Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-12-30

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THE NARROW SPHERE OF A PROHI.
BITIONIST.
In q communication printed in another
column, Rev. j. r. Deckard interrogates
the TRIBUNE, relative to its editorial on
the status of the liquor traffic, which ap.
peared in Tuesdays issue. His letter
may fairly be regarded as q succinch
exposition of the ideas of ultra-prohlbi-
tionists on the same subject, and as such
is entitled to a candid reply.
Mr.. Deckard will hardly expect the
TRIBUNE to outline all that goes to
make such a law as is referred to in his
first query-indeed, if cautiously in
clined, one might we'll say that the
query amounts to begging the main
question. Taking it for granted, how
ever, that the question is put in good
faith and to obtain information, rather
than for the purpose of asking some-
thing hard to auswer-it may be replied
that the TRIBUNE would regard as
wisely provisioned, a high license law
in which, among other provisions, was
n setting the fee or tax for a license
at 80 high figure that only a very
small number of places could afford to
pay it; another making it crime punish
able by fine and Imprisonment (and
both ~severe) to carry on the business
without such license; a third, making
the sale to confirmed drunkards q penal
offense Of a high Tor low0 degree; and
other provisions forbidding the sale Of
in~toxicants to minors, requiring Sunday
closing and closing at II p. m. on other
days, etc. Under a good high license
law, individual interest would cause,
and has been found to cause, holders of
licenses to act as a check upon each
other and particularly upon those who
might attempt to evade the payment of
license fee.
Mr.. Deckard's second interrogatory
contains the meat of the whole subject
as viewed by the advocates of prohibi-
ton. HAS a community a right, legally
or morally; to 1NDoRsE a business that
persistently and continuously sows seeds
of discord, sorrow and death among it's
families?" The question is not just, nor
does it state the position correctly. A
license system does not, in any sense,
Endorse" the business of liquor selling,
nor are those who advocate license
chargeable with completely in causing
the evils of intemperance. A person
may not the less hope and pray for the
coming of a time when this as we'll as
other evils will have ceased to exist,
because he recognizes the hard fact of
its present existence and would combat
it with the best means at hand-Now-
even to the extent of government su-
pervision. These catch phrases about
"Legalizing Crime" "Pandering to
Vice" MAKE No Concessions to the
Devil" and the like, are strong argu-
ments, to the thinking of those people
whose conception of righteousness is 80
narrow, that it does not at all admit the
question Of ~expediency, of what will do
the most good, OF grant that existing
facts ought to be considered, if such
facts ought not to exist. Such a view is
correct enough from the standpoint
of righteousness, in the abstract, but
not IN the concrete or practical; a
theory of government morals or religion,
which ignores everything inconsistent
with absolute purity, may be ennobling
to dream about, but will never aid in
bringing down to the earth such oondi-
tions as those upon which it is pre-
dicated. 1t sounds a | title ignoble, a lit
tie base, perhaps, to boldly PROFOUND a
doctrine on the grounds of expediency
to the mind fastidious in words it has,
indeed, a smack Of time. serving. But
the retnements of ethics, sc ennobling as
applied to the private individual life,
are far from being capable of enforce
ment in the heterogeneous life of "Hoi
Polloi," the Dear Public. That which
is good, in point of morals, for the in
dlvidual. ought to be good for the aggre.
gate Of individuals; but you cannot
always legislate the aggregate into obe-
dience to a given rule, though the major
part of the individuals may freely ad-
nit it's righteousness as personally ap-
piled. The effort to perform this more
than Augean labor has, perhaps, formed
one of the most stubborn obstacles in
the path Of reform, of all kinds and in
all periods Of history. Reformers, con-
centrating their attention upon one
sore spot in the body-politic, have been
prone to demand a cure of that spot, and
an instant cure, regardless of the disease
of which it is, perhaps, but the local