Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-05

n Physician Who Argues That Prohibition
is Making Matters Worse

n physician VINO Argues That PrOhibitiO
| is Making Matters Worse.
To the Editor of the Missouri Liberal:
| The appearance Of an article in the Au
|gust number of the Liberal has induce
me to write this article for your paper.
will preface;by saying that have been
practicising physician for more than thirt
fyears, and have taken great interest in m
profession, or in other words in trying t
cure the ills that flesh is heir to. / there
fore have had to study. analyze and reason
backwards, or from effect back to cause
1t is, l think, logical to conclude that Their
can be no effect without cause, and shall
not attempt to make any argument O,
that question. There are certain funda
mental principles, or laws governing al
| things. which we call the natural law. It i
not necessary for my Present purpose t.
! theorize in regard to who made this law
1 will, however, say that there is a grea
diversity of opinion in regard to that leg
islator. Some people think they know
| exactly who he was and all about him. an6
have his word. Others think there were
three composing that assembly. While
the three were in perfect accord. they are
represented as possessing very diferen,
dispositions. The fact is, there is no one
who knows anything about him, or Them
and all of the petitions to the Throne. 81
amp all the temples dedicated to these i'm
aginary gods are not only useless. but
worse than useless, and those who bow
down and worship in these temples are
idolaters,! worshiping an unknown god. OF
a god that was created for them. Surpris-
ing as it is, it is a fact that these idolaters
learn nothing by experience; for centuries
they have continued to tease. or supplicate
their imaginary deities for help to carry
out their plans of warfare, and aggression.
and never have had the least evidence that
their petitions have ever been noticed. ex-
cept in their own Imagination. which is
evidently very largely developed.
Considering the world as it is, we find
good and evil existing, and they are cor
relative. Intemperance in every form is
an evil: temperance good. Intemper-
ance in the use of alcohol is growing
evil, and philanthropists for many years
have tried to ''stem the food" or prevent
that evil. Many modes of treatment have
been devised, much said and done. and vet
the evil becomes more and more apparent
as one kind of treatment after another is
tried. The logician will conclude that the
right treatment has not been adopted.
1t is claimed that the mission of the
clergy is to make men moral and good. If
it is fact, that man has not grown better
or more moral during the eighteen hundred
years of the Christian religion, is it not
reasonable to conclude that the doctrines
toIIoht boy
laws and must necessarily fail IN produc-
ing good
When the young are taught from the
pulpit: No good deed that you can do. no
good life that you can live, amounts to
anything so far as your future happiness
is concerned, and though your sins are as
scarlet, they,shall be made white as wool,
by living in Jesus is it any wonder that
we find all kinds of crime committed in
this christian country"
[ believe it to be fundamental princi-
pie; one of the natural laws, that human
happiness and human welfare, consists in
a recognition of individual liberty. Every
individual possessing the right to do as he
pleases, so long as he does not interfere
with the rights of another.
More wars, more bloodshed, more
crimes and consequently more suffering,
has been caused by religious teachers than
any other class of men. The saloon keep
ers, or the men who manufacture and sell
intoxicating liquors, can hardly be COM
pared with them. Religious teachers have
ever been brakemen on the car of progress.
and when the clergy get control, then
comes ''the tug of war;
think that history will show that drunk
enness has increased rapidly since the gov
undertook to regulate and control
the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
liquors.
That they have their uses, no we'll in
honest person will deny. It is
the misuse, or abuse of anything that pro-
duces evil consequences. It seems to me
that you struck the keynote, when in the
article referred to, you intimated that the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liq-
uors should be as free as anything else
1t Is evident to me that the treatment
ance. is all the time making the matter
worse, and necessarily must do so, as
natural sequence, as the religious teach
ing of the world necessarily must fail in
making men wise and good, or be con-
ducive to happiness.
We have, in Kansas, a law prohibiting
the manufacture and sale of what are call
ed Intoxicating liquors. There is class
of men who rise and say that you shall
not manufacture nor sell those liquors.
This class has for its leaders, the clergy
men of the state. and they hold meetings
in this city every Sunday; praying and
singing, and then discussing this political
question; a question that has for long
time been one that the philanthropists and
statesmen of the nation could not answer
or solve, SO as to apply specific remedy.
Prohibition is the remedy adopted by
Kansas; but, as far as my observation
goes, it is making matters worse, and
must necessarily continue to do so; for it
is violating natural law, or contrary to a
free exercise of conscience in. regard to
what is right or wrong. Without such
liberty there could be no progress made in
the arts nor in science.
M1norities have generally been the
worlds benefactors, and individuals have
sacrificed their lives hundred years be-
fore being appreciated. Natures laws
are inexorable, and no amount of suppl
cation can change them. Vox populi is
not vox Del.
/ hope Liberal. in Missouri. will prove