Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-02-14

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it, effects upon others. and to society in gen.
eral, it becomes the duty of society to pro-
hibrt or restrict the use Of that article as the
case may require" Now that society has no
right TO prevent the use of any article by in
diyiduals for purposes which are beneficial is
a truth. But the question is, y hat is society
Do the representatives of the small prohib-
itory faction which annually assemble in
Granite Hall in this city to coerce republican
legislatures to enact the annual grist of pains
and penalties for selling liquors. call them
selves society? Do the petitioners for this
amendment, who number but a beggarly per
cent of the people of this State, call them
selves society? Again the screed says that
no person has a right to do that which per-
verts or impairs his own powers. But who
is to be the Judge? himself or few visionary
temperancists in his own neighborhood!
But as an apology for seeking to put people
under guardianship as to their temperance
habits, boast is made of how much has
been done BY prohibitory laws. The traffic,
says Mr.. Dow. has been driven in the cities
into low places. But are not those the very
places which most need to have the traffic
removed: 1t is, moreover. boosted that ii
has nearly driven the traffic out of the rural
districts. And it is perhaps true that in many
towns liquor cannot be had. The few in
temperate are unable to obtain it. while the
many who use it temporarily and need it for
medicinal purposes are alike deprived. When
ever this has been accomplished it has been
by deprving men of the very right which it
is acknowledged that society has no right to
to do. II is true that there has been progress
in temperance as in other things. This prog
ress goes hand in hand with advancing
civilization and refinement. But let us see
sbnr 1os hAr
hibitory laws don't exist. l but repeat the
statement of Mr.. Dow that while in England
in many places greater progress had been
made IN temperance than in this State; yet
England has no probibitory law.
Let me put an inquiry. Has the prohibit
tory law itself ever reformed single drunk
ard? Has it ever driven a rumseller out of
the traffic? know of cities where men who
were in that traffic thirty years ago are in
that trait. today.
Thirdly. contend that the dogma of pro-
hibition should not be incorporated in the
constitution, fer the reason that it is
founded upon false assumption in science.
What does it assume scientifically? 1t is
that alcohol is poison in the sense that
strychnine and other fatal drugs are poisons
and there is a bill upon our calendar in which
it is characterized as poison, and authority
Is iuNOktu " treat IL Inc OtutT poIsOus 1 l
is further maintained that alcoholic stimu-
lants do not undergo decomposition in the
body but, like the unclean spirit, after vexing
the body it passes out unchanged through the
secretons. But what is the testimony of the
most eminent scientists? Liebig, the most
eminent chemist of his or any other age,
classed alcohol among heat. forming foods.
He held that like starch and sugar it contains
hydrogen and carbon; that it undergoes COM
bustiOn within the body and thus contributes
to maintain the heat of the body. one of
the most important. functions of food.
This view is held by the most eminent chem
lists. few have taken the opposite view.
but it has been shown that they have made
their experiments with a predetermined pur-
pose to make out their case BY administering
large doses of alcohol, in which all agree
that alcohol is poisonous but no more so
than coffee or tea when drank to great ex-
cess. A reviewer of the alcoholic contro-
versy in the London Fortnightly Review closes
by saving: 1T would seem, therefore. to be
capable of demonstration that the daily con-
sumption of a moderate quantity of alcoholic
beverage is consistent with the most perfect
development of muscular energy" DIR. Ham
mond in his Physiological Researches, says
that having placed himself on a very in
sufficient allowance of food, he took daily
with his meal half an ounce of alcohol, and
under that regimen he found that he rather
gained than lost weight, and preserved at the
same time the highest mental and bodily Wig
or.
Let me quote few eminent authorities in
our own country:
DR.. James C. White, professor of chem
istery in Harvard University, says:
"Alcoholic liquors have been classified
s. - IL
physiological action that under certain cir.
cumstances, alcoholic drinks act as food in
the same way as beef tea does; their effects
are precisely the same as food"
Prof. Charles T. Jackson, NJ. D., chemist,
says:
..Alcohol and alcohlic liquors act as respira-
tory food. When alcohol, either in the form
of wine or in the form of any of our distilled
spirits, sufficiently diluted with water and in
moderate quantity.is drinked, it goes into the
circulation. The alcohol takes the place of
so much food in our bodies in process of
respiration. The moderate use of alcoholic
drinks so far from doing any harm to the hui
man body serves to sustain its powers of en-
dnrance, and saves the destruction of the
tissues, and is, therefore, conservative to the
system"
But why multiply authorities? Every OBJ
serving person knows that alcoholic bever-
ages are not poisonous. They supply want
of the physical system. They serve a most
important use as medicine, saving life
when other means have failed They are
prop to feeble and decaying constitutions,
and when taken temperatelv they are bless
ing 1t is only when taken Unexpectedly
that they prove a curse. So much for this
irrational howl set up by prohibitionists that
alcohol is to be classed among virulent
pOisOns.
So much for this vaunted principle of pro-
hibition.-a principle at war with popular SEN
tment. which in its application subverts the
inaienable right of the citizen to determine
what he shall eat or drink, and which sets
scientific truth at defiance. Is it possible
that this false dogma is to be enthroned in
our constitution? That all public function
aries are hereafter to be compelled to swear
t. support an article in the constitution, alb
horrent to the views and sentiments of the
enlightened people of the State? But the
bans have been consummated. The represen-
tatives of the republican party are pledged to
support in this legislature. l admonish
them that when thew have performed this
stipulation of the contract. another task is be-
fore them. which is to sustain it at the polls.
If they fail to do that, the temperance boilers
will desert them again. Nor need they, after
voting this dogma into the constitution, think
their task completed The thorough en-
forcement of the prohibitory laws will be the