Poll to Poll

Between the extremes of evangelical Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church there slants an almost unbroken line: the emphasis placed upon alcoholic temperance by the denominations along this line increases in ratio to their distance from the Roman Catholic Church which does not favor Prohibition.

The Protestant Episcopal Church lies between Rome and the strongly evangelical, pro-prohibition denominations. Intelligent observers were not, therefore, greatly surprised when they inspected the results of a questionnaire poll conducted by the Church Temperance Society of the Episcopal Church. The questionnaire had been sent to 5,301 ministers; 2,980 of them had replied. The results were tabulated as follows:

Is prohibition a success in your locality? Yes, 501; no, 1,304.

Have we had the law long enough for a fair trial? Yes, 1,329; no, 758.

Should the Volstead Act be modified? Yes, 1,389; no, 673.

Should the Eighteenth Amendment be repealed? Yes, 953; no, 984.

The Temperance Society then adopted a resolution, of which these paragraphs were a part:

"Whereas, the attempt at prohibition as embodied in the Volstead Act has hampered the medical profession, corrupted politics and made the underworld semi-respectable, thereby setting bad examples to the young who are receiving their training character; therefore,

"Be it resolved that we record our confidence in the time-honored constitution of the Church Temperance Society, namely, voluntary temperance by moral education."