The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-17
PROHIBITION AND POLITICS.

from the NJ 4. Ignne8
The regulation of the liquor traffic in Mas
sachusetts has, after Two years trial of the
prohibitory law, been handed over to the
individual towns who are to deal with it as
they see fit. The result will probably be that
in the small country towns, where hardly
anybody drinks or wants to drink, all drink
ing will be prohibited; while in the large
cities, where there is a great deal of drinking,
and where some restraint is really needed, no
restraint at all will be attempted. 1t cannot
be said that this is a very satisfactory result
of an experiment which has now lasted for
several years, and has caused more uproar
and drawn forth more bad language than any
effort after social reform within our re-
collection. The prohibitionists however,
far from being discouraged, think that
by trying to get the State Executive
into their own hands, they may mend
matters, and have accordingly formed
party of their own, nominated Wendell
Phillips for the Governorship, and are, it is
said, not without hopes that, with the aid of
the Labor Reformers," they may elect him.
Mr.. Phillips has said to the latter, that it is
a disgrace to Christianity that some men
should have large fortunes and others next to
nothing, SO that if he gets into Office on his
two platforms, we may look for a speedy
attempt in Massachusetts to solve finally the
problem by which SO many ages and nations
have been vexed-namely, that of making
everybody behave with perfect propriety,
nate neighbors. This solved, we are glad
to say the necessity for political parties will
be past, and, indeed, it IS doubtful
whether we shall need any formal govern
ment. At all events, we shall not need the
final and restrictive part of government, and
when one thinks how large part of govern
ment this is, and how much of our time and
attention it absorbs, we can hardly be too
thankful to the grave men of Massachu-
setts who are going to show us how to get
rid of it.
Temperance is, however, occupying great
deal of public attention all over the country
Even where it does not make its way into
party politics, many people are seriously
considering whether there is not some mode
of getting rid of what all acknowledge to be
the greatest source of crime and of domestic
unhappiness also. Temperance has been and
is greatly preached in pulpits and on plat
forms; hundreds of lecturers thunder in its
behalf; the reformed drunkard continues to
travel and exhibit himself for it, with as much
assiduity as ever. 1t has an extensive ltera-
ture of its own, devoted to exposures of the
horrors of indulgence; nay, it has its own
chemists and medical men, who exhaust the
nomenclature Of science in depicting the
effect of alcohol on the brain, the muscular
tissue, and the viscera. 1T has all the aid that
music, banners, and badges can give to a
cause, and it receives from the churches
fair amount of support-and yet its friends
are not satisfied with its progress. The rava-
ges of liquor, they say, are nearly as great
as of war, and at the bottom of it all are the
moderate drinkers, hardened and appa-
rently numerous body, whose cunning absti-
nence from open excess, and confinement of
their potations to their own houses, render il
impossible for public opinion or even for
the arm of the law to reach them, without
something like total prohibition of the whole
liquor traffic.
Now, would it not be worth while, at this
stage of the proceedings, and before any more
labor is wasted, either in useless declama-
ton or In imperative legislation, for tenn
perance men of all shades to consider little
more seriously than they have yet done what
is possible in this matter. Their attention
has hitherto been devoted almost altogether
TO what is desirable, and they acknowledge
themselves that they have not made much
progress Nevertheless, nothing is more cer-
tam tnan that there is far less drinking now
than there used to be, certainly among the in.
telligent and well-to-do classes of society. The
rum and brandy decanters are no LONGER seen
on American sideboards, or wine on Ameri-
can dinner-tables, as they used to he
Indeed, nothing in our manners strikes
foreigners so much as our abstinence
Look at a steamboat or hotel dinner-table
anywhere along our Northern frontier, and
you will not see trace of liquor; cross over
into Canada and you will find a bottle beside
every plate. There is the same difference in
private houses. Canadian, an Englishman,
Frenchman, or a German, will hardly think
of asking friend to dinner, without offering
him wine or beer, any more than he would
think of not offering him bread 1t is only
among the wealthy classes in the large cities