Abstract

Can Volstead Stage a Comeback?

Undisturbed by scoffers and critics, prohibitionist leaders are calmly predicting that national prohibition is coming back, "this time for good." The growth of dry sentiment during the last war, which caused the "New York Times" in 1919 to announce that prohibition seems to be the fashion, just as drinking once was, is one source of the prohibitionists' present optimism. A more immediate one is the Gallup poll's revelation that 55 per cent of the people want more stringent regulation of the liquor industry, and that 36 per cent want it abolished. The Gallup poll, say the prohibitionists, reveals "the rising tide that will soon sweep the liquor traffic off the map." The second world war obviously has provided the prohibitionists with a superlative opportunity.