ABSTRACT
Quite apart from the particular question of the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the end of Prohibition is important as marking the defeat of a certain kind of morality. Broadly speaking, moral sentiment is of two sorts: the first wishes to make others happy, the second wishes to make them unhappy—of course for the sake of their true welfare. Social reformers have been of both types: some wished the poor to have more to eat, others wished them to have less to drink. The psychological root of the reformer’s sentiment is, in the one case, sympathy; in the other, envy. It is a good thing when the restrictive morality inspired by envy suffers a resounding defeat, as it has done in the failure of Prohibition. Many men desire the glow of moral self-satisfaction, and such men may be forced, when restrictions on freedom fail, to fall back upon behavior which might have been inspired by kindly feelings. For this reason, I am glad that Prohibition has been judged a failure.
