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"He that controls the Present --- Controls the Past"
George Orwell -- 1984
Compton's Encyclopedia provides an excellent example of how some editors solved a seemingly unsolvable problem. Just how, after years and years of heaping praises on the hemp plant does one now start talking about it as the "Assassin of Youth?"
Note just how gradual the changes were between the 1935 (pre-Reefer Madness) and the 1939 editions. Just enough for propaganda purposes but not enough to make someone look twice. It would only be at a later time that the definition would get more and more outrageous.
| PRE-REEFER MADNESS DEFINITION | REEFER MADNESS DEFINITION |
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HEMP: Since very early times the fiber of the hemp plant a native of temperate Asia, has been employed in making coarse cloth and rope, and today its cultivation is an important industry in China, India, and various parts of Europe. In India and China hemp is cultivated not only for its fiber, but for its flowers and leaves from which is prepared an intoxicating drug, called "Hashish." Russia, Italy, and France are the chief producers of hemp in Europe. In the United States hemp is a minor crop, and production is usually confined to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky. In the latter state it was once one of the chief crops (see Kentucky), but it is now little grown. The United States normally imports about half its supply. Until a few years ago the exceedingly crude and primitive methods of harvesting the crop and preparing the fiber required an enormous amount of labor. Everything was done by hand, as is still the practice in Europe. The crop was cut with hand sickles, spread out on the ground to be "retted" by the weather for several weeks, gathered and bound in shocks by hand, and finally crushed in a heavy wooden hand-brake to separate the fiber from the wood of the stem. "Braking" by hand is an especially tedious and laborious task; 100 pounds of cleaned fiber is a good average day's work for a man. It is hoped that production in the United States will increase, now that machinery has been invented to make the drudgery of hand labor unnecessary. Hemp crops are now harvested by an ingenious machine which spreads the stalks in even swaths. Another machine gathers and binds them when they have been retted. The crushing is done in power-brakes with fluted rollers, and the fiber is removed in a scutching machine. Hemp fiber, which comes from the inner bark of the stem, is valuable because of its length, toughness, pliability, and resistance to water. American dewretted fiber, which is retted by soaking in soft water, is soft, lustrous, and almost white. Hemp is chiefly used for making rope, twine, shoe and harness thread, and the coarse cloth known as gunny-sacking. At one time it was used extensively in the manufacture of sail cloth and sheeting, and some of the finer quality is still made into cloth in China and Japan. Hemp seeds produce an oil which is used in the manufacture of soap and varnishes. They are also used for bird-seed. The term hemp is also used to designate many kinds of fibers in no way related to the hemp plant--among them manila hemp, sisal hemp, and the Sunn hemp of India. Manila hemp (abaca) comes from a plant of the Philippines which belongs to the banana family. Its fiber is long (6 to 12 feet), strong, and durable. Abaca is used in making ships' cables and other kinds of rope where great strength and flexibility are required, as well as the best grades of binder twine. Sisal and the closely related henequen are used in the twines, and ropes of small diameter. (See Sisal.) All cultivated true hemp is produced from Cannabis sativa. This is an annual herb of the mulberry family varying under cultivation from 3 to 16 feet in height and having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, the female plant being taller and more luxuriant and having darker foliage than the male. Manila hemp comes from the musa textilis. (See Rope and Twine.) |
HEMP: This plant serves the wise and destroys the foolish. Its fibers make valuable textiles, but its sap yields a dangerous narcotic drug, called "hashish" or "marihuana." Hemp has been cultivated for thousands of years in its native Asia and was long ago carried to many other regions of the world. For centuries it was one of the most important textile fibers. Rope, coarse cloth, and the sails of ships were made of it. The very name canvas probably comes from the Latin word cannabis for "hemp," though canvas now is usually made of cotton. The Cavaliers at Jamestown and the Pilgrims at Plymouth early planted hemp and from it wove their homespun clothes. From hemp were woven also the tops of covered wagons that carried pioneers into the West. Today hemp is little used for rope, because of competition from abaca (manila hemp), which is lighter and more resistant to water. Jute has replaced hemp for making coarse cloth (see Jute). But hemp is still used widely for making strong and durable twines, high-grade belting and webbing, and oakum and other kinds of packing. Oil from the seeds is used in making soaps, paints, and varnishes. The seeds are also fed to birds. The fibers of hemp come from the inner bark of the woody stalk. Before they can be recovered, the plant must "ret" or rot on the ground after it has been cut. The stalks are then shocked, and finally they are crushed to separate the fiber from the wood of the stem. Crushing in hand brakes is a tedious and laborious task; 100 pounds of cleaned fiber is a good average day's work for a man. All the operations from harvesting to the removal of the fiber can now be performed by machinery, as shown on the opposite page. The Production of hemp for its fiber is an important industry in China, India, Russia, Italy, Hungary, and Poland. In the United States hemp is a minor crop, and production is confined mainly to Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In Kentucky it was once one of the chief crops, but it is now of little economic importance there (see Kentucky). The United States imports the greater part of its supply. A resinous substance in the leaves, stems, and flowers of certain types of hemp is the source of hashish, which is called "marihuana" in Mexico. This has been used as a drug since ancient times. It has a sinister effect upon habitual users, and many commit crimes while under its influence (see Assassins; Narcotics). The Federal government classifies marihuana as a narcotic drug and cooperates with other nations to regulate its distribution and to prevent its abuse. The term hemp is also used to designate many kinds of fibers in no way related to the hemp plant--among them manila hemp, sisal hemp, and the Sunn hemp of India. Manila hemp (abaca) comes from a plant of the Philippines which belongs to the banana family. Its fiber is long (6 to 12 feet), strong, and durable. Abaca is used in making ships' cables and other kinds of rope where great strength and flexibility are required, as well as the best grades of binder twine. Sisal and the closely related henequen are used in the twines, and ropes of small diameter. (See Sisal.) All cultivated true hemp is produced from Cannabis sativa. This is an annual herb of the mulberry family varying under cultivation from 3 to 16 feet in height and having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, the female plant being taller and more luxuriant and having darker foliage than the male. Manila hemp comes from the musa textilis. (See Rope and Twine.) |
ENCYCLOPEDIA'S OF EVIL
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