Fruit of the Vine

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Why cannot the Massachusetts Legislature see that to limit the sale of liquor to those over twenty-one would be a hideous mistake?

The utter folly of prohibition is not so much that it gives rise to law-breaking of every description, as that it disregards a fundamental trait of man: deny him something and he wants it more than ever. If our fourteen years under this travesty of legislation have done nothing else, they have conclusively proved that man's habits cannot be regulated by law.

Is it not true that the period of greatest experiment in life is youth, during which time man is busy finding himself, in relation to his own capacities and to the world at large? If this be granted, it must also be agreed that one of the problems he comes up against at this stage is the problem of liquor.

But liquor presents an entirely different problem. It seems to be an American trait to try to break laws. This trait must be reckoned with. Now the Massachusetts Legislature, in its capacity of serving the people, and therefore, youth, proposes to forbid the sale of liquor to those under twenty-one. In other words, at the very stage in a young man's life when he must be allowed to solve his own problems, through no fault of his, his sense of proportion about liquor will be warped.

Man must first be educated, so that he knows the evils of liquor, and how to adapt himself to them. And most assuredly the way to teach him is not, when he is most eager to learn, to treat him like a small child, who is not yet old enough to drink.

Is it not, therefore, to the best interests of society that the members of the Legislature remember the days of their youth, and realizing that human nature has not changed, make it possible for youth to obtain decent liquor?

If we, who are young, then fail, it will be our fault, but we should at least be given a chance to feel our way. We cannot in this respect fall down more miserably than have our elders. Henry V. Poor '36.