Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-11-11
temperance.
Prohibition in Kansas.

| Inc IOllOWluS 10 ChpplHS lou
an article in the New York Times OF
July "a under the above title, which
will explain itself. Mr.. Gleed the
author, went from Morrisville, Vt.
In order that the readers of the
Times may gain a fair idea of the
dominant feeling in Kansas L pro-
pose to introduce here typical Kan
sas prohibitionist and permit him to
make argument in behalf of the insti-
tuition he favors. Mr.. j. w. Gleed
has made reputation at the state
bar and was retained by the state in
the celebrated Mugler and Walruff
brewery cases before the United
States Supreme Court. He has lived
in Kansas since 1886 and is profess
sor in the state law school. His
views differ from the average advo-
cate of prohibition only because they
are deeply tinged with philosophy,
reinforced by extensive knowledge
of the law, but they are interesting,
even to an anti -prohibitionist.
prohibition, said he, lis here to
stay. The people of Kansas will not
be very much affected by elections
adverse to prohibition in other states.
They have tried prohibition and
found it good thing.
"What basis have you for claim
ing that prohibition is a good thing
for the state?" [ asked.
''To begin with those who main
tain that it is wrong in principle,
urge that it Heads to hypocrisy and
perjury; that it is an attempt to
make men good by law; that it in
vades without justification the realm
of pure ethics; that it is blow at
the moral dignity of man; that it
creates crime out of an action
which was not, before the law was
passed, a crime, and which is not
malnm IN Sc that it does violence to
personal liberties which ought to be
sacred, and it ignores moral distinc-
ton.
Every section of the Criminal
Code leads to deceit, hypocrisy, per-
jury, and other offences against the
moral and civil law. All municipal
law, civil OF criminal, is an attempt
to make men good by compulsion
in the same sense that prohibitory
laws are attempt to make men good
by compulsion. All municipal laws
invade the realms of ethics and are
blow at the moral dignity of men.
Nearly all criminal laws when first
enacted made acts criminal which
had not before been looked on as
SUCH Killing in a duel is a crime
now; it was not a crime 200 years
ago. Under certain circumstances,
to cause the death of a fellow being
by ones negligence is now man.
slaughter; it was not so once. Grim
inal codes now control or attempt to
control the sexual relations 10 an eX-
tent which was not dreamed of in
Greece and Rome, nor in England
800 years ago. Gambling is crime
now; it wasn't once. 1t is a crime
for even an innocent man to break
jail Nothing seems more innocent
in itself.
All civil law does violence to per-
sonal liberties. People seldom fol-
low out the personal---very. argu-
ment. The ravages of the liquor
traffic is terrible. This is admitted.
The evils resulting from the sale and
consumption of intoXicants are be-
yond computation. The saloon,
whether you look at it from moral,
a political or an economic point of
view, is a curse. 1t is the mother of
all crime. Intemperance is a pecu-
liar Notwithstanding, persistent.
For five centuries the English-speak-
ing race has been trying to protect
itself by restrictive legislation. Re-
strictive legislation has failed. The
danger has grown greater. 1t has
been demonstrated that the only way
to do away with its evils is to do
away with the traffic or endure the
evils.
Now one individual rises and says
My personal rights must remain in
tact. | must be allowed to sell, buy
and drink as [ please On the 9TH
er hand rises another individual
and says Il too have my personal
rights. Must / be taxed to arrest,
convict, and punish the criminals
produced by the liquor taffic in order
to allow my friend his personal right
to drink? Society owes as much to
me as to my friend. The free sale
of liquor produces from time to time
in our community number of hu-
man brutes and maniacs who kill,
MAIN and rob, and endanger my
family and property. l and my fam
lily have right to the freedom of
the city. If the city contains sa-
looms my wife is in danger of insult
on the public streets at any time.
There are forced upon us the sights,
sounds and smells which attend the
saloon, and which are obnoxious to
us, and from which we have the
right to be exempt. / have political
rights the saloon has cut them off
again and again.
ssAll municipal law ignored moral
distinctions 1t must be so in the