Show prohibition THE prohibitionists are increasing in numbers in this country it is a question whether or not they are increasing in influence in new hampshire and massachusetts they have failed to obtain amendments to the state constitutions and it is not unlikely that in rhode island where prohibition has been established for nearly three years the measure will be repealed there are more people than ever in the united states who believe it would be better for the country if no intoxicants were manufactured and that the evils of alcohol very far outweigh the benefits that come from its use for any purpose but most 0 bothem them hesitate to vote for legislation that is so restrictive of the rights of individuals as that involved in the prohibition movement temperance is the great desideratum A well balanced person is temperate in all things but temperance does not always mean total abstinence it means moderation and this implies use As to in toxicants toxic ants the term temperance must not be applied when the view is taken that they are always harmful but this is yet an open question the most intelligent and conscientious people however are agreed we think on the proposition that anything which intoci cates ought not to be indulged in as a beverage or used commonly at all in some cases of sl sickness ekness it is believed they may be prudently resorted to with benefit but even this is disputed by people with extreme views or whose aversion to alcohol in any form has become intense because of the mischief it has wrought in all classes of society alcohol is used in the arts for many purposes and it is difficult to see how its place could be supplied if its manufacture were entirely cut off it is claimed that it exists in nature and indeed to some extent in everything that is consumed umed by mankind but on the other hand it is shown that it is born only of death produced only by decomposition and so does not come to us naturally the temperate in thought and judgment will recognize its use while they condemn its abuse that which may be proper in mechanics may be very improper as a drink it is undeniable that all nations in all ages have exhibited an appetite for fluids fluids containing more or less alcohol wine or strong drink of some kind has been manufactured from time immemorial and whatever may be claimed as to its moderate or 01 occasional use in exceptional cases it cannot be truthfully denied that its history is disfigured 1 with monstrous evils and that mankind wherever it has been intro deuced ho ha i been demoralized by its influence and frightfully degraded then rhen made slaves to its insidious power it to is all very try wen well to talk of moderate drinking and abd draw a parallel to it with moderate eating but the facts are that the two appetites cannot be fairly compared strong drink obtains a mastery over most people when indulged in frequently that rarely loses its hold and its moral effects are so terrible stud and so baneful both upon the individual and upon society that no just juat comparison can be made between drunkenness and gluttony it is in view of the weakness of mortality and the inability of most people to resist the advances of the appetite for intoxicants when it once is fairly formed that their use has been declared by the great author Autho of the universe to be unwise in his people in a community of latter day saints it ought to be perfectly practicable to establish prohibition so in any community of total ab sta iners but in a mixed society republican in its form of government prohibition does not appear to be feasible or consistent while it is perfectly right for the common good that drunkenness should be prohibited and made penal it may not be right to deprive people who think it no harm to partake sparingly of the liberty to eat and drink such things as they choose w when en they do not infringe upon the rights and liberties of other people and yet the public drinking saloon has been demonstrated to be an evil dim cult to control and almost impossible to suppress without exceedingly stringent legislation high license seems now to be the favorite method of regulating that th which has been found so hard to put pu down how long this method will prevail remains to be seen it may be that when this proves not to arrest the tide of intemperance a wave of public indignation WW sweep over the land and prohibition will be tried with a determination to prohibit wherever the preponderance of public sentiment is honestly in its 18 favor and those who are entrusted with its execution are faithful their official obligations prohibition will be found to work nearly at least as well as other laws and tho the evil effects of dram drinking will be b wonderfully lessened it they are not destroyed itis it is no argument against prohibition that liquor is sold in places where it is established by law there are murders where killing if a capital offense offe nae stealing is committed where the penalties against it are severe crimes against the person are perpetrated in spite spi of enactments to prevent them one with brains will ridicule the existence of the laws because they do not effectually prohibit the offenses offen see which they were designed to suppress there is no doubt much truth in the statement that in some PW pla 40 where it has been tried prohibition has been to a great extent a but is not this because it was waa not or carried out in good falth aith and with thorough and persistent determination and is it not true that while prohibition has not perfectly prohibited yet it has largely curtailed the liquor traffic and liquor habit we believe that facts will demonstrate it has done both we cite as a witness judge john fi of the supreme court of rhode island who has had ample opportunities of testing the effects of prohibition in that state he writes to a boston friend prohibition went into effect july 1 1886 during the first six months ile he result was almost magical lie fie quotes as follows from the providence journal burnal 1 which was opposed to prohibition throughout the state the public saloon is reported unknown this of course is a very decided gain gaid the temptations placed in the way of the young and heedless by open bar ar rooms at every corner have been oved oa and in consequence taking the state as a whole there was a 0 remarkable fall falling n g off in drunken tr and cognate offenses during the six months of 1886 as compared with the corresponding period of 15 1 this is good testimony to its pub lie c effects the judge adds at the close of the first year of prohibition the police records of providence dence showed the following reduction auction in arrests as compared with the previous year total arts rests for all causes 33 per cent reduction minors 36 per cent deduc divid on assaults 21 per cent tiola OB velling revelling re and disorderly oon con duet 38 percent per cent reduction drunk edness 37 per cent reduction common drunkards 64 per cent deduc on the favorable condition of ings indicated above still con in a large part of the state newport shows a decrease of 20 jaw r cent and of women 60 50 per cent att addition to this there have been 0 40 o startling tragedies or disturbances from liquor saloons and 4 88 drunkenness on the streets ai the last three years of 11 bonse ens the volume of business as on sown sh by bank clearings decreased wl and during the last three s years has increased hake uv depositors in savings banks lave increased per cent over the own aiu in ila the last three years of lit QS and taxable property in brov ha elice in the three prohibition years increased 11 judge dge shows that in coun where there are vigorous vigo prose ug officers saloons that defied tle 6 law have been effectually broken awhile in some of the larger towns 1371 evidence dence included through the of primary meetings and Oth wise the liquor element se burld ed political control and no efm t WIS was made for more than a year to efficiently enforce the law it to is in such places that prohibition is declared to be a failure and yet for all that it appears that the restraints stra ints of the law though so poorly applied there have had some good results he says for the last four years of license the average number of warrants issued annually by the police courts of providence for drunkenness reveling etc was waa the average for the last two years under prohibition not enforced has been or a decrease of per year making no account of increase in population ula arrests for drunkenness in n 1888 were 7 per cent less than in 1885 the last year of license A com comparison of the same years in boston under high license shows an increase of 49 per cent more in 1888 than in 1885 1 it seems that the effort to repeal the prohibition provisions comes from professional politicians of both parties whose operations 7 are very much hampered by the closing of the saloons these with parties directly in the liquor interest are laboring dilli gently to undo the work which has resulted so favorably during the past three years the fact that prohibition operates against individuals of that ilk is additional dit ional evidence in its favor the closing of saloons the placing under the ban of the law places where dram selling is a business and where dram drinking is a legalized standing temptation must be viewed by liquor opponents as a bl big g step towards its suppression there are a few places where prohibition hibi tion to is really the rule and they are invariably places where peace and order prevail and the common vices of civilization are rarely to be seen colorado springs to is an example many small utah towns may be placed in the same category and where both prohibition and the license system have been tried alternately the proofs are clear that the former forme r Is greatly preventive of crime and strongly of public order however the course of wisdom is that which will lead to the best beat results and this may not be the same in different places unless there is an overpowering ering predominance of public sentiment in a town or county in favor of prohibition hibi tion it cannot be made practicable it will be the same where notwithstanding an expressed desire to restrain the liquor traffic frame the disposition prevails to make it a source of public revenue in such places high license will best beat regulate that which cannot eq suppressed and after all the true field of the advocates of abstinence to is in the sphere of social humanity rather than in the halls of legislation the evils of intemperance the benefits of sobriety the strength of an emancipated or brain and body the joys of a social asocial condition where inebriety is absent may all be made clear to rational human beings and by education and aiding the weak whose will power falls in the presence of temptation more ie will be accomplished in the right direction than by repressive enactments that stir up resistance in the souls of the bundled undisciplined elined and provoke antagonism in the breasts of the pugnacious the entire suppression of liquor making and liquor selling will be well nigh impossible while the appetite for alcohol so largely exists among ma but ite restriction and regulation may be rightfully the subjects of legislation and the teacher the philanthropist the evangelist and the schoolmaster must do the rest they should work diligently by precept example and influence to hasten the day when prohibitory laws will be needless because the world will have been delivered from the greatest and most monstrous tyrant of the ages the demoralizing and insensate craving for the fluid that destroys when it exhilarates brutalizes while it stimulates and degrades while it seems adems to exalt in the face of these facts whatever may to be said of the impropriety of e enforced nf 0 reed prohibition in a popular government and a land of liberty let it not be argued that prohibition should not be established because it does not prohibit for in the first place no law entirely suppresses the crime against which it is enacted and in the second place prohibition can be made to prohibit to a very large extent and that is only limited in any locality by the true sentiment of its people and by the means exerted to execute in practice the laws law printed sprinted upon paper prohibition has in no case proven entirely a failure |