Prohibition: Its Economic and Industrial Aspects.

Abstract

The occasion for this study was the preparation of a series of twenty articles for the press, each dealing with some specific economic or industrial aspect of prohibition.The findings were the result of an investigation conducted over a wide area, including an elaborate questionnaire survey.The writer is indebted to a large number of industrial concerns, government officials, trade associa- tion secretaries, insurance agents, social service execu- tives, brewers, distillers, trade union agents and others in all, some two thousand persons who supplied the information contained here.This study is not put forward as complete or exhaus- tive, and should not be regarded as more than a prelim- inary survey.In some instances the facts were almost inextricable and the author has merely done what he could with them under the conditions.The original arti- cles have, however, been enlarged and thoroughly re- vised, and new material, such as an appendix dealing with alcoholic deaths, added.The conclusions reached, which are summarized in Chapter XXI, relate only to the one phase of prohibition discussed the economic and industrial aspects.Since the question as a whole involves many other considera- tions moral, legal, administrative, political, social I have avoided entirely the controversial issue as to whether or not the Eighteenth Amendment should have been passed or liquor legislation should have taken the particular form of the Volstead Act, nor do I offer sug- gestions as to what should be done about the prohibition laws to-day.The reasons for limiting the range of this