Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-05-08
Prohibition the Wrong Plan.

| 4nkA Ao8O ~ 10y COAsC4<ASA oO4O NsO8AO<
upon the private rights and liberties
under the plea of public benefit. Th.
very essence of our form of government
is, that it will respect, as far as pcssf
BILE, the rights Of individuals private
rights. Individual taste as to what we
eat or drink is one Of the most personal
of all natural rights. one of the last
subjects that should be interfered with
by public legislation, and for that rea-
son alone, if for no other Though there
are scores of other reasons), the pro-
hibitory law of Kansas will never do
the work it aims to do.
| You may .censure mans business,
social, or political acts and as a gen.
eral thing he is not much bothered by
the criticism; but the moment the law
steps in and tells him what he shall or
shall not eat or drink he will protest
against it, knowing that those are
affairs in his life that are private in
every sense of the word. Prohibition
does this. 1t says that no one shall
quench his thirst. that none shall enjoy
the pleasure of drink. It attempts
to place the iron hand of the law upon
the throat of the honorable and indus
trious with the same tight grip that it
clutches the throat of the depraved
and worthless; and because of this un-
business in the laws working, the best
men in the land are not in sympathy
with it.
Prohibition advocates are quick to
say the depraved and worthless are also
mot in sympathy with the law" which
is true. Neither are such men, who
have lost all manhood, all sense of
decency. or right, or justice, in sympa-
thy with ANY law upon our statutes,
their desire is to break all laws, natur-
al, physical and common, and to trail
in the dust the white robes of Justice.
It is no argument to say that because
the roughs and drunkards are all in
opposition to the prohibitory liquor law
that ALL who oppose that principle of
law are roughs and drunkards. But
that is the argument most often used
by the prohibition press of Kansas, and
it has been 80 assiduously harped upon
that conservative mea. who study well
all matters pertaining to the law. are
thus deferred from coming out and
giving their candid views upon it.
Do you not know, Friend Miller,
that, after all the long years that pro-
hibitioE has tried to gain power in this
land; after all the prayers and suppl
cations that have been offered up in
public and in private by Jealous enthu-
siasts with a view to bringing about
national prohibition, that If there was
not something in the proposed law that
CRATES unpleasantly against the popular
idea OF free American rights and priv
ileges such law would long ago have
been adopted? Why, pray, are you so
misanthropic? Why have you so poor
an opinion of mankind; why do you
concede 80 much power to the liquor
traffic? Why cannot you see that any
law which so ruthlessly tramples upon
tue very fundamental principles Of our
American freedom will never be adopt
ed by that people2
You can but see that prohibitin as a
state law will not prohibit. You can
meet men in any Kansas town, any day
in the week and Sundays too, whose
breath will tell you they have taken of
the forbidden drink. Don't you know
that many times the drinking of such
liquor OH Kansas soil has made men
worse because of the law than because
of the drink? Don't you know that
the Kansas prohibitory law is breeding
perjurers and law-evaders faster than
it is reforming drunkards and lessening
crime? Is there day passes that we
do not read about some drunken spree
on Kansas soil that ends in ruin or in
death-and all under the boasted pro-
hibition law. To what do your labori-
ously collected and compactly tabulated
statistics amount, when compared with
the actual state Of affairs as we meet
them in every day life! Is your judy
ment and the judgment Of few well
meaning enthusiasts who are not
pleased to abide by the ruling Of the
great majority of American people, to
be taken instead Of the judg nent of
the masses? The late decision OF the
supreme court of the United States. to
be found elsewhere in this paper, ought
to give you somthing to reflect upon.
In our next letter we will have some
thing to say about stringent license
law as a means of controlling the evils
resulting from excessive drinking.
Exercises, Memorial Day, Nay 30th, 1890.
Parade will form on Broadway with
head resting on Main street at Farmers
& Merchants bank. Line of march
south on Main street till head of column