Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society from Brooklyn, New York • Page 9

9 from your state this year who will help check this tendency." In other words, the state superintendents are urged fo do their best to see that the American Medical Association is used only as a means of circulating dry propaganda. The members of the Association must surely feel highly flattered at the suggestion that it is being used for circulating any kind of propaganda. Wheeler also requests his state satraps to supply him, if possible, with the names of the delegates from their respective states and information as to the attitude of each on this vital question, adding, "It will take quick' action to meet this situation." Clearly, he regards it as a very serious one, and it certainly would be a very serious matter for Wheeler and his league if truth crushed to earth should stage a comeback. Thus one can readily understand why he should worry when disinterested sociologists, medical men or scientists, seeking only the truth, start discussing prohibition. It is a subject which can be safely left only to ignoramusses or to Irving Fisher, the great statistician Too Clever or Too True; Which? Referring to the straphangers and taxpayers of the city, the World observes: "They have had the bombast of Mr.

Hylan and they have had the all too clever propaganda of Mr. Dahl. They need now a clean, impartial, fearless dissection of all these claims and counter-claims. "If Mr. Untermeyer can give them that, he will have done a public service." Sure they do; but in the meantime those who are capable of distinguishing between bombast and reasoning must agree that Mr.

Dahl has. all the best of the argument. If the facts. upon which he bases his conclusions are as represented, and they have not been successfully controverted by even the cleverest of the bombastics, see why his propaganda should be referred to as "all too clever." It is not a question of how clever it is, but of how true it is. We hold no brief for the transit companies, but we do not belong to the crowfl which believes only what it.

prefers to believe and we have no use for bombast whether of the all too stupid Hylan brand or the all too clever Untermyer variety. AH we can say as an impartial judge of the arguments this far presented is that Mr. Dahl's propaganda is entirely convincing while the anti-transit corporation, or' five-cent fare propaganda, is quite the reverse. To convince us that Mr. Dahl's contentions are erroneous Mr.

Untermyer will have to show us that he has garbled "the truth or misrepresented the facts. If Mr, Untermyer can clarify the situation so that the people will understand precisely where they stand and view the situation without prejudice he will indeed have done a public service, but he will do no public service by feeding the prejudices of those who fell for the bombast of Mr. Hylan. The B. M.

we think, has done something in the cause of truth in engaging the Hon. Nathan L. Miller as special counsel to call attention to facts which Mr. Untermyer may inadvertently overlook, or think it advisable to ignore. THE EFFICACY OF FALSEHOOD From the St.

Louis Post Dispatch) It was lying that gave us Prohibition, and lying has supported it. Wayne B. Wheeler alone has put out more fairy tales in its behalf than were 'written by Grimm. Aesop a romancer was feeble beside "Pussyfoot" Johnson. People like former Congressman Upshaw have filled the country with more charming make-believe than there is in the operas of Wagner.

Imagery was never elevated in any age, not excepting the Greeks, to the ecstatic heights of Senator Borah's belief that Prohibition will succeed in another generation. The delightful BROOKLYN LIFE opinion among right-minded persons as to the evils of alcoholism or the desirability of measures to ameliorate or do away with them, The only ference of opinion is as to whether constitutional prohibition as it has been put over on the American people, with the aid of some so-called evangelical churches, is the 'best or the worst possible means to that end; whether it is consistent with American principles of government, conceptions of liberty and the spirit of the Constitution itself in short, whether it is not productive of vastly more harm and corruption than good. In any case it is certainly not in keeping with any rational conception of the teaching or life of Christ. If anything is certain, it is certain He would not have endorsed prohibition, though He might have ignored it altogether. But if the church voiced any specific message on this subject which is essentially one of political or economic expediency it would be compelled to take sides and how could it takes sides without causing embittered dissentions within its own ranks and alienating the allegiance of all who claim the right to exercise their own judgment in such matter, in accordance with the dictates of their own Assuredly, no message it could issue would voice the unanimous opinion, even of the clergy, on this subject.

It is certainly difficult to believe that what Wayne Wheeler calls "the dry churches" have not lost far more than they have gained by acquiring that preposterous classification, for it is difficult to believe they have not virtually excommunicated all they have affronted by presuming to lend to one side of a secular controversy the weight of religious authority. The report referred to is a plea for tolerance, but any attempt of the, churches to influence public opinion on secular questions can but add fuel to the fire of intolerance. All the church can do for the betterment of material or social conditions is to furnish men with the spiritual inspiration and the fortitude to live up to their conscientious convictions in every matter, leaving to them the task of finding solutions for social and economic problems. If the church can teach us to conquer our own selfish desires and do what we believe to be just and right, society take care of itself in spite of honest differences of opinion. Wheeler Issues a Hurry Call We are not in the least surprised at Captain Stayton's exposure of Wayne B.

Wheeler's efforts to pack the forthcoming convention of public health officials May 21-23 in Washington with a view to preventing an unprejudiced discission of the rising death rate from alcoholism, and the convention of the American Medical Association May 16-20 to forestall any discussion unfavorable to prohibition from a medical point of view. That apart from collecting contributions, the biggest part of the work of the unscrupulous organization, of which Wheeler is the head and front, is the suppression of all facts tending to discredit the edict to which it owes its political power and which is essential to its very existence, has long been obvious to all who have eyes to see, or ears to hear. But it is very evident that it dreads nothing so much as an impartial exposition of the truth for if it believed that a disinterested review of the facts by sociological or medical authorities would sustain its claims, it would assuredly welcome such a review. Captain Stayton has brought to the attention of Surgeon General Cummings, a letter mailed by Wheeler to all the state superintendents the Anti-Saloon League, wherein he urges them "to get in touch with any of your state health officials who are right ('italics ours') on this question, and get them to attend this meeting." He also states referring to the American Medical Association "that this Association has been used to circulate considerable wet propaganda, and I hope there will be some physicians sent as delegates But if cooperation between the city and the companies is out of the why should the city squander the people's money on a municipally-built and operated system in order to engage in cut-throat competition against the transit companies In this case the abandonment of all further1 subway construction on an extensive scale seem to us the only rational alternative. How Not to Encourage Tolerance Since we are willing to let the Methodist Church have all the credit for putting over prohibition on the people of the United States and for imparting an odor of sanctity to the bad-smelling activities of Wayne B.

Wheeler and the Anti-Saloon League, we were a little perturbed at a paragraph in a morning paper last week (Wednesday) referring to the 144th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, reading: "It is expected that a lively tilt may develop today on the subject of Prohibition, as the Social Service Committee is going to report," We were relieved; however, to read on the following day that beyond copies of this report prepared by Dr. Charles K. Gilbert being distributed among the delegates, this essentially secular and political, as well as tedious, subject received no consideration whatever. Quotations from the report which we have read seem, however, to sustain our own contention that the sub ect is one which has no relation to the religion of Jesus Christ and is therefore no, proper subject for controversy, or debate, within the Christian church, since equally good Christians and citizens are diametrically at variance in their views concerning it. The report puts the matter in this way: "We believe that nothing is to be gained by ignoring the fact that strong differences of opinion exist between people of undoubted Christian character concerning not only the legislative and administrative measures which should be adopted to carry out the purposes of this amendment, but also concerning those which have already been put into operation by duly constituted governmental authority, and even in regard to the policy of the amendment and its desirability as a means of curing the great 'evils against which it is directed.

"These differences spring not merely from personal tastes, habits and points of view, nor even from social customs or group interests in innumerable instances they touch the deepest religious conscience and the strongest civic conviction of men and women who are earnestly striving to fulfil their duties as Christian citizens. "In the face of this situation, the question arises whether the church ought to voice some specific message to those look to it for guidance and inspiration. Certainly there is danger at present that unless forethought be taken the differences of opinion among our citizenship may become increasingly bitter." AH this is unquestionably true, but there is no question in our mind as to whether the church "ought to voice some specific message to those who look to it for -guidance and inspiration," for there is nothing we are more certain of than that it should not. Who looks to it for guidance or inspiration in temporal matters, anyway We can no more imagine any ihtelligeit man or woman asking the church what to think about, or how to vote, on prohibition than we can im--agine such a person appealing to ecclesiastical authority for guidance in determining whether to vote the Republican or the Democratic ticket or what to think about the cancellation of war loans, the subway situation or the Baumes laws. But how can a church voice any specific message on a subject over which its own clergy as well as laity are at odds? If we, for example, wanted any specific message on this subject from a clerical source we could apply to our own rector or to Bishop Fiske of Central New York, knowing in advance that they would endorse substantially our point of view.

To any rational mind prohibition can have no other end in view than to discourage intemperance in the 'use. of alcoholic beverages, though apparently the fanatical element back of it considers it of no less importance to discourage the temperate' use of them. But there is no division of phantasies of Rip Van Winkle are nothing, to the solemn 1. 1 A li a IMin aronery oi me rooi-oeer nierarcny ti vvcsici vmc, that Prohibition is gaining. Scheherezade in a thousand a.vl vne nights fell far short of the romanticism of such femak sodapoppers as our own Aimee Semple McPher-son any night in the week.

Prohibition has not made us a nation of liars. It was a nation of liars that made Prohibition..