The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-09-21
no THE POINT

Dayton Ohio Journal: The CincIn-
latI Commercial asserts that prohibition
n Maine and Kansas do not prohibit.
This is superficial. enfeebled by preju-
lice. If prohibition is a failure in those |
states, wherefore the wailing OF liquor
men? The truth is, that prohibition in
hose states does prohibit, tremendously.
that the law is evaded and not
enforced. is it not unrea-
sonable TO hope to suppress an evil
which, by generations of license, has
become second nature, in one, two, or
even ten years? L. any law against soci-
ETY. thoroughly enforced at any time,
much less Immediately after It Is enact
ed? Admitted that the evils Of intern
perance can never be totally remedied,
OF the liquor traffic entirely prohibited.
Gambling, repressed by the severest
laws; adultery most severely punished /;
the social evil; peculation; mur-
der; none Of the evils embraced
in the pulpit category of "or-
iginal SIN" have been, or can be totally
suppressed in any, the most enlightened
communities, not even under despot-
isms, but they can be so represented
and restrained as not to totally corrupt
and wreck society. The history of the
human race proves that all of them, in
Guiding intemperance, the source and
promotive agency of most crimes, car
be governed and restrained within de
cent and protective limits. We admit
that it is debatable weather prohibition II
practicable in large cities, yet it haI
been shown to be practicable on Sunday
in New York and Baltimore, the TIVE
largest Democratic cities in the nation
If II can be enforced one day in thos'
cities, can't it be for seven days, and l
enforced in New York and Baltimore
why can't it be enforced in Cincinnati
To be sure there are some violations O
law in the great cities named, but thOs
are exceptional.
He who violates the law today is pun
| ished tomorrow, and is careful not 4
sin again. Some other violations ma
occur next Sunday, and arrests and pen
alties follow. This does not prove tha
the law cannot be enforced. On tn
contrary, it is a clear demonstration tina
| it is enforced because it is violated is a
silly as it would be to say that the law
against stealing are not enforced becaus
there is thieving in every considerable
community every day. Admitted, how
ever, that total prohibition is impractic
able, If not impossible, are we therefor'
to cease efforts TO check, reform, correc
and restrain the admitted evils Of intem
perance, and submit 70 universal licens'
of the liquor traffic? II that doctrine il
accepted wherefore the benefit of any eff
fort for the promotion of morality ? VIII!
not terminate parental disciplined
But the advocates of license as |
measure OF restraint concede the whole
argument. They confess that the liquol
traffic is an evil-nay, a crime agains
society-bY consenting to a restraining
tax. Our design, however, was to direc
attention to the illogical claim that pro
hibition does not prohibit, because pro
hibitory laws are not thoroughly en-.
forced. Considering the extent of the
evil, and the control it exercises in poll
tics as we'll as in society and business
the prohibition laws of Maine and Kan.
sas are as well, If not better enforced,
than any law against crimes on the stat
ute books. In Ohio we propose to see il
we cannot reach the practical ends of pro.
hibition by first establishing a prohibit
DRY Sunday law such as we now enjoy at
Dayton and throughout all Ohio except
Cincinnati, and one or two other cities,
and by severe taxation. Meantime we
commend to the attention of the editor
of the Commercial what James G..
Blaine says of Maine:
1.-THE people of Maine are industrious
and proVident and wise laws have aided
them. They are sober, earnest and
thrifty. Intemperance is steadily de-
creasing in the state since the first en-
actment of the prohibitory law, until
now it can be said with truth that there
is no equal number of people in the An
glo-Saxon world among whom so small
an amount of intoxicating liquor is con-
sumed as among the six hundred and
fifty thousand inhabitants of Maine"