Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-12
Practice ~. THEORY.

No unDrCludiced observer who has
. been watching the effects of the various
measures of temperance reform, with q
( single purpose of discovering the best
means for mitigating the evils and mis-
cries of intemperance, can come to any
other conclusion than that while license
may be failure, prohibition is a more
complete one.
Without seeking to prejudice any pub
lie movement or measure having for its
object the ameiiOratiOn of the condition
of the masses of men and lettering so
Ciety, we are bound to conclude that
this struggle for prohibitOry measures is
not only false i'll its philosophy but in
every instance has proved a failure in
practice.
RefOrmerS who make ii the acme OF
their aims and efforts are simply pursu-
/ ing a phantom which in the end demon
strates that they have wasted their cner-
giCs in fruitlesS task. IL has been SO in
Kansas, where prohibition has had its
, most recent test. The friends of the
measure have labored hard to cover up
the failure there, but talk is talk and
fact is fact Ex-Governor ROBINSON,
of that State, who iSa strong
llttAlis Gttl~ Ills W llldt
the prOhibitOCy amendment of his State
Constitution is y mistake, and that
drunkenness is now more prevalent in
Kansas than ever before, and the proc
lamatiOn Ofthe present Governor, which
appears in our dispatches to-day, is the
strongest confirmation he could give to
the samc fact.
So also in the State of Maine which
has had longer and more complete
test of the theory of prohibition. IT re-
Quircs all of the time of the great cham
piOn Of prohibition, NEAL Dow, to
pryent revolt by the real refOrmers of
that State against continuing the sys-
TEN Of prohibition. Mr.. Dow is one Of
that class OF impractical temperance
men who have q theory and viii stick
TO it even when it rs working dire disaS-
ter i'm practice. We gave him some
facts and tigueS q short time ago when
he began acampaign in this State for
prohibition. which silCnced his battery
Int although not able TO answer them,
they make no impression on his conyic-
ton.
tic lately made the assertion that the
liquor traffic in Portland, Maine, exists
only on very small scale and is carried
on secretly, but the report of the city
auditor of Portland, last year, gives the
number of arrests for drunkenness aS
l,2U7. This in a population about the
same size Us that of Wheeling, andunder
a PTOhibitory law.
The Woman'S Christian Temperance
Union gave the Maine Legislature, last
spring, some facts regarding the habitu-
a and general drunkenness in Bangor
Testimony was offered that there was
never so much drunkenness in that city,
among both men and women, Us during
the last two years. A clergyman testi-
fled that he went one night in search OF
a young man among thegroggeries, and
met as many as fifty drunken men be-
fore he found him. Another said that
rum shops We're springing up like mush-
rooms, and mother said: II trcmbie
every time my boys go down town, be-
cause of the drinking shops on every
corner" This is official and in the State
of Maine under aprohibitory law. 1t is
enough to say that such complaints can
not be made of Wheeling, and if facts
prove anything, these facts prove that
prohibition means no restriction; even
in State where for twenty years the
apostle of prohibition has lived and
moved and had his being.