Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-04
PROHIBITION.

right to be republican if he so elects. PROHIBITION.
 The legislature has not yet fixed the time when the people of Connecticut will vote on the question of constitution al prohibition, though it is expected that some day in October will be chosen. The amendment to be voted upon reads as follows:
 The manufacture or compounding of and sale or keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors, excepting for sacramental, med ical, scientific, mechanical and art pur- poses, shall be and hereby are prohibited in this state; and it shall be the duty of the legislature to pass laws for the en- forcement of this article.
 Until the election day is fixed and the campaign is under way there is little use in speculating as to the possible or prob able result, though we have not seen any prediction that is other than unfavorable to the cause of the cold water men. It is not probable that the people of Con- necticut are less intelligent than their neighbors of the bay and granite states, neither is it likely that they are anxious to repeat the experience that is coming home to roost in the little state to the east of them. The same arguments that were made for and against prohibition in New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be made in the nutmeg state, and there is sure to be the same division of the con servative and intelligent forces of the state There is very little danger cer- tainly that crankism or expediency will prevail at the polls as they did beneath the gilded dome at Hartford, and many of the republicans who in the assembly thought they saw an opportunity of tickling the prohibitionists will feel lit 1 tie compunction in giving it to them in | the neck" when it comes to the election. There is no more sympathy though there is more affected friendship, for prohibit tion in the republican party than in the democratic. If prohibition were made a principle or the policy of the republican party, we venture to say the party would quickly be wrecked None know this better than the leaders and organs of the party, and it is for this reason that none of them are found favoring or ad- vocating prohibition. They talk high license, thinking that thereby they can pull the wool over the eyes of the prohibitionists, though they have not been able to show that their scheme of high license lessens the amount of liquor consumed or ill fact has any other effect than to give a monopoly of the business into the hands of a favored few party in regard to the liquor traffic is a legitimate and natural carrying out of its policy in regard to the tarif-the creation and fostering of monopoly. By its scheme of high license and the re- striction of the number of those who shall be permitted to engage in the busi- ness it hopes to put the business in the hands of favored few and to organize l a gang of liquor dealers who will be de- pendent for their licenses on their sub | serviency to the republican machine and | will feel it necessary and advisable to keep the machine in power.
 | The liquor question is momentous one, but its solution lies not in prohibi- tion. It is as easy to get liquor in Maine or Rhode Island or Kansas as it is in Connecticut or New York, proving that the temper of the American people is not yet ready to submit to prohibition. Men who are not total abstainers themselves will not readily see the wis dom of adopting or endorsing prohibit | ton, and we do not think the most ar dent prohibitionist will venture to claim that majority of American citizens are total .abstainers. And yet withal the Ann Ean people are more temperate than they were twenty, or even ten, years ago. This, too, we believe not because of the laws that hamper the liquor dealers so much as in consequence of individual judgment and preferment. There are more moderate drinkers to- day than formerly and fewer drunkards simply because of the larger self-control in the use of intoxicating beverages and the greater public contempt which is now held for those who cannot govern themselves in the indulgence of their appetites. Prohibition, or high license as it is devsied by the republican party, would not make men more temperate; indeed, we believe it would have an op- posite effect, for men are apt to crave that which they are prohibited from having. Under prohibition there would be more drinking in the closet, but the drinking would be more thorough and more damaging in it's results.
 l Prohibition is not popular in Connec- ticut to-day, nor do we believe it will become more so as public discussion re- veals it's merits, defects and possibilities.