Message To Massachusetts Conference On Temperature, October 1, 1931

It was a brave step, worthy of America, to have undertaken the most difficult task for her of total prohibition. It would be a shame and a rude shock to reformers throughout the world if for any cause America abandoned the policy and returned to the drink evil.

[In a letter of September 21, 1931, to Gandhiji, Arthur J. Davis, State Superintendent of the Massachusetts Anti-Saloon League, said: "You can perform a great service if you will send us a word of encouragement and greeting to be read... at an all-day state-wide conference on temperance and total abstinence which is to be held... on October 16th. America is in the throes of a desperate drive of the liquor interests to restore beer, and thus to re-establish the old evils which we fought so long and so successfully."]