Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1883-06-30
pRDUTUTTION.
IN E..av Read Saturday, J"ne ron

sticks to IT so lenaciously, and the plea does
look very plausible at FIRST sight 1t is certain
that prohibitory laws have not produced the
result expected Of them. For instance, there
is no doubt that any one who wants II can get |
drink OF liquor in Maine In the country II |
requires some engineering, one usually having |
to send TO some neighborng town to get IT,
bu, in the cities there is no doubt that 1t can |
be obtained with little no effort. And It IS |
not strange that, in view Of these and other like
facts, the faith OF many should be shaken. |
But the fault is not, it seems to me, with the
law, but with the expectations had Of it. Many
expected far too much, and, because all was
not realized in the reaction, fell back into the
belief that nothing was realized aud again
transferred their allegiance to license.
But what is success, and what is failure
According to my view, il a license law turns
gu, one thousand dunkards in given time
and prohibtory law turns out only nine hun.
bred and ninety.nne Cother things being equal,
then the prohibtory law is better law, and
should be substituted for the old one, but the
old idea of successful prohibitory law was
one that saved not the single one, but all the
nine hundred and ninety-nine. They did not
consider what they had gained, but what they
had not gained.
However the prohibitionists have learned
better, and states which once abandoned prohi
bition are returning to il with more practical
ideas and better machinery TO enforce them
We have had somewhat the same experience
here. How often did We hear it said that the
restrictions on the sale of liquor to the natives
was no restriction at all, a dead letter, etc,
but, now that the restriction has been removed,
we see at once, as we never saw before that
the law, as poorly enforced as 1t was, did exert
strong influence for good. So with many
prohbtionists, they never saw what the law
was doing for them, until they returned TO
license. The contrast brought the hitherto
unnoticed workings Of the law out in bold re-
lief. Let me here premise that the prohibory
laws ! am speaking Of, are not those that are
backed up by the ideal warm public sentiment,
so much talked Of and so little seen, bu, of the
ordinary prohibitory law, which has, say only
enough public sentiment back OF it to enact it !;
such law we have had for or, some put
it, against the native, only made universal.
What would be the effect Of such law ?
Would il payf Many say no. To secure the
passage OF such a law, they say, would be sim
ply to throw it into contempt Wear not ready
for prohibition, we not educated up to ii.
We had better not pass the law until we can
enforce it, This may be Just and correct rea-
soning, but TO us, to say that such a law should
not be passed until it can be fully enforced, is
like charging boys not to go near the water
until they know how to swim.
The parties having these two conflicting
ideas have the same object in view, viz: pro-
hibitory law well enforced, but one party would
obtain that end by not passing the law untS its
members feel assured Of It's proper success; the
other, by passing the law as soon as they can,
as the best means of obtaining that end. One
considers the two.thirds vote necessary TO carry
constitutional amendment A guarantee amply
sufficient To start on, the other apparently does
not or does as to all laws but this Now, what
will be the effect OF such prohibitory law in
Hawaii nei2 We can best Judge Of this by
seeing wha, the result has been in other States
In the first place, il would bring out once for
all who were the real friends OF prohibition and
who were not; as long as the advocates of pro-
hibition talk of il as something that is to come
about in the dim future, a time more or less
associated with the time when the lion and the
lamb shall lie down together, men of opposite
views care little about it. You will see them
with good natured contempt signing petitions
for prohibition or tossing coppers into prohibi.
lion contributions. acting in fact as friends of
The cause. while really looking on the whole
thing as The imbccile movement of worthy
but harmless portion of the community. But
lie, men Who mean business, and no com.
promise. publicly denounce its sale as an ont
race on womankind. nuisance TO the commu.
nifty and crime in the seller. and at the polls
demand its immediate abatement, not for the
sakes of the drunkard or the liquor seller, but
for their own sakcs and their families. and this
good na,ured smile withers and bitter uncom.
promising hostility takes its place, and the two
sides are then ready for the first time to settle
the matter once and Tor ALL He that is not
with me is against me, and the sooner it is
found out where all really stand, the better.
Again. il would drive the sale from respect.
able hands into the hands of the criminal class,
from open to secret sale. Many urge these
two inevitable results as strong argument
,av II Honor i 10 he sold a, all. lie, il he sol1