Show DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT Appetite Is a hard taskmaster From the time when the Hungarian miners first tasted alcohol to give them endurance en-durance down to the drunkards nnd topplers of tho present day the drink problem has been a vital one All intelligent in-telligent rightminded people have agreed that Intoxicants as beverages had no value that they were an un mixed evil or more carefully speaking speak-ing an unmitigated curse This is at present the universal sentiment sen-timent oven among Its victims thorn solves Assuming this and I subscribe sub-scribe to it most heartily I still be Hove that experience has demonstrated demonstrat-ed that sumptuary laws to abolish the traffic have been frank failures that of necessity they must be failures solon so-lon as they depend for their offectua enforcement upon n system of tisplon age lacking the moral stamina the backbone to make the embargo effective ef-fective all tho time or in fact any of the time A stream cannot rise higher high-er than its fountain hood The legislative legis-lative enactments now lying n dead letter upon the statute books prove this The experience of all the states that have tried prohibition proves It Truo moratlily means to my mind enlightened morality backed up by an Intelligent Interpretation of the combined com-bined experience of those who have gone before If prohibition actually prohibited if having said to tho Individual you shall not wo are both nblo and willing will-ing to see to It that ho does not then tho matter would be so simplified that It would not bo a problem at all The truth however is that tho most rampant ram-pant prohibitionist in this or any other community is apt to be the extremist tho oneIdea man blind to all practical practi-cal consideration seeing only tho abstract ab-stract thing He is cocksure that ho can untie tho Gordian knot by cutting cut-ting It This cannot be done all tho real reform the leal uplift must originate orig-inate In the home tho school tho church and its auxiliary agencies and not by sumptuary laws either In hlbltlvo or prohibitive Suiriptuary prohibition Is not only useless as n deterrent It Is more It Is bad either from tho viewpoint of good policy or good morals The history his-tory of the state of Maino proves this No person knowing the fads wlll deny that the present condition ot the Neal Dow stato is worse than the first that moral and political rottenness rotten-ness has followed upon its heels since Its first adoption In 1851 of a prohibition prohibi-tion law Ho who runs may read And this mind you in spite of the fact thnG jthQ state + 1 Jlliilltltffi > gdne nroU to bbd JiiteruplIlecon stltutional amendment of 1884 by tho act of 1801 tho most stringent and anildrinking law on earth In some small sections of the state under the same officers and at some times this law has been partially successful in mitigating the evil In most sections the iolntion of the law has been open and flagrant Llewellan Powers while governor of Mnli said very shrewdly when shown the proof that the system was honeycombed with rottenness that referring to the fable of the mice who wished to bell tho cat there were sufficient able bodied mice directly on the spot to do that kind of work and seo to it that the cat was properly belled and that at any rate the executive ex-ecutive office was not pulling any bodys chestnuts out of the fire And right hero we see the net tho kernel of the whole matter The prohibitionist prohibition-ist having gone to the polls and cast his ballot and later having found that himself sufficiently numerous to I have carried prohlblton at the polls assumes that the full task has been achieved so far as he personally Is concerned nnd retires gracefully from the field with little or no thought as to who shall bell tho cat The result has always been the fame the business goes right on It has simply been switched to another quarter The moral atmosphere has not been sweetened It has been made a hundred times more noxious Dives cellars back alleys bootlegs continue con-tinue the traffic and the most rampant ram-pant prohibitionist usually demurs with his mouth only or If his zeal goes farther It is spasmodic gets tired and finally dies of Inanition This Is the kind of morality prohibition prohi-bition stands for the kind that leads to devious blackmailing ways with great en and no wool Tho states of Alabama and Georgia are nominal ly dry In a large city In ono of these states the mayor In an after dinner speech saW I am hero to administer the laws as the people want them administered This In effect meant an organized system of blackmail precisely as all the large cities now handle the red light question Does this make for morality Our tasks lie right at our homes In our families among our own growing grow-ing children These children rightly Instructed both by precept and example ex-ample especially tho later can be safely sent out Into a world of pitfalls pit-falls alcoholic and other This phase of tho prohibition question ques-tion gives us all a sharp rap on the knuckles Vote No License by all means If your best Judgment dictated dictat-ed it but dont forgot that In Its last analysis this question is one that must be soiled In the home that morality begins at home you are the parent behind the child Spanish Fork Republican Editor |