[Ken H]

By the turn of the century knowledge of them and their availability had become such that laws in 1906 and 1914 were put in place in reaction.

Just like poverty had become such by 1965 that the War on Poverty was put in place as a reaction?

Any other Progressive ideas you'd like to defend - Prohibition? The income tax?

[Tublecane]

Some FReepers have the oddest faith in particular kinds of Big Government. To hear them tell it the early years of the Republic don’t count because it wasn’t until federal intervention, conveniently, that they became enough of a problem to justify intervention. Which I might buy had I never heard of government until a couple seconds before I heard that argument.

That’s not how it usually works. Usually they don’t draft laws against things until the problem has almost solved itself, as with child labor and the 8 hour workday. There’s also a perverse tendency to pass more laws the better things get.