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Show GROWTH OF PROHIBITION. Following the example of several northern states, Georgia has passed an absolute prohibition law, effective January 1 next. The fact has given rise to an almost endless discussion in the secular press as to the merits of prohibitive legislation as a means of promoting temperance. Between total abstinence and temperance there is a gap nearly as wide as between temperance and drunkenness. To the total abstainer one drink of light beer is intemperance, in-temperance, while to the sot it is merely a "chaser" for something stronger. The lover of conviviality finds in the saloon a pleasant place to spend a few idle hours with kindred spirits, while the prohibi- ; tion advocate sees naught but woe and despair as a result of such indulgence. F Now there can be no possible way to dispute the proposition that the promotion of temperance 1 ( is a very commendable thing. History and exper- I ience and ethics show that temperance is and al- I ways has been a strong force making for virtue and morality. A man surely can't load himself up with a lot of intoxicants without feeling on the day after some little contrition; he can't, at least, until he gets hardened up to it. The day after he is likely to say "never again." Then at some evil moment a friend invites him to have a drink, and there is an inviting saloon where everything is clean and the glassware sparkles under the electric light. Temptation is strong and the flesh is weak. Like poor old Rip Van Winkle, this one time doesn't count, and tomorrow the resolution, "never again," is renewed. Combating intemperance of all kinds is one of the cardinal principles of the church. The saloon business is one which a church newspaper may handle with or without gloves. But it does no good to denounce the saloonkeeper. He just smiles and continues. It does no good to denounce the drunkard. He just drinks the more. The growing generation will solve the whole problem by removing the temptation from itself. Georgia's approaching prohibition is showing the rest of the country how to do it. High licenses, even to the point of seeming prohibition, as in Ohio at present, do not do the work. The absolute abso-lute removal of saloons from the public streets, thus putting the temptation away, affords the only solution of what is one of the greatest evils the world contends with today. We believe the total abstainers are in the minority, mi-nority, though we have no statistics on the subject. sub-ject. But the total abstainers are but a small percentage per-centage of the people who recognize the necessity for some practical means of promotirg temperance. temper-ance. Enlisting under their banner are thousands who drink to be sociable, drink to promote their business interests, drink to gratify a friend's caprice, ca-price, drink just because they don't know what else to do. It might be a good thing to furnish old j topers with a license to permit them to buy their I 1 grog, inasmuch as their physical constitutions re- quire the stimulus which years of indulgence has made necessary to their happiness and perhaps their life, but if the country is to be saved the blighting effects of the drink habit, some radical change will have to be made from the present sys- I tern of placing the temptation to drink before , L everybody who has the price. B ' The scoffers at prohibition laws say there is more intemperance where they are in effect than 1 i elsewhere. This may be true, or it may not. How- ! ever it may be, the fact remains that ever since I j the world began mankind has been weak in resist- I ing temptation, and the sane and practical meth- j i od of reformation is to remove the cause of temp- f tation. The Georgians are doing that. And so If will the rest of the country when it wakes up. tv I |