New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-05

y
them is repugnant to all our notions of liberty
and equality.
PROHIBITION Ar HOME AND ABROdD.
Nobody except the politician who manlpu-
latcs all public matters for his private pur-
poses, and the fanatic who is passionately IN
love with his own way, cares much LOT Tro-
hibtion which does not prohibit 1t is for the
interest OF the first to keep tho question
always open the failure OF one experiment
implies yet another and so, in endless series,
enactment is followed by amendment and the
advantage of good moral and phllanthrOplc
"cryr is maintained. The fanatic, on the
other hand, who may be thoroughly in earn
eat and as honest as the daylight, sees sue
cesg' when everybody else sees nothing but
failure, and having started with the mistaken
notion of depending merely upon penalties,
he relies confidently upon the expedlent oil
increasing thcm-always a weak and unphllo-
sophcal resource, even when IL does not
lapse into something like positive MUS
tce. We do not object to any amount or
rhetoric in depicting the dreadful doom OF the
drunkard, but when an effort is to be made
70 save him by an experiment in law-makng,
we think it only right and prudent that mere
feeling should be for q moment laid aside.
The world instinctivcly asks for results. A
law which it is impossible to enforce is no
noyclty-slch laws have been enacted ever
since the DAYS of Scion, and are at the bottom
of a. great many OF the troubles ana dlsastcrs
recorded in history 1t is of no use to say that
law is law and must be enforced. Saying tins
does not enforce it, A law may be not merely
so unpopular, but so clumsy, so contradictory,
or so inequitable that its enforcement will
DO found impossible. Nobody denies the
sacredness of law in theory, and all the more
necessary is it to make laws so wise, so
ADAPTED to the emergency, so lucid IN their
provisions. that their enforcement may be GER
tain and easy. We do not say that 1t IL I'M
possible to draft a PrOhibitory Law which
hall meet all these conditions. We only say,
with great regret, that we have never seen
one through which sharp lawyers could not
drive. I'D Hbitam almost. n coach and six.
The warmer advocates of Prohibition insist
that we have no right to inquire into the re-
suits of the law. In spite of this, the right
will be claimed and will be exercised by think
ing men, The question, Does Prohibition
Prohibit will be asked, and according to the
and upon this answer future legislation should
at least depend. Thus far, such evidence as
we can obtain is not, we are forced to say.
favorable to the efficiency OF the law The
Rev. DR.. Hill, whose opinion we quoted day
or two since, says that after sixty years OBJ
servation he has never known so much drunk
enness in the streets of Portland US at present.
The fact is too painful to be quarreed about,
and too important to be covered up. In Mas
sachusetts for nearly twenty years the expert
ment of Prohibition has been tried under the
most favorable circumstances, and with per-
petual amendment Of the Law and the gen
eral testimony from the most trustworthy
sources is that in Massachusetts, certainly in the
cities and large towns OF that state, Pr0hlbl-
ton il something more and something worse
than a failure. If this be the truth-and the
ladies and gentlemen who have just opened a
new and extraordinary temperance crusade are
nroyinc that il is-shOuld we be denounced as
enemies of temperance OF of total abstinence for
stating it7 If your Prohibtory Law is really
doing more harm than good, driving the drinkers
into secret dens where excess is unrestrained by
the fear of exposure. or making hquor-sellers
stolid, obstinate and successful deiiers of the
law, are not men every hntIt III
terested in knowing the truthf IL is childish,
it is worse than childish. it is gross immo-
rality to try to conceal it.. Anybody can read
the long list of convictions of drunkenness
which may be found in any Massachusetts,
newspaper which publishes police reports at
| all. Anybody visiting Boston and other cities
of Massachusetts can see that all liquor shops
are not closed and are not likely to be closed.
| Is a man a bad temperance man because he
considers this undeniable fact to be important
Especially when he is told that the Law IS
made "an instrument of persecution ln-that
| Gas Mr. Pascoe OF Boston says i'll late well
considered pamphleO sit has led to an amount
of domestic and public hypocrisy and secret
drinking which, to use the mildest term
reflects the greatest dissredit OH the State
itself, and threatens, if the Law, rs at
"present administered, be persisted in, to end
in thoroughly demoralnng the people Y
When we are asked to ignore facts like these,
and to acknowledge Prohibition to be a
panacea for all the dreadful evils of int0xica-
ton, we must beg to be excused. Nothing
can be gained by such dogmatic way OF
dismlssing the subject.
To the rigid Prohibitonist, License" IL o
| r.orl of friybff,I ip,Nnrt but man who erc