The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-25
TWELVE PAGES.
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LIQUOR LEGISLATION.


hibitory lay. DIR. Parkhurst will be accepted as
good witness, even by the most extreme pro-
hibitionist in the country, for he avows
himself in favor Of the New Hampshire pro-
hibitory law as against the Massachusetts IL
sense law, So his testimony of the operation
of prohibitory law is the evidence of warm
and devoted friend. What he says of the law
in New Hampshire is as follows:
'Does prohibitory legislation stop the sale
of liquorl Such a question would provoke a
3mie In any city or large town in New Hamp-
1hire. All kinds of liquors are sold without
restraint or fear. Saloons with public bars
are upon the main streets of the cities and
large towns aud in great numbers The law
exercises no constraint upon the saloon, ex-
cept deed Of violence, under the influence
of liquor, shocks the community into aroused
action. Then the law is brought into use; a
few men are arrested for the illegal sale, fined
a nominal sum, which is usually paid prompt
ly, and the business of selling goes on as be-
FORE"
If this be a true picture of the condition Of
things in State like New Hampshire with
Drohibitory law-and who can doubt its truth,
coming from Rev. Dr. Parkhurst-there will
be many who will seriously question what is
the advantage to be gained Owe. license law
by a prohibitory statute9 Things are GER
in any license-law State than in prohibitory
New Hampshire DR.. Parkhurst sees that
this question must be answered, and so he
does it in his letter, by saying:
s'Tke prohibitory law, though ignored, yet
lies grandiy IN reserve, and can be utilized in
emergencies. What is needed to
make this grand old parchment speak its
Sinaitic language is a citizens committee of
strong and influential men behind Item
perance of all parties
Is not this lame and impotent conclusion
for the much-vaunted prohibitory law9 Are
not these words very plain paraphrase of the
oft-repeated and oft-denied truism that no law
can be enforced in advance of public senti-
ment9 What adval .ge does New Hamp-
shire gain by dead-letter prohibitory law
that it would not have under stringent
hightaxation law, with compensatory dam
ages, and which would be backed up by
strong and effective public sentiment Nay
would not New Hampshire be vastly better
off with some sort of a law that can be en-
forced than with prohibitory law that is con-
fessedly dead-letter2 This is the weakness
of general prohibitory law or of constitu-
tional prohibition: When prohibition is writ
ten in the organic law or on the statute book
those most earnest in getting it there fold
their arms, under the foolish notion that
all isdone, the law falls into "innocuous desue-
tude,". and the last state of that community is
worse than the first. Sensible and practical
men are beginning to see this, and to realize
that prohibition" as it is generally under
stood and received is probably the most inn
practicable, illogical and unsatisfactory method
of dealing with the drink traffic that the wit
of man can we'll conceive. 1t is the waking
up from the prohibition dream of the past
few years that has given to the principles of
local option and of high taxation their strong
and increasing hold upon sensible. thoughtful
temperance men.
But DR.. Parkhurst does not stand alone
with his evidence to the inutility of a pro-
hibitory law. The Boston Evening Record
prints letter from a well-known clergyman
in the State of Maine, in which he says:
cit is surprising, tits saddening, to see the
1C.-1 III
Gated prohibitionists in regard to the effects
and practical working of prohibitory laws.
They do not make for themselves any indie
pendent Investigations of its workings nor
listen to any unprecedented report of its effects.
They look with blinded eyes and hear with
closed-up ears. The minds Of the public are
filed with distorted, partial and preiudiced
accounts of the working of the prohibitory
law. Take for example the case of Canon
Farrar and his recent visit to this country.
He visited Portland, was taken in charge by
some OF the leading prohibitionists, and what
is the resultf He returns to England and
makes the most astonishing and incorrect
statements in regard to liquor traffic and
drunkenness in Maine"
He then proceeds:
az have been living for over year and a
half in one of the towns of Maine of about
five thousand inhabitants. This is what I
have seen and known-the record of my own
personal observation and experience. There are
on one street, within one minutes walk of
each other and near the station, three grog-
shops. and suspect four others, two hotels
and four drug stores where liquor is sold by
the glass | was walking by one of the grog-
shops before | had been here three months,
when two men just going in turned and
said to me: Won't you come in and take a
drink was unknown to them and they to
me. Thus openly liquor is sold here, and yet
for years they have had temperance Mayor,
reform clab and law and order league. 1t
is no unusual thing to see men staggering
drunk on the street, and on public occasions
the sale of liquor is increased"
This preacher says: ut is great mistake