Letter to Reverend Daniel A. Poling on Prohibition.

[Released August 23, 1932. Dated August 22, 1932]

Dear Dr. Poling:

I deeply appreciate your telegram and the spirit and the understanding which animate it.

There are many moral and spiritual problems before us, to which you have given so many years of devoted service. We are on common ground in a desire to rid this civilization of the evils of the liquor traffic. We may not all agree on method as I have come to the belief that we must, through constructive and not destructive changes, revive the energies of the states to deal with the new evils, with federal constitutional guarantees against the return of the old evils. We must drive steadily toward disarmament and world peace. We must fight for economic recovery, not only for its material values, but we must secure from this period a revaluation of the purposes of life and shift our drift from materialism to a higher note of individual and national ideals. We must awaken a sense of national consciousness of the purposes of life itself. We must contend every moment for the wider development of free men and women through the one road to that end, that is, loyalty to a century and a half of our own American aspirations.

Again I wish to express my appreciation for the friendship of yourself and your colleagues.

Yours faithfully,

HERBERT HOOVER

[Dr. Daniel A. Poling, Hillsboro, New Hampshire]