Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-04-24
TEMPERATE PROHIBITION.
DR.. Leonard W. Baeon's New Veiw of
The Temperance Question"
Some Thoughts Worth the Considera.
ton OF All Who Feel an inter-
est in the Subject.

At the meeting of the Massachusetts
Reform Club. last Tuesday, DR.. Leonard
W. Bacon of Norwich Conn, was the
guest of the club, he having been invited
to address the assembly on "A New View
of the Temperance Question" Colonel
Goldman, in Introducing Dr. Bacon after
dinner, said that this club had had good
deal to say In times past on various sub
jects of reform, especially on tariff reform.
and they were not through yet, inasmuch as
some people, not wholly on the side of the
club, had done good deal of work in this
clubs line of late Therefore on this oc-
casion it would be most interesting to
hear something on another reform, that of
Temperance
Dr. Bacon then arose amidst most cor
dial applause. In part the doctor spoke
as follows: In other enterprises of poll
cal reform you have always before you a
fixed, definite. not unattainable good But
the subject of improved temperance legis-
lation runs on forever, and we run ca
forever after it, often running in our own
footprints. This is a question which is
not settled even when it is settled right
1t is always an unstable equilibrium |
mean to speak of the subject of temperance
as BELTS the occasion in its political re-
lations. We must first get our minds
clear on the moral principles that underlie
them. One of these principles is that it is
wrong for man to get drunk, but the
favorite contemporary doctrine of the
past fifty years is that drunkenness is seri-
Gus misfortune, the victims of which are
entitled to the tenderest sympathy of all
men, and especially to all women; that it
is an accident, like broken limbs, to
which some constitutions are peculiarly
| liable; or disease to which some persons
are cul pably careless about exposing them
selves, but for the course and termination
of which the patient is not to be held res
possible any more than in cases of diph-
liberia or measles. This idea originated
some fifty years ago with class of re-
formers whose chief qualification as moral
instructors of the people on this subject
was that they had wallowed in the gutter
as scottish drunkards. The ethical doctrine
of those eminent moralists was that the
blame of drunkenness attaches not to this
unhappy victim of temptation, of irresis-
tible impulse, but to the man around the
corner, or rather to citizens generally who
do not get drunk, and who are
so inconsiderate of the finer nature of
those who in certain circumstances
cannot help getting drunk that they
do not combine to extinguish the man
around the corner, and make drunkenness
impossible by exterminating the mate
rial for it. The characteristic of the
contemporary temperance reformer is that
he is the apologist of drunkenness. That
this great moral principle that men are
not to blame for being drunkards so long
as there is any liquor within reach is the
major premise of most arguments in favor
of prohibition, so called, we have all
had recent opportunity of knowing by the
orations for constitutional prohibition of
two State campaigns. | have heard the
woes and miseries of drunkenness imputed
to various causes, partly to the liquor
dealer, but more emphatically to the
respectable citizen who does not think
best to vote the favorite ticket of the
speaker but never have | heard it limited
that the drunkard had any guilty part
whatever. | regard this as false, per-
nicious, demoralizing rubbish. One of the
first duties of true temperance reformer
is to attack and expose this doctrine of
devils" Let us bring back the public
conscience to the old-fashioned conviction
that it is wrong to get drunk and we shall
have once more moral principle on which
we may hope to build stable Legislation.
Second, [ do not think that anybody really
thinks that the liquor traffic is essentially
wrong. What modern reformers seem to
mean by total prohibition is this :, that the
liquor trade should be run as a govern
ment department., on the Edward Bethany
principle, and that taxpayes should own
each a snug little interest in the liquor
trade Third, a license law may be per-
fectly good and righteous law. but you
should insist on restoring to this most
abused and perverted word ''license" its
proper meaning. viz, comforting of a
right to do wrong.
NV present contention is simply this,
that liquor license law is not essentially
nor even presumptively immoral. The
law of total prohibition has had a thor
ough and extensive trial and in some states
it has had for a brief period notably
good effect. But in just one instance has
this law proved successful and useful for
stretch of ten years. In some sections
the morals of the people were actually
worse when the law was strictly enforced.
In concluding the doctor said that he did
merely tenos to thin cut the liquor dealers
and help on the survival of the unfttest,
men who will push the business and make
the most money out of it. 1t should be
distinctly understood that the government
does not sell licenses at any price, but that
they may be awarded to men that prove
themselves to be suitable for the place
men who will not abuse the privilege.
But the best model that we have for imita-
ton to-day is the laws which stood in
New England 200 years ago, which made
it crime to sell liquor, down to the time
when politicians took it in hand to monkey
with the liquor law Another law in force
in those old days forbade the selling of
liquor to person who should be deemed
liable to abuse It's use. As for suitable
law for the government of the traffic to-
day, it is as Alexander Pope says: What
evers best administered is best"
Reducing the Number of His Wives.
Sir George Bowen, the former governor
of New Zealand, relates that among the
loyal Maori chiefs whom he invited to
meet the duke of Edinburgh when the lat
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