Mania

THE PROHIBITION MANIA--Clarence Darrow & Victor S. Yarros--Boni & Liveright ($2.50). Using the much-heralded dry arguments of Professor Irving Fisher of Yale (advanced in Prohibition at its Worst) as a tackling dummy, Authors Yarros (Chicago journalist) & Darrow (famed Chicago lawyer) endeavor to prove that the 18th amendment should be considered an outmoded though undeniably humorous fantasy. Practically all of Professor Fisher's conclusions, 38 of his charts connecting the dry law with the decrease in drunkenness and juvenile delinquency, the disappearance of disorderly houses, the reduction of deaths due to alcoholism, are demolished with an angry despatch. The book "is designed to serve as an intellectual, clean and honest argument for the side which it represents." Whether it is as conclusive an argument as it seems remains (as all arguments without umpires must remain) a matter of opinion.