CHAPTER XI 
THE DIVIDENDS OF PROHIBITION 
ANOTHER basic reason for the new plateau of the 
stock market is to be found in expectation of future 
dividends because of prohibition. This is fully 
elaborated in my book Prohibition Still at Its Worst. 
Prohibition is a highly controversial subject, but 
not on the economic side. Whatever else we may 
think of prohibition, there is no gainsaying its eco- 
nomic value; although we may, of course, differ as to 
how great its economic value is—whether it is over 
six billion dollars a year, as I suggested in my book 
Prohibition at Its Worst, or larger or smaller. 
Estimates of Money Gains 
Professor Feldman, who criticizes, and with some 
justice, the method used in my estimate in his Eco- 
nomic Effects of Prohibition, finds prohibition has 
become economically important, but he is unwilling 
to make any estimate in figures. Professor Feld- 
man showed that Herbert Hoover, as Secretary of 
Commerce, had ascribed to prohibition an increase 
of efficiency in the individual worker of upward of 
10 per cent, stating in positive terms: “There is no 
[7%