Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-07-30
PROHIBITION OR TEMPERANCE 2

nOuncement, on the authority or tno
 president of the Catholic Total Ab- stinence union of Connecticut, that
 this organization is likely soon to pro-
 mitigate an official declaration that it is opposed to prohibition. This is important
 in that it indicates the belief of large and
 growing corps of practical temperance
 men that the cause of temperance is not
 promoted by bringing it into politics. Its
 preference for methods that have been found more effective is reasonable and just and the declaration of it's position will be especially timely coming as it does on
 the edge of the campaign when the voters
 of the state are to be given an opportunity
 of deciding the political phase of the liquor
 question.
 Catholic temperance workers, no less
 than the more advanced thinkers of other denominations, have been sverse to pro hibition, simply because they have not
 found it equal to it's professed purpose of suppressing the manufacture and sale of liquor It is impracticable, inefficient, and consequently useless. Nay more, pro hibition is positively dangerous in that it leads to free rum and all the evils that pro- ceed therefrom. The experiences of Maine,
 Massachusetts and Rhode Island, of Iowa and Kansas, in fact of every place where there has been an opportunity to test the workings of prohi-
 bition, have been disastrous and discourag- ing. It is these experiences that have led
 these states to recede from prohibition and to attempt the regulation rather than the suppression of the liquor traffic. It is one
 of the results of the experiment that such profound thinkers as Cardinal Gibbons,
 Archbishops Lynch and Ryan, Bishop Keane, Father Conaty and other eminent divines whose names are identified with successful temperance work have pro- nouneed prohibition impracticable, unwise and an interference with the popular idea of American liberty. Prohibition
 never has and never will solve the license
 problem. While liquor is distilled it will be drunk, and so long as nature carries in
 her bosom the germs of liquor just so long will it be provided. While the artificial aid of liquor stimulants is needed for
 medicinal purposes, while spirits are 8 necessity for the arts and manufactures,
 there will be an excuse for the making of liquor which no amount of spacious reasoning on the part of prohibitionists
 can gainsay. And while liquor is distilled liquor will be drunk. It seems a waste of time and effort, therefore, for men
 to devote their energies to the promotion of policy that every
 lesson of abstract consideration, every conclusion of actual experience and every suggestion of human rights point to as i'm practicable, inefficient and unjust. When
 the majority of men are themselves total
 abstainers, when all temperance workers and preachers of total abstinence are them selves united in the belief that prohibition can be made to prohibit, there will be ! some possibility and some justification for tho inauguration of prohibitory policy; but that time is not likely to come in our day and generation.
 It should be encouraging to the best friends of temperance that the Catholic
 state union has determined to place itself on record in the matter of prohibition and that there is strong probability that the national union will do likewise at it's con- vention which will be held next week at
 Cleveland. The great strides that tenn
 perance has taken among the members of
 the Catholic church in this country, as
 the result of moral suasion in accord with
 the teachings and practices of Father Mat
 thew, the influences of education and self.
 respect, and above all the necessity of ab
 stemiousness as factor in the pursuit of
 rosperity, are an eloquent tribute to the efficiency of the methods pursued by
 these unions. They are better than pro hibition, and fortunately are 50 recognized by majority of thinking people. And tho unions are acting wisely in giving formal