The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1886-04-14
Prohibition Impracticable.

Prohibition Impracticable.
Plato compared the good man
to one who seeks shelter from a
cyclone. Beholding the prevalen-
cy of wickedness, and being una
bic to resist it effectually, he con-
tented himself with self-preserva-
ton.
Nothing" he said, "could be
rigidly enforced by man on earth,
until he is vested with omnipo-
tent power"
He had much pleasure in the
abstract contemplation Of his phil
osophy, but not much faith in its
practical influence. Socrates de-
clared the vanity of all hopes of
reforming the world without in
terposition of God. So, in all
ages, men, with idealistic notions
Of reform, have grasped after al
mighty power to enforce them.
Before the Rebellion and the abol-
ition of slavery, a little man who
may yet be sometimes seen on the
streets of Wellington, wished God
would delegate to him his prerog-
ative Of omnipotent power, SO he
could go down South and kill the
slave holders. Slavery was killed,
but God did not give the little
man almighty power for that pur-
pose. He had ordained that slav-
cry should be "Shot to death by
the million guns Of the Repub-
lic," and the small man, being ex-
empt from military duty, was not
even privileged 10 fire one of the
guns.
Now comes "E. S." the st. Paul
of Wellington prohibition, and
wishes to be changed into a tenn
perance Gabriel, with a supernat-
ual voice, sufficiently starting y
piercing, thrilling, pealing, roll
ing, deep-searching, far-winding
and loud-sounding, so that its re-
verberations would arouse the
world to a sense of the impending
dangers of the liquor traffic. "Mer
would be as gods," and all wish
"E. S." could be changed into 6
prohibition angel with a thunder.
toned voice; but, like Plato, his
philosophy is impracticable, and
the most he and all of us can do il
to content ourselves with self
preservation, for temperance il
an optional and individual mat
ter, and hence all God ever hat
done is to command the sinner II
repent and 30 in ont Of the cy
clone. Prohibition ever has beer
and is
"A bird of passagel gone as soon as found
Now in the moon, perhaps, now unde
ground"
The prohibition theory, al
though beautiful, has in it toe
much of the element of force
Force may murder, may make Ii.
ars and hypocrites, but cannot
make man believe, what he does
not believu, and has no bus.
mess to make him eat what he
does not want to eat, or drink
what he does not want to drink
No government can meddle with
the individual taste of its millions
of citizens so much as to enforce
the positive virtues of temperance
in the thousand-fold complica-
tions of life. That would be i'm
possible and government has nc
business to command impossibili-
ties. This truth kills prohibition,
and is why political platforms de-
clare against "sumptuary legis-
lation."
The liquor traffic is a bone OF
political contention, only because
it is to be watched and restrained.
The majority said last fall, "Eter-
nally regulated" and taxed. That
is about all the world has ever
been able to do or can do, until
the millennium dawns, and then
prohibition will be a fixed fact;
now it is only a crazy chase after
the goose that laid the golden
egg. DEMOCRAT.
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