Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-27
Tuesday Morning, Sep. p, 1881.
NEAL DOW STIRRED UP.

MT. Neal Dow is naturally not pleased with
 what MT. F. W. Bird said before the Social
 Science Association concerning the unwis-
 dom of prohibitory legislation. MT. Bird
 declared that the Prohibitory law of Massa-
 chusetts was as perfect for it's avowed pur-
 pose as legal ingenuity could make it
 t'This, :" says MT. Dow, lis very far from be- ing true; there were many radical deficiencies in the law, which rendered it's enforcement difficult, especially in large towns" MT. Bird said the law twas repealed largely be-
 cause it was found that it did not prohibit
 the sale, largely also because it did not dimin- ish the evils of intemperance." MT. Dow | says: s'Now there is none of this true to the l facts. The law was repealed because it did materially interfere in the prosecution of most lucrative trade. It did prohibit
 the sale, and diminish it to very large ex- | tent, and the opposition to it was always
 mostly confined to Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfeld, Lowell, and, perhaps, I to some other large towns of the State, while in all the smaller towns and rural districts the law was always popular" MT. Dow claims that it was the efficiency and popu- larity of the law that stirred up the ! worst elements of Massachusetts society to procure it's repeal ''To this end there had l been no serious movement until attempts | were made in earnest to enforce the law in Boston. The fact as to the popular support of the law may be inferred from this-that ! the wire-p pulling politicians in Massachusetts obstinately refuse to yield to the demand for | popular vote upon it, which all well-in- formed people in the State say would be over whelmingly in favor of prohibition. ,"
 In reply to this comment made by the New York Eocning Post-''The advocates of pro hibition argue that if moderate drinking is permitted, or rather if intoxicating beverages are permitted to be sold for the benefit of the moderate drinker. they cannot be withheld from those who will abuse their opportuni- ties and run into vicious excesses"-Mr. Dow somewhat strangely says that he knows of no Prohibitionist who says that or who has ever said it, and that he has never heard that ar gument. Prohibition, he declares, '' is placed solely on the ground that the liquor traffic is inconsistent with the general good j; that it is in hostility to every interest of na- tion, State and people that it wages perpet- ual and deadly war upon all these interests ;; that it is an intolerable public nuisance that it inaicts more mischief and misery upon na- tion, State and people than all other sources of mischief combined that it is the inevita- ble cause of a vast amount of poverty, pauper- ism, wretchedness, insanity, crime and pre- mature death that it desolates and blasts hundreds of thousands of homes which would
 be peaceful prosperous and happy but for l this dreadful evil that it degrades and brutalizes the people, wastes the wages of labor and disinclines and units for honest in- ] dustry and thrift hundreds of thousands of workers, cast ont as waifs upon sosiety, who, but for this traffic, could and would make for themselves honorable places among men being props and pillars to the state instead of burden upon it, and grief and disgrace
 to all with whom they are connected" This ] is strong statement of the case of the Pro- hibitionists