Note 31 — Chapter Nineteen
Reading edition
Following that 1920 prohibition-fiasco of America’s, I often think that my brother’s enormous influence as author of the famous Modification Bill, which is already beginning to sweep the civilized world in its application, stands as a particularly fine example of his unparalleled capacity for balanced middle-man’s judgment.
His personal aversion to drink, dates back, I feel sure, to an incident that had horribly to do with my own son. Throughout Dave’s boyhood, it existed to such an extent that I have seen him turn pale from squeamishness at the sight of someone drinking a cup of cider.
As Police-Commissioner, as Senator, as Governor, he was consistently austere in meting out punishment to the man whose family suffered of his intemperance.
And yet, almost marked from childhood, as it were, with an aversion to drink, this was the man who ultimately was to draft out a compromise bill that was to save the face of the ridiculous America of the Volstead Act.