Zeno
08-08-2004, 01:35 AM
When a democratic government does a wise thing it usually does it for a foolish reason. The Collapse of Prohibition in 1932 was probably due in the main to the general belief that abandoning it would bring back prosperity -in fact, it was mainly on that ground that the wet politicians carried on their campaign. Very little was heard during that campagin of the argument that Prohibition was essentially tyrannical and infamous. All the politicoes were afraid to rasie the point. They confined themselves to the contention that resuming brewing and distilling would make the farmers rich. What they really had their eyes on, of course, was the revenue from excises and licenses. That revenue has been enormous, and every cent of it has been spent on new schemes for rounding up the votes of imbeciles. - H. L. Mencken, Minority Report.