and spirit of the laws that then existed to control the sale of liquor. The eighteenth amendment was repealed by this same thinking public when it became apparent that the evils existing before were magnified, rather than lessened. The ends of temperance were not served, the gangster came into his giory, and million-dollar bootleggers became as politically politi-cally powerful as their legal predecessors had in the old days. Today the American people want temperance. They want the liquor traffic to be adequately controlled. They will not again countenance any illicit alliance between government gov-ernment and liquor interests. We are passing through an experimental period and if present laws are inadequate, other and harsher measures will be brought into play. To promote temperance which means the elimination of drunkenness and license is the duty of every citizen. It is likewise the duty of those who make and sell liquor in addition, it is simply good business so far as they are concerned. The American people are not fanatical either for or against liquor per se. They are interested in eliminating elimina-ting abuses of the present as well as of the past, and they intend to succeed. o |