Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12
LET'S THINK IT OVER.
fCommunicated.l

ICommunicated.l
Whichever side we may take as to the
Constitutional amendment, there ID some,
thing impressive and encouraging in the
popular debate over it. 1t is long timf
since our politics have displayed such q Sc
rious and intelligent discussion of large
question. It brings to- the front the moral
interests of the Commonwealth; 1t challenges
and exercises the peoples conscience and
the peoples reason. It lifts politics for the
time into q nobler atmosphere than that OF
vulgar scramble for Office and plumber.
The controversy looks in one aspect like
question between head and heart. One side
emphasizes moral feeling, the other side APP
peals to sober judgment. Most Of the minis
ters are for the amendment, and most Of the
lawyers are against it. The distinctive in
fuence of women is mainly in its favor.
The prohibition arguments have a certain
ardor and enthusiasm which the other side
lacks. They appeal more directly to the
sentiments Of the home, to beneYolence and
self-sacrifce. to the protection of the weak
and the rescue of the fallen. This does not
imply that there is any more virtue in the
Prohibitionists than in their opponents, or
that the adoption Of the amendment would
necessarily advance the public good.
But the test Of large manhood is the
faithful conscience. Sobriety is just as
needful as ardor. To mean wen is not
enough-we must mean wisely, too, or come
to grief And the right government of q
people demands the best and most consider
ate wisdom. One of the hardest lessons in
the art Of popular sclf-government-the
highest and hardest of human artists to
learn what law can do and what it cannot
do. 1t cannot make men religious-that we
know now, but it took centuries to learn it.
Itcannot protect that faith which religious
man may hold dearer than his life, and
more important to the community than any
material interest. Robert Ingersoll goes up
and down the land denouncing Christianity
and no church member proposes that he
be suppressed by law or punished. A few
hundred years ago he would for such words
have been put to death more surely than any
murderer. Why not, if he is numbering
souls, as many think he is? Because even
the devoutest believers have learned that
law is powerless to control mems beliefs.
More: when law tried to control them in
finite mischief resulted d-persecutions, wars,
the Inquisition, the degradation of religion.
That is one illustration of the possible
mischief of legislation well-meant but not
wise. The misdirected ardors of good people
may be as harmful as intentional mischief.
The test of law is, what will be its prob
able results? The amendment is not a
declaration of sentiment, but an attempt to
do a specific thing-to absolutely stop the
manufacture and sale of liquor in Pennsyl-
vania. Suppose the amendment is adopted
what state of things will follow? A vast
amount of liquor will still be manufactured,
vast amount will still be sold and drunk.
Every act of manufacture or of sale will be
a defiance or an evasion of the law. Less
open drinking and more secret; the laws
theory and the peoples practice in gross
contradiction; in place of the healthy, pro-
gressive growth of local restriction, GEN.
tralization grand in pretense and feeble in
practice; drunkenness not banished, but
contempt of law brought in.
1t is the apprehension Of this result which
makes the sober second thought of Pennsyl-
vauia draw back from Constitutional pro-
hibition. 1t is an apprehension justified by
the experience and example of other States.
It is accompanied by the perception that an
impracticable zeal has often injured the
cause of temperance. It goes along with
growing recognition that law is at best
wholly Inadequate resource against drunk
enness; that personal service and friendly
ministration can alone save the imperiled
class; that not the police court but the
brotherly hand must be the great reliance.
If the State votes No, that vote will not
mean a victory of selfindulgence nor apathy
of conscience-it will mean conscience
guided by reason and experience, public
virtue thattempers arior with sobriety.