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Life Saver. Patrick Henry Callahan, paint and varnish man of Louisville, Ky., oldtime friend of William Jennings Bryan, ardent Dry Catholic, indefatigable letter-writer and publicist, told the committee of the lives Prohibition had saved. His statistics: alcoholism, 26,400; cirrhosis of the liver, 42,300; Bright's disease, 62,100. Declared Mr. Callahan: "With undisputed statistics I have shown from merely three diseases where prohibitionists have saved more [U. S.] lives than were lost in action in the Great War.* A hundred thousand lives are not to be sniffed at."
Social Drinkers. To prove that polite society hostesses really object to serving guests liquor, Mrs. Ruth G. Knowles Strawbridge, matronly Philadelphia socialite, took the stand to tell of her referendum letter among the "socalled better class." She sent out 2,300 queries to hostesses (TIME, July 1). Said she: " I found that these society women regarded liquor drinking at private gatherings as an unutterable nuisance. ... A favorite theme was that of the expense and the great disgrace of maintaining relations with bootleggers." Mrs. Strawbridge declared she received 1,337 responses opposing wet social gatherings, 247 in favor of maintaining them.
Milk Drinkers. Speaking for a "million farmers," Louis John Taber, Master of the National Grange, fairly flooded the committee with agricultural statistics to establish the benefits U. S. husbandmen have received from Prohibition. His best statistic: before Prohibition every U.S. citizen drank 42 4/10 gal. of milk per year; today each drinks 60 gal. He argued that grains which once went into liquor now make breakfast foods, that corn is higher in value now than before 1920, that the price of grapes has increased. Mr. Taber painted farm conditions in such cheerful colors that he seemed sorely embarrassed when a Wet committee member produced a statement of his last April when he was seeking farm relief. Then he had told an entirely different story of "deplorable conditions" among U.S. farmers.
"Pepper & Ginger." Between the sessions of the committee hearing, Mrs. Yost mustered a company of women to present to the committee this week at a special "Ladies' Day." She promised to put more "pepper and ginger" into the Dry testimony hereafter.
* U. S. battle fatalities: 50,510.