The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-02-26
PRICE THREE CENTS.
From the New York Tribune.
Prohibition at Home and AbroaS.


is for the interest of the first to keep the
question always open the failure Of one
experiment implies yet another, and so. in
endless series, enactment is followed bv
amendment, and the advantage of a good
moral and philanthropic "cry" is main
tanned. The fanatic, on the other hand
who may be thoroughly in earnest. and as
honest as the daylight. sees success when
everybody else sees nothing but failure.
and having started with the mistaken no.
ton OF depending merely upon penalties.
he relies confidently upon tie cXpedient of
increasing them-always weak it does
not lapse into something like positive in
justice. We do not object TO any amount
of rhetoric in depicting the dreadful doom
of the drunkird, but when an effort is to
be made to save him by an experiment i'm
law-mahlng we think it only right and
prudent that mere feeling should be fora
moment laid ABIDE. The world instructive
~ asks for results, \ law which it is i'm
possible to enforce is no novtlty-such
laws have been enacted ever since the DAYS
OF Scion, and are at the bottom Of a great
many of the troubles and disasters record
ed in history. 1t is no use to say that law
is law and must be enforced Saving this
does not enforce it. 4 law may he not
merely so unpopular, but so clumsy, so
forcement will be found impossible No
body denies the sacredness of law in
theory. and all the more necessary is it to
make laws so wise, SO adapted to the emcr-
gcncy, so lucid in their provisions, that
their enforcement may be certain and easy
We do not say that it is impossible to draft
a prOhibtOry law which shall meet all
these conditions. We only say. with great
regret, that wehaye never seen one through
winch sharp lawyers could not drive, nj
li6ttum almost, coach and six.
The warmer advocates of prohibition in
sist that we have no right to inquire into
the results OF the law. In spite Of this, the
right will be claimed and will be exercised
by thinking men. The question, Does pro-
hibiIion prohibit will he asked, and ac-
cording to the facts and the evidence it will
be answered; 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 eff
cheney of the law. Rev. DR.. Hill says that
after sixty years observation he las never
known 50 much drunkenness in the streets
of Portland as at present. The fact is too
painful to be quarreled about, and too i'm
pOrtant to be covered up. In Massachu
sets for nearly twenty years the expert
ment of prohibition has been tried under
perpetual amendment of the law and the
general testimony from the most trust
worthy sources is that in Massachusetts,.
certainly in the cities and large towns of
that state, prohibition is something more
and something worse than failure. If this
be the truth-and the ladies and gentlemen
who have just opened new and eXtraordi-
nary Temperance crusade are proving that
it ls-should we be denounced as enemies
of temperance, OF of total abstinence. for
stating it If your prohibitory law is
really doing more harm than good, driving
the drinkers into secret dens, where excess
is uurestlained by the fear OF exposure, OF
making liquors sellers stolid, obstinate and
successful defiels of the law, are rot tenn
pagaIcc men everywhere interested in
knowing the truth? 1t is childish, it is
worse than childish, 10 lis "a gross immomi,-
iv To try TO conceal il. ANYBODY can read
tue long list oI convictions oil drunkenness
which may be found i'm 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 bad tenn
perance man beg ause he consnete tAis I'LL
deniable fact to he important; Especially
Wien he Is tolu mat lhe Jaw Is mace AN
/ INSTRUMENT W pVI7t'htWl' tl"t, 't7 Nli'
/ Pascoe, OF Boston, says in late well con-
sidered pamphlet, lit has led to an amount
of domestic and public hypocrisy and Sc
cret drinking. which, to use the mildest
term, reflects the greatest discredit on the
state itself, and threatens, if the law, as
/ at present administered be persisted in, to
end in thoroughly demoralizing the peo-
! plc?' When we are asked to ignore facts
| like these, and to acknowledge prohibition
to be a panacea for the dreadful evils of
intoNication, then we must beg to be eX-
cused. Nothing can be gained 10y such
dogmatc way of dismissng the subject.
TO the rigid prohIbltionist, license is
a word of frishtfnl import, but men who
are honestly bent upon the reformation of
society, or upon even partial abolition Of
social evils. ought not to he frightened by
mere words Inc scriptural command Is
to prove all things aud TO hold fast to that
which Is good Inc progress oi lhe telh-