The Washington critic., 1888-07-27
WASHINGTON, JULY %, 1888.
Two SIDES no ruE QUESTION:.


eating lager and anO her large part Of the
whisky imbibers to cease It's use or reduce its
consumption In inverse proportion TO the en-
HANGED cost Of the ardent, ' so that from any
point OF view the high tax has promoted so
briefly and diminished drunkenness Hence,
TO abolish the tax would so cheaper whisky
as TO lead at once to an immense Increase of
its consumption, with the inevitable at
fendant increase of nebriety and all the
evils that Follow In its train.
Says the Chicago Post prohibition
organ):
Take on all tax from the Federal Govern
ment down, and have the sale of beer AMI
whisky as free as groceries, and the saloon
would be closed by law In ten years in every
State in the Union. From 1StO To
1860, when there was next TO no revenue
and whisky was 2o cents a gallon, public
sentiment was so strong against the saloon
that thirteen States passed prohibitory laws
called the MAINE law" From 1868 to 1880
under the Federal tax and high State license
the temperance sentiment declined till, un-
der Republican and Democratic rule, all but
three--Mhine, Vermont aud New Hampshire
repealed their MAINE laws" and these
nullihed the law by nonenforcement. Now
let the Tribune or any OF Its deuded fol
lowers waltz upand answer the logic of these
historic facts. They cannot do it; they will
interest OF the liquor traffic pleading for
revenue, y the strong bulwark of the busi-
ress.
There is still another side to the
question, which is that the cause of
temperance is not promoted so much
by taxation or non-taxation, prohibit
tion or non-prohibition, license or no
license, as it is by an enlightened
public sentiment which is, day by
day, becoming more formidable and
effective in its opposition to drinking.
The evils of drunkenness have con-
tributed good deal toward their
own cure.
1t isDot true that the increased cost
Of whisky has done so much for
sobriety. Men have become sober
because they have found it to be to
their interest. The moral, sanitary
and economic arguments in favor Of
total abstinence never had the same
sway that they have to-day.
II is still possible, moreover, to buy
cheap whisky. There are places in
all large cities, and all through the
whisky-producing sections, where a
big drink can be had for five cents.
The satanic quality of five-cent
whisky is mainly to be judged by the
satanic consequences of drinking it.
These are written up in the records of
criminal brutality here, there and
everywhere.
One result of removing the tax
would be to obviate all motive for
adulteration, and thus lessen to some
extent the frightful results of exces-
sive indulgence in the cheap liquor
soldunder the tax.
But the time will never come when
there will be no excise law. If it is
not the present onerous and odious
Federal tax it will be State tax. So
long as the product is manufactured
Il should be made to yield a revenue.
-
FoLLowINe is rnr leading editorial
in sl,o Nov York NAL and Express OF
last evening: Whatsoever thy hand
fndeth to do, do it with thy might -
Right you are. tgives us great pleas
ure TO he thus in accord with oul
esteemed contemporary.
WHETHER WE MAY all agree or not
with Colonel Ingersoll's views, he
touches us all with the power of his
eloquence and the tenderness of his
pathos. Nothing could be finer as a
mortuary tribute TO his departed
friend than the address he pro.
nounced in New York at the funeral
Of Courtlandt Palmer yesterday Il
has been said that Colonel Ingersoll's s
doctrine leaves us AoNndering in seas
ofuncertainty with clouds of doubt
= overhead, but what of the severel
doctrine that teaches the everlasting
misery of the great bulk of the human
race? Better to be uncertain as tC
the final outcome than certain Of that
which robs life Of its joy and death
Of its hope.
WHICH OF THE letters of acceptance
will be out first is getting to be an in.
teresting question. Is Mr. Cleveland
waiting on Harrison, or is General
Harrison waiting on Mr. Cleveland z
Bets thus far are about even,
----
Miss FRANCES WILLARD calls the
internal revenue tax on whisky "a
coyenant with hell and a compact
with damnation." The Commissioner
ii Internal Revenue should bring an
action for libel.
I REpBEsESTATIyE Ford Of Michigan,
Dates of Alabama, Morrow of Cali
fornia, Guenther of Wisconsin and
Sergeant-at-Arms Leedom, backed by
n number of reporters and police, went
on an investigating tour last night
through the tenement slums in New
York, and got such dose of sights
and smells that they may be relied
upon TO head crusade against pro.
miscuous immigration, and in apinch
they might be induced TO lynch a few
qadronis and steamship agents for
inyeR these thousands of poor
wretd# pto coming TO this country
toA Mand rot in filthy dens,