Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-19
Communicated,
OPINIONS ON PROHIBITION.
How the Leading Pastors OF Reading Re.
gard the Amendment,

How the Leading Pastors OF Reading Re
gard the Amendment.
From the Public Ledger of Philadelphia
READING, PA, May 16.-About dozel
OF the city pastors remained away from thu
meeting Of Reading ministers called to taxi
action with reference to the organization oi
a Ministerial Prohibition Association
These absentees were seen to-day and asked
their reasons for remaining away, and it ap
pears that they are opposed to prohibition
Their views are eagerly discussed.
Rev. DR.. William P. 0rrick, Rector o.
Christ Cathedral, said: Prohibition hal
not proved successful where it has been tried
and therefore am willing to try the high
license measure"
Rev. B. D. Zweizig, who is probably the
most widely known clergyman in Eastern
Pennsylvania, being pastor of six country
congregations, said: Personally l am con-
scientiously opposed to the prohibition
amendment and do not hesitate to state SO.
I do not think that the Scriptures warrant
snv such thing as prohibition and regard
such thing as extreme"
Rev. J. Heister Leinbach, Reformed
clergyman, said: 81 prefer law that can
be enforced, and not an extreme law that
will become dead statute. The law, as 1t
is being enforced in some parts of the State,
Philadelphia and Pittsburg, is far better
and nearer to virtual prohibition than the
extreme measures of prohibition itselt"
Rev. L. R. Dalrymple, rector of st. Bar
nabas' Episcopal Church, said: Gall expe-
rience shows that laws in advance of public
opinion cannot be enforced, and should
fear, in the case of prohibition in Pennsyl-
vania, result similar to that in Rhode
Island"
Rev. W. b. Myers, of Grace Lutheran
Church, said: 'I am as much opposed to
prohibition as 1 am opposed to drunken
our cities with club rooms and make of our
citizens set of sneaks. l vastly prefer high
license"
Rev. J. ]. Kindig, of st. Johns Lutheran
Church, said ''that he was opposed to pro-
hibition because it abridged the personal
liberty of the people, but he was in favor of
high license"
From the New York SUM-
The voters of Massachusetts drove the
prohibition amendment deeper into the
ground than the Bunker Hill Monument
stands above it. The cities were almost all
against prohibition, and it is noticeable that
some of them which, under the present local
OPsAOA SAohb 4ACCuscs, hCIC uOL
the least hostile to the amendment In
view of the experience which Massachusetts,
has had of the effect of liquor restriction and
liquor prohibition, her verdict and judg-
ment of the two systems will have great
weight wherever elsewhere the Prohibition
lists make their battle. 1t is the verdict and
judgment of community acquainted with
all the facts, and before which the most
convinced and eloquent advocates have
spoken. Everywhere Prohibitionists have
enthusiasm. In Massachusetts, they had
plenty of money, the support of the power
full surviving elements of Puritanism, the
support of influential persons and policies
in the Republican party. They were badly
beaten in what might be considered their
own territory.
Beaten in Texas, Michigan, Tennessee,
New Hampshire, Massachusetts,, only ex-
listing by the force of habit or contempt in
States where it is not enforced. prohibition
seems to have, as was said of Alfred de
Musset, a glorious future behind it.