H.L. Mencken on Prohibition

For some odd reason H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) wrote the attached essay under the pseudonym “Major Owen Hatteras”. The one page article is written in typical Menkenese and catalogs example after example of how Prohibition is creating a worse society, not a better one; citizens of all stripes who would otherwise be judged as honest souls, are instead committing illegal acts and there seemed to be no end in sight to such behavior.

“…from louts who call one up by telephone at midnight to report 20 cases of vermouth have just been smuggled ashore from an Italian ship, and who report the next morning that the captain has been jailed and the vermouth seized by revenue agents who demand $6 a bottle for it…”