Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-15
THE PROGRESS OF PROHIBITION.

The advocates Of prohibition have been
greatly encouraged by the election in Iowa,
and are preparing to push their extreme
doctrine everywhere. But it will not do
for them to jump to the conclusion that
because the new prohibition amendment to
the Constitution of Iowa has received
majority of the popular vote, therefore
prohibition is an accomplished fact there.
Iowa casts 1923, 900 votes In the late cleo
ton, according to the fullest returns, the
prohibition majority was little over
10000. Now it must be understood that
on a question of this kind the defeated
party does not acquiesce in the observance
of the law. On the contrary, it must be
assumed that there are in Iowa fully $780,
600 voters who do not believe in prohibi.
ton, who do believe in freedom of action,
and who therefore will do all they can to
render the constitutional provision dead
letter. But this is not all. 1t would be
very great mistake to suppose that the ma
jority vote was mainly temperance or
total abstinence vote. The presumption is
that by far the greater number of the ma.
jority are moderate drinkers, and unbe-
levers in the theory of prohibition. The
| motive of their action is different one.
Iowa is emphatically an agricultural State.
1t contains no large cities. The rural
/! population therefore outnumbers the
city population. and the rural voters
are in favor of prohibition because when
the saloons are open their hired men get
drunk, and they are in favor of making
that kind of indulgence impossible. These
farmers, however, are not necessarily alb.
stainers themselves, and probably the
majority of them drink to some
extent. They are moved by pre-.
cisely the same considerations which
cause the California farmers to be in
favor of closing tina saloons on Sunday, and
the California farmers are certainly not as
rule advocates or practitioners of total
abstinence. To assume, therefore, from
the Iowa election, that the temperance
doctrine is winning great and permanent
victories, appears to US delusion as is
the hypothesis that mems appetites of any
kind can be extinguished by statute. We
may grant for the sake OF the argument
that the evils caused by intsmperance are
SO great as to justify the invasion of the
freedom of the individual to whatever ex-
tent is necessary to stop it, But before
any such invasion is permitted it must be
made clear that the process to be applied
will have the results expected from it.
Now it is at this point that all the prohi-
bition schemes collapse. For experiment
proves that Prohibition does not prohibit
What it does do is to drive drinking into
DISCUSSES. In fact it does for intemperance
precisely what stringent legislation has
several times done for prostitution that
is to say, it compels it to hide itself. But
experience demonstrates that prostitution
has always increased the more, the more it
has been driven into the dark, and the
experiments already made in prohibition
justify a similar conclusion. OF course the
prohibition of the sale of liquor will pre-
vent some people from getting it when
they want it. But it will operate as a
deterrent far oftener in the cases of occa-
sional and moderate drinkers than
in those of drunkards. The latter
will not tolerate denial OF their ia
vorite vice, and their appetites will be
sure to find support, by hook or by crook.
We have never yet heard of so-called
prohibition place where it was really i'm.
possible to procure liquors, and we do not
believe that such place can be found.
Wherever strong demand exists, there
the supply will arise to meet it, in disre-
gard OF all laws. And when laws are thus
dehed or evaded, it is certain that the
principle sought to be enforced in them
will become specially odious to the people,
so that all hope of real reform must soon
disappear. A great deal has been done in the
last century to diminish intemperance, but
the reform has been the work of educa.
tionalagencies, and, abovesll, of the increas-
ing comfort of the masses Educate men,
| give them good wages and clean dwellings,
and they will cease to crave for rum.
Leave them to sweat and suffer in filthy
tenement houses, grind them down to a
wage barely enough to keep them alive,
and they will drink the worst whisky they
can get, despite of all the laws and all the
temperance societies in the world. The
cultivation of bodily and mental health is
the one true remedy for intemperance
Neither statutes, nor tracts, nor temper
ance journals will cure dyspepsia, clear
away Ignorance, enlighten mental dullness,
compensate for dirt, and cold, and hunger.
And because these attempted remedies do
not really touch the diseases at which
they are aimed. they are doomed to fail
ure in the very nature of the case
and this no matter how they may
seem to be winning temporary successes.
Whatever changes tend to substitute
more innocent for less innocent drinks are
also benefcent, The introduction of beer
in this country has done great deal to
promote temperance, for it has led scores
of thousands to stop drinking whisky In
the same way the substitution of light
wines for spirits and strong beers would be
decided step towards temperance. In
this State great deal OF energy and sa
gacity is now being employed in the i'm
provement OF our native wines, and it is
specially significant that every step of i'm
proyement in their quality is marked by
the elimination of so much more alcohol
from them. The better the claret the less
alcohol it contains, and our wine-makers
have already reached, in the Zinfandel,