icerne, and then down through the South, (where my Ita ɩs found to be completely unusable) round about through In xen, to Montreux, Lausanne and Geneva, where I had to redisco at I possessed a simple working knowledge of French. where did I obtain so complete and interesting an insight into viss attitude toward the American situation as was given me cob Antenrieder, M.D., former town councillor of St. Gallen w a resident of Hottingen, a suburb of Zurich--a gentleman certainly regarded by his countrymen as one of the great auth es on the liquor problem. The doctor talked well of condit re and abroad. Of his own volition I heard my host tall nerica and, as he seemed as interested in us as in his fel untrymen, I did not hesitate to ask him questions concer merican problems, especially concerning the victories of prohibi the South. I shall give the doctor's own answers in the Eng hich he used, though I floundered about in German with n my questions:

"There are two factors which, to my thinking, account for th here is first the naïve inexperience of your ruling classes w akes them the ready victims of professional politicians. cond is the nature of your national drink. As for the f entioned item, only consider how prohibition movements origin heir primary source is mostly a pure one, so far as social inte pes. The two least sophisticated groups of American societ ral housewives and rural clergymen-are banding togethe amp out the drink evil. Their influence upon society stand verse ratio to their social insight: the former is enormous

One of the two coercive action

r ardent desire to be fooled.
or both-clear the deck for
ng their bargain with 'Demon Rum' in the pri-
e' confabs. Then comes the day, when the
nd church bells and of a hundred thousand
up in thanksgiving pronounces "The Enemy'
remember, being the saloon-not drunken-
rse than ever. And this survival of the saloon
g intemperance brings me right down to a
e second factor explaining your prohibition

w Yorker, aren't you? Well, don't forget a politan vista is likely to overlook; to wit, that cally unknown to vast stretches of the Ameriin the South and Southwest. The civilizing our side of the Atlantic is but of yesterday, as the history of a nation. It began in the fifties tury, and its spread is still contested by human ng friend and enemy alike in its hostility to ctorious prohibition has killed the saloon, course, that 'Rum' does not need the saloon, ould not have been victorious." My collocutor his eyeglasses and there was flattery in the if a highly trained mechanic were taking our ieces, showing wheels within wheels and comg that he was holding converse with a fellow

containi ease by dwelling

care or S

able, nay there you

States: s sumption the sixty

per cent. qualities of prohib article dis its place. does not premium

"We not in the cantons us took our 1

great and itself entit posedly si pious rapa but there national li

se by one man's work in the smallest backyard of a priva elling, transportable in vessels of tinest compass, requiring e or special contrivance in the storing and practically imperis le, nay, even improving in its fatal effectiveness with age. A ere you have in a nutshell the liquor situation in your prohibiti ates: sixty per cent. of alcohol taking the place, in popular co nption that was previously occupied by four per cent. becau e sixty per cent. liquor can hold its own by stealth and the fo cent. drink can not. Mark also this: whatever wholeso alities the stronger liquor may have possessed before the rei prohibition are sure to disappear at its advent. The genui icle disappears from the surface and the vilest adulterations ta place. Whatever part in the difference in manufacturing c es not go to the politicians and the police, represents the deale emium for taking an unlawful risk.

SWISS REGULATION

"We have never known prohibition in Switzerland-at lea t in the sweeping American sense of the term-but some of o ntons used to dabble in high license before the federal governme ok our liquor problem in hand and forced them to desist. Yo eat and enormously rich commonwealth of New York thin elf entitled to anticipate the larger part of the profits of a su sedly sinful business, just because it is sinful. This species ous rapacity never had a chance with us to grow into full bloo t there were promising beginnings here and there before o tional liquor legislation of 1887. In the exact degree in whi

In the

ing. Th difficult r innocent

power of tive solen

the indivi

power of Self-prohi coercion a

As long as

munity."

At th

d beer of excellent quality is readily obtainable
ithin our national boundaries. Our popular
s the beer-garden from every social stigma. It is
ented without reproach not only by rich and poor
ery clergy which in America would think itself
tact with the saloon. 'Give a dog a bad name
good in part of the American saloon.
ition prevails the saloon dog is hung, which is
the dog is skinned, which is worse.
cing procedure known as high license prevails,
for a social airing of the noxious saloon atmo-
then that takes the saloonkeeper by the throat
disgorge three or four dollars every morning
n to take down the shutters, cannot complain
en its victims, true to the governmental pattern
ed, picks up a living on the shady side of social
taboo and ruinous taxation have made the
ad influence upon your national life. Whosoever
upon the front bar, promotes guzzling in rear
nity demanding an annual thousand dollars from
dred only from a "barrel-house" for permission
rectly aiding in the spread of the liquor pest.
in Switzerland, no matter what his representa-
it is a disgrace to be seen sitting in a public
sequence, no one thinks of downing his drink at
standing at the railing, for fear of being surprised
r of being seen in a place rendered disreputable

excellent e
Switzerlan
speaking

had becom
of my fello
like me, c
advantage
"Exac

expression.
Marx hold
should lear
take our m

of little old other objec to the prod

by clerical taboo contributes a good deal to the spread of drunkenness through rapid gulping. It is the revenge of the saloon on its ignorant oppressors, that it turns their fears into verities as long as oppression exists.”

"If you have disposed of your liquor problem by banishing oppression," I ventured to observe, "how do you account for the surprising numerical strength of your teetotalers' organizations?"

"Our teetotalers," retorted the doctor, "are minding their individual liquor problem—not that of other people or of the State. In our age of over-strained nerves, every community numbers a considerable minority of people, to whom some of the ordinary stimulants of healthy life are as poison, owing to their quicker yielding. These weaker natures seek to strengthen themselves in their difficult resolve of abstinence by banding together a species of innocent and even laudable gregariousness. The propagandistic power of such organizations is completely founded upon the attractive solemnity of an important voluntary resolution on the part of the individual. At the mere approach of State interference this power of attracting men to itself would evaporate into thin air. Self-prohibition by high resolve and State prohibition by stark coercion are mutually exclusive factors in every civilized community."

At this point I ventured the opinion that it would be a very excellent experience for the thousands of Americans who frequent Switzerland each summer to cut themselves off from their Englishspeaking hotels for a while and get in touch with the people. I had become enthusiastic over their methods and I felt that most of my fellow countrymen would be if they only knew them. They, like me, could learn a great many things that would be to their advantage.

"Exactly," was Dr. Antenrieder's cordial response to this expression. "In excise matters as in others the saying of Karl Marx holds good, that nations, as well as individuals, can and should learn from each other's experience. Your travelers cannot take our mountains with them to America, but on closer inspection of little old Switzerland and its social experiments, there may be other objects as worthy of transplantation and much more amenable to the process."