The Menace of Prohibition Part 3

The evils of gluttony also exist, and that more people die from direct and indirect causes arising from overeating than from drink will not be denied, yet who would propose a law to close the butcher shops, and prohibit the milling of fine flour and the importation of tea and coffee--higher medical and dietary authorities having decided all these latter to be injurious--in order to improve the physical condition of the people!

Compulsory Prohibition, according to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., "only leads to drinking in worse forms than under the old system." Count Tolstoi, in speaking of the Prohibition movement in America expressed the belief that "the people in America seem to be tending in a wholly wrong direction in this matter." Justin McCarthy, M.P., alludes to Prohibition in the United States as a "gross and ludicrous imposture."

President Andrew D. White refers to the theory and practice as regards the drink problem as "pernicious." Sir William Treloar, former Lord Mayor of London, calls these restrictive measures "ridiculous." Bishop Hall, of Vermont, a.s.serts that "Prohibition drives underground the mischief which it seeks to cure."

Thousands of good, well-informed citizens of this country, high in public and social life, many of these leaders in religious sentiment and thought, are united in the belief that Prohibition begins at the wrong end of the matter, and they renounce it as not only weak, inefficient and impractical, but destructive to the American ideals. The art of self-control, public and scientific education, an understanding of hygienic and healthful living, proper social and economic development and surroundings: in these lie the true solution of the problem of intemperance; and not at all in sumptuary laws and prohibitory legislation, simply because these latter "put the cart before the horse," strike at effects and not at causes.

Prohibition Censors.h.i.+p Despotic

Let us not forget the principles for which our great American republic stands. Recollect, that the tendency toward imperial government and despotic rule is here today as it has been in every nation and in every age of the world. Menaces to the rights and privileges of the people are ever-present: the continued structure of safeguarding laws and const.i.tutions presuppose the enemy to be ever near:--tyranny may slumber, but let bigotry and intolerance call ever so softly, and it springs into active life and being, and on every occasion, with consummate cunning, justifies its demands with a specious pretext--censors.h.i.+p for the good of the people.

Prohibition censors.h.i.+p is one of these specious pretexts; but censors.h.i.+p invariably arrogates to itself the prerogatives of monarchy and the exactions of martial law. Government of an Emperor is as well as government by unreasoning, tyrannous =majority=. In government, middle ground is rarely found, and if it is, it is only for a temporary period and for reasons of expediency: it; is a question of republic or empire, freedom or slavery, liberty or despotism, the life or death of the people! Censors.h.i.+p by =the majority=--as to what the individual shall eat, or drink, or wear, or religiously or irreligiously do or observe--is as hateful to the genuine American citizen as would be the censors.h.i.+p of =a Czar=! Censors.h.i.+p is dictatorial and despotic: it overrides American law and American ideals; it is the rule of =a suzerainty= in place of =fundamental government=: it claims to be acting =under= government, but it is actually acting =above= government. Censors.h.i.+p is not =freedom=; the very word itself precludes the view: censors.h.i.+p is =slavery=, intensified or modified; it is the same thing whether it be under American rulers or the Great Khan of Tartary. Prohibition censors.h.i.+p is only the =beginning=: it is not the end. Beneath it all, lie the claws of the tiger--the claws of fanatical bigotry and misrule--and ultimately, if not checked, the whole American people =will feel those claws=. =But then: IT WOULD BE TOO LATE!=

Long ago John Quincy Adams sounded a timely warning. He said:

"Forget not, I pray you, the right of personal freedom: =self-government is the foundation of all our political and social inst.i.tutions=. Seek not to enforce upon your brother =by legislative enactment= the virtue that he can possess =only= by the =dictates of his own= conscience =and the energy of his will=."

In conclusion: John Stuart Mill is right, when he says Prohibition is "so monstrous a principle" as to be "far more dangerous than any single interference with liberty"; a principle that there is "=no violation of liberty which it would not justify=."

All religious despotism commences by combination and influence, and as well-said by Col. Richard M. Johnson in his memorable U. S. Senate Report of 1829, "when that influence begins to operate upon the political inst.i.tutions of a country the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence."

Will the people of this great nation listen to the siren voice of this modern destroyer of personal freedom, and cutting loose from ancient moorings, turn back to the hateful paths of despotism? Will the republic deny the sacred principles of religious and personal liberty, whose first purchase-price was the blood of the minutemen of Lexington? Or, like a political rock of Gibraltar, stand fast upon the fundamental principles of its being, continuing to safeguard and maintain the const.i.tutional guaranties of all its citizens?

It is the American people that must answer these momentous questions!

And answer them they will! There is no escape from the responsibility!

=The future of the Republic rests upon their decision!=

It is the bounden duty of every American freeman, to speak against, to write against, to vote against =the menace of Prohibition=!

=PROHIBITION IS A MENACE TO=

=THE PROSPERITY OF THE COMMUNITY.=

=THE PEACE AND TRANQUILLITY OF THE PEOPLE.=

=THE CONSt.i.tUTIONAL LIBERTIES OF THE CITIZENS.=

=THE POLITICAL INSt.i.tUTIONS OF THE LAND.=

=THE STABILITY OF THE REPUBLIC.=

=A vote against Prohibition is a vote against THESE MENACES!=

+The Menace of Prohibition+

Should be widely circulated by every advocate and champion of Personal Liberty and Const.i.tutional Rights

Right at this time--in the crisis of American Liberty!

There is nothing just like it

The arguments are not of the +stereotyped+ cla.s.s

The facts given are indisputable

It does not offend +the man on the other side of the question+

It appeals to the citizen who desires fair play--and wants to see the American Republic continue a free nation, safeguarding the interests of +ALL+ and granting "special privileges to none"

REMEMBER ALWAYS--

"Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty"

SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS EACH

BY MAIL, POSTPAID

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Address the Author--

Mrs. LULU WIGHTMAN

314 West First St., Los Angeles, Cal.

Footnote:

[1] Inter-church Conference was the beginning of the National Federation of the Churches, which maintains a Prohibition department and is committed to the programme of Prohibition.