Presto

August 8, 1925.
PRESTO
strong drink. People don't usually get drunk on
mild drinks like wine and beer.
Significantly enough, under the dry act, as you
know, the members of your own profession are al-
lowed the free use of wine, for "sacramental" pur-
poses.
I am just as much opposed to strong drink as you
can possibly be, and it is the strong drink that is
working such great harm to the youths of this
country.
Between the amendment and the laws you favor
all America is being driven to strong drink. I don't
want the saloons back, but, as I have said before, the
cabarets and roadhouses are greater breeders, along
with joy riding and petting parties, of crime and vice
than the saloon ever thought of being, and put it
down for a fact that there are almost as many
cabarets in Chicago as there were saloons before the
eighteenth amendment came into force, and almost
every one of these cabarets and these roadhouses is
selling strong drink to all comers, and the enforce-
ment officers for a price wink the eye, hold out the
hand, and look the other way at the violations going
on.
I believe that members of your "crowd" or "gang"
are awaking to the fact that the amendment and laws
you favor cannot be enforced, and that the whole
business is an absolute farce. The enforcement offi-
cers announce every few days that they have seized
a large quantity of liquor and found a still, but do
you know what they do with that liquor? I have
been told by several that most of that liquor is sold
to bootleggers and they in turn sell it to the public.
I heard of a case recently where a man's premises
sere raided, in a certain nearby town, and two gallons
)f whisky were seized. The man was taken to court
ind the whisky presented in evidence. The man was
|fined a round sum, and the whisky confiscated. After
had gone his way, having paid the fine, the judge
remarked to the sheriff who made the arrest that it
was a pity such excellent liquor should go to waste.
The sheriff warmly agreed, and so they divided it be-
tween them in privacy and took it home.
Unenforceable Laws.
If things go along as they have been doing lately,
vhat is there in life that cheap politicians won't seek
|o control in the way of law, enacting everything
that they should not enact, governing the taste and
ronduct of humanity? Meanwhile, murder still goes
m, so does crime, in spite of all the laws since his-
ory began. I repeat that you can't make people
>ood or honest by law. This is certainly true as to
aws like prohibition laws, which are utterly and ab-
;olutely unenforceable, always have been and always
vill be.
I know that all the recent amendments and laws
rhich your radicals and so-called progressives favor
re retrogressive rather than progressive; they are
ad, and decidedly not good.
I want to tell you of an experience that I recently
ad in New York, Boston, Washington and here in
Chicago. My wife and daughter landed from Europe
n July 10, and I stopped in hotels in the four cities
tamed, and in every one of them I was approached
>y bootleggers wishing to supply me with strong
rink. In my hotel in New York, no less than five
r six different ones were willing to supply all the
trong drink I might have wanted. I assure you that,
k'hile I was tempted, I did not drink.
How you can favor a law which furthers the very
vil that you condemn, by making it impossible to
et a mild drink and forcing those who think they
mst drink or think it is smart to drink, as the young
eople do and as the fashionable people to whom you
efer do, to drink rank poison, is more than I can
ossibly understand as coming from one of the
lergy.
1 again remind you of the Scripture which reads:
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and who-
mever is deceived thereby is not wise."
I favor temperance in everything. I don't want to
ee intolerance drive us back again to the days of the
nquisition.
Don't you know (I do) that almost all the legis-
Ltors who make these laws and pass these amend-
lents break the very laws they make? If you don't
now, I will tell you, that a very great mapority of
le lawmakers and the enforcement officers are drink-
"s of strong drink. They violate the laws they make
lemselves. They are very, very wet in private and
lly dry in public.
I will enclose with this a clipping, "From One of
hem," signed "A Flapper." This, too, appeared in
le Tribune, which you called "wet" and a "garbler"
itil your recent letter of thanks to them for pub-
shing your letter.
This "Flapper" seems to be a member of my
fang." At all events, she says that I know the
cts, and intimates that you don't know what you are
Iking about.
The Decorah Dinner.
I am enclosing also the menu of the dinner at
ecorah, in which you will see that you are listed as
pe of the speakers, just following a cousin of mine,
"reverend" also, who has been a lecturer for twenty-
le years, a la Burton Holmes, and for fifteen or
^enty years before that was pastor of various
lurches.
I read to him the last two of our letters, and he is
sapporter of myself in some things and of yourself
others. He is "on the fence," as they say, and I
>n't know where to class him, as to whether he is a
ember of your "gang" or of mine. There are a lot
people that way. Several of them were at this
nner.
I wish you might have been there and have en-
jhtened us on this subject, and, as I shall be here
I
19
in Chicago for the next ten days before starting for
my home in California via the Yellowstone Park, I
shall be glad to have a call from you at your con-
venience, when we can discuss these matters, and go
on with friendly argument about this subject, but I
really would like to have the judge and jury to make
the decision in the matter as to whether your "gang"
or my own is in the right. And I should like to have
the judge and the members of the jury really know
what is going on, for you seem either not to know
the truth or to ignore it.
I wish you would carefully read the remarks at
this Decorah dinner made by Mr. Biermann, editor
of the Decorah Journal, and by Dr. F. W. Conover,
who is Mayor of Decorah. Note especially the two
cases he spoke of recently before him. Also please
do read the current number of the North American
Review. These things may enlighten you. I hope
you will, for you seem to be in the dark about many
things.
Some Statistics.
I hope also you will especially note what Oscar
Wolff says about the increase of deaths here in Chi-
cago from alcoholism. Vile, .strong stuff is being
taken by those who must have it until this year shows
that there are five times as many deaths from al-
coholism as there were before. I also wish you
would elucidate, if you can, how there was five times
as much strong drink taken before prohibition as
there is now. Then they took a drink; now they
have to take a pint or a quart. Convince me, if you
can, that a drink is five times worse than a quart.
You and your "dry" disciples, as I have said be-
fore, are increasing crime, drunkenness, dope-taking,
insanity, death, and vice generally, as statistics prove.
The laws you and your "gang" favor are deadly in
every sense of the word.
I was surprised to be told by one of my guests and
speakers at Decorah—Miss Clara Rollins—that she
knew you and your brother in college. She was in-
deed surprised at your position, and seems to be one
of my "gang."
Yours very truly,
GEO. P. BENT.
P. S.—As yet I get no reply to mine of July 25.
Do you find it unanswerable?
BENT.
I never met Mr. Roloff, nor did I know of the
Illinois Social Hygiene League until this letter came
to me, nor did I know Mr. A. W. Yeater, of 1554
North Clark street, Chicago, from whose long eight-
page letter I make some extracts and enclose to you
herewith. [The letter, or extracts from it, appear
in the report of Mr. Bent's remarks at the Piano
Club Luncheon.—Ed. Presto.]
I hope you will carefully read and ponder upon
what Mr. Yeater and Mr. Roloff say.
Both these men seem to know what they are talk-
ing about, and, as I have said to you, I don't think
you know at all what you are talking about. You
have a theory, but if you will kindly investigate and
learn the situation and the real facts for yourself I
am certain that you will have a change of heart, and
will become as I have been, an advocate of temper-
ance and tolerance, not of prohibition and bigotry.
I sincerely hope, and if I were a religious man
would pray, that you may become a convert to and
advocate of the sentiments which I have and do not
fear to express to you or to any other person who
has an opposite idea.
I never was politic enough to be a politician. I
never could make votes as McKinley does, for you
say he knows how to talk in order to get votes. I
am more of the type of Grover Cleveland, who said
what he thought, regardless of consequences. He
said in one of his addresses, "It is not a theory but
a condition which confronts us." He was utterly and
absolutely honest and spoke out bravely and boldly
against the heresy of 16 to 1, which your friend
Bryan advocated; that is, I mean your friend Bryan
as to prohibition, but not your friend as to evolution.
Well All Don't Agree.
You will remember in one of my letters I said to
you that it was very good that there was not the
same thought among wise men as to everything,
which was shown by your agreeing with Bryan on
prohibition, but not on evolution. Even very great
and very wise men do disagree, and I think it is a
good thing for the world that this is so. What a
terrible, awful row there would be if all men loved
one particular woman! Can you imagine such a
condition?
Mr. Harry F. Atwood spoke before the Chicago
Piano Club, an organization having over 400 mem-
bers, today at luncheon, and at the close of his re-
ENCLOSURES AND DISCLOSURES.
marks the president of the organization, Mr.
Schoenwald, told a story of a man who appeared be-
Mr. Bent Draws Attention to Expert Testimony as fore a judge in the night court, with two automobile
cushions under his arms, and when the judge asked
to Effects of Dry Law.
him what he was there for and what he wanted done
for him, he replied that someone had stolen his auto-
Chicago, August 3, 1925.
mobile while he was busy outside in the bushes!
Rev. Irving E. Putnam,
He was evidently filled to the full with "strong
306 Richards St,
drink,"
and doubtless his companion was also—•
Joliet, 111.
which
the
Bible says "is raging."
My Dear Sir: Since I wrote you yesterday I
In the words of the Scriptures, Selah, until you
opened and read some of the many letters I found write
me again.
awaiting me here in approval of my sentiments. A
Very truly yours,
few sided with you, but the vote is decidedly against
GEO. P. BENT.
you.
P. S.—I enclose also copy of a letter to Mr. M. T.
I wish to call your attention to the enclosures, that
one entitled "Dry Era Run Drives Many Women Grattan, of Decorah, la., and call your attention par-
Mad." Please note especially what is said in that ticularly to the last two paragraphs but one.
item under the title, "Moral Letdown," which reads
as follows:
AT PIANO CLUB LUNCHEON.
"But there is a letdown in moral standards in this
At the conclusion of the luncheon of the Piano
country, and in my opinion the cause of it all is—pro-
Club, at Illinois Athletic Club, Chicago, Monday,
hibition.
"At the Psychophatic Hospital I treat hundreds of
Aug. 3, the president presented Mr. Bent who, after
women who come from good homes, who are persons of
introductory remarks in which the Putnam corres-
education and refinement.
"These women, normally self-contained, lose all control
of themselves when they start to drink, and become mad pondence was referred to and also a similar "trouble"
with a Rev. Dr. Dyer, of California, spoke in effect
creatures for the time being.
"I see young girls, too—children scarcely out of the as follows:
schoolroom—victims of nervous jags, who carry their
pocket flasks as naturally as their powder puffs."
When I reached Chicago I received an eight-page
Also note the cartoon in the Chicago Tribune of letter from Mr. A. W. Yeater, 1554 North Clark
today headed: "Our National Week-End Sprees," street, Chicago, dated July 24. He must have seen
also "An Old Story," also "The Old Days," also what has appeared in the Chicago Tribune about the
dinner I gave June 9 to some of my oldest friends
"Some Are with Us."
I am going to send to M. A. Nupatree the corre- and the correspondence which has passed between
spondence between us, as it will appear in the Rev. Putnam and myself since, as it appeared in the
Decorah Republican, which is to be issued this week. Tribune. I quote from this long, very interesting
letter the beginning and closing of same:
From One of "The Gang."
I find that neither the Tribune nor Presto has as
yet printed your letter to me of July 22 and mine to
you of July 25, but those two letters will appear in
the Presto of this week, and I shall have sent on to
you copies of both these papers, so that you may see
that what you write to me is not garbled, but is
printed exactly as you write it.
I have not seen B. W.'s article, spoken of in "An
Old Story."
I also in this enclose a copy of a letter written
July 29, by Bernard C. Roloff, who is the executive
secretary of the Illinois Social Hygiene League.
He is one of my "gang" evidently, for in that letter
he says, in the last three paragraphs:
"There is no question but that most of the illicit sex
contacts that bring girls here for treatment are due to
liquor. Before prohibition this condition was rare. At
that time 90 per cent of the women who came here were
infected by their husbands and 90 per cent of the men
who came here were infected by prostitutes. Now 50
per cent of our women patients confess being infected by
'friends' and 70 per cent of the men to being infected by
women 'friends.' The venereal woman of today is the
'cheating' wife, the 'loose' widow and the 'wild' flapper.
These are competing so violently with the old bawdy
house prostitutes that the latter are lost in the shuttle.
"This peculiar situation is directly due to the change
in the drinking: situation.
"Please understand I have no axe to grind in this con-
troversy, but I could not help but give credit where
credit was due. This League does not moralize. It is
not a reform agency such as Brother Putnam makes
himself to be. The fighting we have to do is against the
distinctly recognized evil which we can only reach by
commonsense
methods—prophylaxis—education—treat-
ment."
"Dear Mr. Bent: It is very unfortunate that we have
not more public-spirited men with sufficient backbone to
defy the feminists (and their 'inspired by women' male
co-workers and hirelings) who are now running (and
ruining) our country. Existing conditions were well
stated by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, when he said:
" 'The America-n people must learn to think of these
things, and to give up that unwillingness, which seems
so characteristic, to discuss or to deal with the disputed
and the disagreeable. We have almost gotten to a point
where public men and those who should be leaders of
opinion hesitate to speak until they know what others
are likely to say, and how what they say will probably
be received by the press and the public. There are not
so many as there should be who are willing to take the
risk of being unpopular for the sake of being right.'
"President Coolidge has told the feminists and their
loyal servants, the preachers that 'the attempt to
dragoon the body when the need is to convince the soul
can end only in revolt,' but they are too wise, of course,
to pay any heed to his advice.
• * *
"I know what their answers will be, for I have put the
facts up to some of these sanctimonious and holier-than-
thou hypocrites who pose as the authorized representa-
tives and spokesmen of Almighty God and keepers of
the keys of the gates of heaven and hell. They will tell
you that something should be done, of course, but will
also tell you to 'let George do it,' as they are 'too busy.'
You could not get them to touch this subject if you pro-
vided them with asbestos gloves, or a pair of tongs a
yard long. They might lose some of their 'generous con-
tributors' by doing so.
Pretence of the "Posers."
"The stand on the subject of sexual morality that has
been taken by these posers, and by the feminists they
represent and serve, is the weakest spot in their armor,
and it is the spot we should attack if we want to dis-
credit them. They are very careful to avoid any public
discussion of this subject, and if you want to make them
squirm and run for cover, just try to force them to come
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/