Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
Prohibition is Not a Direct Means to
Moral Improvement.
ONE EVIL GIVES WAY TO- ANOTHER
The Church Has More Wholesome Effect
Than Legislatures.
STAND TAKEN BY FATHER MATHEW
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sPATcH.I

WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.l
Human nature wants recasting, but Sena-
tor ingalls, is all for tinkering it The Fo-
rum of recent issue very fondly and boast
ingly published an article on prohibition
and License from the keen, trenchant pen
Of Kansas famous Senator, the Hon. John
]. ingalls,. 1t is 3 valuable and interesting
paper-valuable for the facts and figures he
kindly gives and interesting, inasmuch as
anything coming from this excellent and
distinguished man is interesting. The posi-
tion he holds in the country and his high
character render it impossible that his writ
ings and speeches should be otherwise. be
the subject what it may. It is further very
gratifying to learn that the constitutional
amendment in Kansas prohibiting forever
"the manufacture and sale of all intoxicat-
ing liquors except for medicinal, scientific
and mechanical purposes" has proven bene-
fetal to society, whether it has been brought
about, as he nicely puts it, ''post hoe" or
''propter hoe" coincidence de cause.
Be this as it may, the learned Senator's
conclusions are ''irresistibly In favor Of
prohibition;" that it ''is right in princi-
pie" and that since its triumph in Kansas
in April, 1887, "a drunkard is a phenom-
enon. The barkeeper has Joined the trou-
badour, the crusader and the mound builder,
and the brewery, the dist1llery and the
bonded warehouse are known only to the
archeologist."
1 am far from being one of those who in
sist on proof for everything. Life is too
short for philosophy entirely of inferences;
we shall never be done beginning if we de-
termine to begin with proof, but shall be
sinking further and further, finding sin
nal los h.
reach the broad bosom of skepticism. Still
it is too much to yield to the Senator that
this late marvellous advancement in
Kansas and the improvement of
the morals of its citizens and the
fact that "many city and county
prisons are without tenants" and again that
its paupers, according to very carefully
compiled statistics, average only to 1,300
of its population, while in the United
States at large there is to 750-it is too
much to yield that all this is due in the
main to prohibition alone. l would GER
talnlv rather attribute it to what made pro-
hibition possible.
PROHIBITION NOT THE MEANS.
The past cannot be undone. The most we
can do is to take a lesson for the future from
its annals and appropriate it to our present
uses, otherwise it would be as absurd as to
build our men-of-war or conduct our iron
works on the plans laid down in Cicero's
days On this principle sensible men will
undoubtedly conclude that prohibition is
not direct means to moral improvement.
The first question which obviously suggests
itself is how these wonderful moral effects
are to be wrought under the instrumentality
of legislative interference. Or has the, ex-
pertinent been tried on so large a scale as to
justify such pleasant anticipations?
To know is one thing, to do is another.
A laboring man knows he should not 90 to
the lager beer house, and his wife knows
she should not filch when she goes out char
ing; man knows he should get up IN the
morning-he lies abed; q woman knows she
should not lose her temper, yet she cannot
keep it; the consciousness of q duty is not
all one with the performance OF it. 1t is not
the purpose, nor would it harmonic with
good taste, to antagonize those few estimable
gentlemen who are using their great energy
and ability to raise the standard of morality;
or hamper their Jealous motives in making
our people more temperate, their homes
more chaste-in a word, the uprooting of
vice and the substitution of virtue all over
the land.
APPEARS IN ANOTHER FORM.
It might be well to state right here it is
not with their motives find fault; 1t is the
means of bringing the reform about. fear
they are on the wrong track; the
very thing they are condemning they
are assisting; they are nurturing the very
vice, though in another form, they would
gladly have wiped away altogether. Even
admitting that these gentlemen should sue
coed in stopping the manufacture Of spirits,
and also stop the sale of it, and, even what
is more difiult, the drinking of it, what
then? Have they given US any warrant that
what they would gain in sobriety they would
not lose in stupidity by taking to something
worse? They have merely exchanged more
gross fault for a more subtle one. Let US
suppose that we had temperance, but wall
much be gained If those who give up spirits
take to opium? You do not get rid of a
vice by human expedients or by legislation;
you can but use them according to circum-
stances and in their place as making the
best of bad matter. You must 90 to an
other and higher source for the renovation
of the heart and the will. The honorable
and celebrated Senator voorhees,, of Indiana,
gave an eloquent representation of this fact
in recent speech to his constituents at Terre
Haute.
SENATOR VOORHEES, WARNING.
SIT mus. be remembered" said the Sena-
tor, ''that the use of wine, malt and other
liquors is not the only innocent and lawful
practice capable of abuse. Temptation in a
thousand forms turks in the pathway of hu-
man life almost from the one end of it to the
other. The power to resist the tempter, in
whatever guise he may approach, must come
from higher source than human law. 1t
must come from well-instructed conscience |
appealing for strength to the fountain of vir- |
tue and power above US. It must come from |
the exercise of an intelligent will power, de- |
termined to maintain the cause of public |
and private virtue. 1t must come from the |
heart within and help overhead"
Almost within my own memory the prac-
teal truth of this declaration was mani |
tested by the great temperance movement of |
Father Mathew. A nav epoch, as it were,
had dawned upon Christianity, and millions, |
both in this country, England and Ire
land, without distinction as to race or creed, |
adhered to the great temperance advocate
and never before or since was there such
reign of sobriety throughout the land.
Royal princes and subjects, presidents and |
private citizens were equally subject and
susceptible to his remarkable influence. He
was tar from being prohibitionist, in fact,
SO far that he made use of these remarkable
words on the floor of our Senate
FATHER MATTHEW'S STAND.
''while laud temperance and call upon
all to join its ranks, far be it from me to
pass censure on those who use strong liquor
In moderate way. 1 no more condemn
them than did st. Paul condemn the state
of honorable wedlock. There is no
line of conduct worthy of Christian that
cannot be enjoyed without tasting intoxi-
eating drinks.
Evervone knows who has had any ex-