New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-12-25
THE EVILS OF EXCEss-PROHIBIToFY


| ance has no ayowed advocates Even its
slaves curse the vice to which they yield or
regret, with maudlin tears, their inability 10
resist the false appetite for stimulants which
iong-continued excess has engendered or all
the millions whom it degrades bruti6es, and
ruins. there is not one who in his sober mo-
ments stands forth its champion. Temperance,
on the other hand, has host of active end
! energetic friends. Society, as body, breaches
il, although SO many members Of society fail
to practice it, II is advocated in every pulpit
its prohibition is the object of large and re-
spectacle social organizations, it is made a side
issue and sometimes the main issue at tie
polls, and stringent laws are enacted 70 en-
force it,
In short, all parties, all crceds ali Interests
unite in deprecating drunkenness, and TIE only
question connected with it upon which they dc
not agree, is as to the wisest method OF con-
trolling the evil. Prohibitory State legislation
has been thought by many sincere and good
men to be the best remedy; but il has been
tried again and again in New England and else
where, without having produced the beneficial
effects expected from it, and at last Alassa-
chusetts, 50 long the stronghold of prohibition,
has repudiated that policy by an immense
majority. The Federal Government. partly in
the interest of Temperance and partly for rove
nue. purposes, has imposed tax upon domestic
liquors which, if the law were rigidly eycruted
would at once lessen their consumption
! and increase the sum total Of the
National revenue, but it appears to have
signally failed in both these objects.
There is no perceptble decrease in the manu-
facture or consumption of domestic spirits, and
no prOpOItiOnate augmentation in the receipts
of the Government from that source Laws Of
this nature are always extensively eyadcd and
result in a large amount of official corruption
and public Generalization, without acco mplish-
ing the primary objects which their originatos
had in view.
Experience seems to teach us that moral III
iuences are more potent than penal s;atutcs
in restraining this species of excess. Fath1
Mathews moral and religious crusade against
inebriety probably did more good than 81
the prohbtory laws that have ever beer
enacted.
The extreme prOhibitionists insist that a.coho
has no uses as a incidence that it is, when taxa
into the stomach, necessarily poisonous. bat
here the Faculty that has made disease AID tts
remedies for disease its study for so many ages,
increasing its knowledge and perfecting Us sss-
TEN of treatment with every passing VEN,
meets the allegation with a point blank denil
Who are best competent TO decide this qu's-
ton, in which the health and lives OF mlins
of human beings are involved-the professors
of the art of healing or individuals who, en-
fessedly, are incompetent to prescribe for tIeir
| own ailments, and who, when Frustrated by H.
ness, place their chief reliance upon the Disc
| t0r9 Does not the profession in whom, next To
! God, they put their trust in siekncss, kaow
| better than they do whether alcoholic tOnics are
or are not necessary in certain phases of dlseaeE
! Common sense answers in the affirmative Ply
! sicians tell MS that alcoholic medicines arc
! among the most valuable remedial agents IN
| the Matera Medica-specifcs which cannot be
dispensed with without sacrificing the health and
lives of multitudes of their patients. II we put
trust in them-and that we put trust in then ~
evident, or we should not call them in to nln-
lister to us when in danger-we are hound to
subscribe TO their dictum.
so far, then, as medication is concerned, he
object of the philanthrOpists who advocate
temperance should be to aid the profession IN
its praisewOrthy efforts to secure purc, ma
! dulterated alcoholic stimulant for curative md
preventive purposes. If any law could De de-
| vised for keeping the unwholesOme and lminie
1 liquors of commerce out of the slc>-roOn. 10
would be an inappreciable blessing; add 81 GA
! the other hand, a law guaTanteeiEg 2 Iure
! >,imuant to all who are professionally de
cl.lrG 10 need il could be practically enforced,
| that. too would be of infinite benefit To NAH
kind. Rnt no such special legislation could be
rendered effective. It would he eva"'d and
rendered; null and void by the interofi< IN con
fict with it, just as the liquor laws &c DOW
nulIiied by similar causes.
But when-as in the case, for example, or
! Hostettel's Stomach Bitters-a medicine >'ins@-
liant has been proved, beyond ali cavi 10 he
absolutely free from adulteratiOn and ,oi-
plete specific for large class of diseases 10 be-
nevolent and enlightened friend of Temperance
can consistently lift up his voice aS..inst 1t.
On the contrary, every proper effort should lie
made to procure the substitution OF s"ch a
tonic for the acrid fiery, and pOisonoGS funds
too frequently administered to mvaiidS.
| II should be a powerful argument III iavor
of preparation like this, that it has been de-
priyed by recifcation and by the medichia
vegetable ingredients of which it partly con
sists. of all the deleterious properties present
IN ordinary alcoholic stimuants, aud wlilsil
or,,.;no, for sErDu.s drink.