Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-04
COMPULSORY TEMPERANCE.


Massachusetts.
Boston Post.
A historic sketch and statistical analysis
of the prohibitory law is furnished in an
other part of this mornings Post and II It's
careful perusal does leave impressions that
are absolutely startling there is no power
left to plain array of facts and figures.
There is but one way of controvertlng
both, which are adduced with such over
whelming eonclusiyeness, and that is by
fairly disproving them. Those who would
see, as in mirror, the picture of the practical
working of prohibition-its wholly errone-
Gus, because short-sighted theory, its utter
failure to perform the very first of its prom
ises and its positive responsibility for the
rapid spread of intemperance and immoral
iIy-are invited TO give this deliberately
prepared statement a thoughtful study,
that they may the better comprehend what
system IL is which Massachusetts, IS urged
by one party in the present canvass to fas-
ten upon the legislation and morals OF the
State. 1t is much too grave an issue, In
the illumination OF such a record, TO be
disposed of by the citizens of an enlighten-
ed Commonwealth in any other than Sc
riously sincere manner. When 1t can be
shown, as this statement shows for Maine,
that under prohibition after ten years OF
uninterrupted experimenting, there were
three thousand places in five hundred and
forty-two municipalities where inioxlcat-
ing LIQUORS were illegally sold; that for a
single year, ending November 30, 1873,
there were seventeen thousand eight hum
bred and eight arrests for drunkenness, in
spite of the friends of the law declaring
that drunkenness was not more than one
tenth as common as before its enactment;
that after ten years of prohibition, in the sin
gle year of 1866, according to the report of
the Chief Constable, Sl,500,O00 worth of
liquors were brought into the State; that
the State itself becomes tratficker in the
very article to which it refuses legal pro-
lection; that out of 542 towns and cities
in the State not more than an
average of 100 obtain their liquors of the
agency, which sold only 800, 1924 worth
in 1866, against the 81 100000 sold illegal
"; and that insanity has been increased
nearly four fold in very few years in con-
sequence of the growing evil Of intern
perance. When facts so convincing as
these are produced as the fruit and out
come of prohibition, with what regard for
the public security and public good can the
citizens of Massachusetts be asked to vote
for law whose immediate removal from
the statute book should be the universal
determination.
To show by single illustration the in
fluence of prohibition upon a remote rural
community, the case Of the little town of
Canaan is cited with remarkable effect.
From 1863 to 1867, with its limited popu-
lation on the decline, it increased its pur-
al, 90 H. afar from, COS ~ To
S2,157.5l-an- astonishing proof of the
tendency of prohibition to promote the
consumption of liquor, in the disguise of
medical excuses. And is it possible TO
claim for any such law that It is a success
when in a single year one mil ion and a
half dollars worth of liquors are consumed
in the State by the people of 542 towns
and cities, when less than one hundred
thousand dollars worth was sold during
the same year by the State Agency,
to only one hundred towns and cities of
the entire number? But the statistics of
liquor-selling and arrests for drunkenness
in the chief cities of Maine-Augusta,
Lewiston, Bangor and POrtland-whiclf
are TO be found distinctly presented in the
statement referred TO, are additionally con-
vincing evidence against the assumptions
OF pIOulUlblON. nc Oull Improvement "
be noted occurred in the years 1928, when
the sudden reform movement started up
only to die away as suddenly, because p'O-
hibition was fatal TO its progress. There
is not a single fact brought out in this
most remarkable presentation, perhaps as
powerful an arrangement as was ever
brought against prohibitOry law,
which has not an equal signii-
canoe in Massachusetts. 1t is az the
election which occurs next week that the
issue is 10 be decided. 1t cannot be posi-
BILE that the citizens Of this State are about
to adopt a system which has VIGOROUSLY
yielded such evil fruits in a sister State af-
ter quarter of a centurys faithful trial.
One fact stands forth conspicuOusly proven
and established, that under prohibition
there is far greater amount of drunkenness,
immortality, pauperism, insanity, crime
and Generalization Of the popular seIti-
ment than there could be under the lOoSest
license system which a wicked ingenuity
could devise. With such a conclusion
plainly before us, it should be an impoSsi-
bility to procure a popular support for pro
hibitiOn, though every party of the State
were disrupted TO put it beyond eOntradic-
tion.