Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1868-02-15
TIME EVILS OF ExcBss-pRoHlsiToRY

VHE EVILS OF ExoBss-pRoHIBiToRy
.Aws-MEDrCiyAL sTiNUMl.-Iatsnper-
has no avowed advocates. Rven It's slaves
,ursc the vice to which they yield, or regret,
maudlin tears. their inability to resist the
appetite for stimulants which long ccntin.
led Excess has eneendersd. or oil the millions
vhom il desrades. brutiaes, and ruins. there 10
lot one who in his sober moments stands forth
IS champion. Temperance, On the other hand,
las q host OF active aud energetic friends. So
as . body, presches it, although so many
Members Of society fail to practice it. 1t Is i'd
'ocsasd il every palpit,ts prohibitiea il the OBJ
Of large and respectable sssial orssniia.
lions. itis msds . side issue end sometimes
The main Issue ct the polls. ssd stringent laws
are enacted to enforce il.
In short. all parties. al ereeds. all interests
unite in deprecsting d,uaksnnsss, end the only
question connected With it upon which they do
not agree, Is - 70 The wissst method Of 9 o~ptroll
ing the evil. P~rohibitory State legislation he's
been thought by many sincere and good msu
to be the best remedy but it has been tried
again and again in Nsw England And else where,
having produced the beneficial s6ects
expected from it and ct last Massachusetts,, %
long chs stronghold Of prohibition, has repud
lated Tho policy by an immense majority. The
Federal Government, party In the interest o.
and party for revenue purposes
has imposed . tax spon domestic liquors which
il the law were rightly executed, would u onc'
their consumption and increase the sun
total of the Nstienvl revenue. but il appears I.
have signsiiy fa,lsd In both these objects. Their
il no perceptible decrease in the manufacture O
consumption Of domestic spirits, and NO pro
portionste augmentation In the receipts OF tn
g ,vernment from that source. Laws OF this no
turc are always extensively evaded, and resul
in . large amount Of official csrsuptisa and pub
lie Generalization, without accomplishing tn,
objects which their iosiginssors had il
view.
Experience seems TO tea:h US that moral in
auences are more potent than penal statutes il
this species of excess. Father Mat
hew's moral cad religious crusade against In
sbriety probably did more good than all the pro
hibitory laws that have ever been enacted.
The extreme prohibitiouists insist that slcs
hol has no uses Is . medicine ; that il Is, whel
taken into the stomach. necessarily poisonous
But here the Faculty that has nsds dissass and
the remedies for disease its study for 90 man,
ages, increasing ito knowledge and psrfsctin,
its System of treatment with every tpassin,
year meets tie allegation with = point blsnl
denial. Who are best competent to decide thi
question, in which the health and lives Of mil
lions OF human beings are involved the pro-
fessors ofthe art Of heal ng or Individuals who
eonfessedly, are incompetent to prescribe fol
their own ailments. and who, when PROSTATE,
BY illness, place their chief reliance upon III
doctors Does not the profession in whom
next to God, they put their trust in sickpesi
know better than they do whether alcoholic ton
les are or are not necessary in certain phases o
disease, Common sense answers in the affirm
alive. Physicians tell US that alcoholic medi
cines are among the most valuable remedia
agents in the Materis Ned,ca-speciies whicl
caunot be dispensed vita without sacrificing tn
health and lives OF mutt ltudes of their patients
If VIC put trust In them-and that We put ,rus
in them 10 evident,o or We should not call them il
to minister TO US when insdanger-we are boun'
to subscribe to their dictum.
So far, then, as medication 10 concerned, tn,
object Of the philsnthropists who advocate TEN
persnce should be to aid the profession in it
ed alcoholic .timulant for curative and prevent
i've purposes If any Law could be devised TO
keeping the unwholesome and impure liquors o
IN out OF the sick -room, Il would be a,
inappreciabie blessing and il, on :he othel
hand, . Law guaranteeing a pure stimulant to al
who are professionally declared to need it soult
be practically enforced, that, too. would be o
infinite benefit 70 mankind. But no such spec
ial legislation could be rendered effective. /
would be evaded, and rendered null aud void b
the Interests in conflict with it, just 20 III,
liquor laws are now nullifed by similar causes
But when-as in the case, for example, o.
Hoststter's Stomach Bitters-s Dedicinsl slim
ulans has been proved. beyond oil cavil, to b,
absolutely free from adultcr alton, and . CON
plese specific for . large class of diseases, nj
benevolent and enlightened friend Of Temper
ance can consistently lift up his voice against it
On the contrary. every proper effort should b,
made 70 procars the substitution Of such . toni
for the acrid, fiery, and poisonous iuids 700 fire.
qusntly administered to inv Aids.
1t should be . powerful argument in favor o
. preparation ike this. that 1t has been depriv
ed by recti6cation and By she medicinal vegets
bic Ingredients Of which II ssrtiy c~cn.ists. Of 81
the deletsrious properties present in ordinary
alcoholic stiu ulants, and which bsest N uanat
ural ersYisg for strong drink. thereby leading
dire civ TO intempersnce. This, We say, shoult
be . strong argument In its favor with I'll 70
tiopal temperance men for since stimulsnt,
are medicines that cannot be dispensed, with, i
is mssifestiy al inpertsnt to administer th,
best.
Az . reeess,ssd ed STANDARD tsAie Of Sn6s