St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1894-06-30
PROHIBITION.
BY D. w. FOSTER, NJ. D.

the people. And Furthermore, it is q
fact equally well established, but not sc
universally known, that this fell deS-
tr0yer has been outlaaCed by the u. s.
Supreme Court, and therefore hos nc
right whatever to ecist in these United
States, at least! And the astounding
wonder is how this monstrosity of evil
which has destroyed more of health and
life, property and comfort, morality and
happiness, than have war pestilence
and famine, has been allowed to live
ana riot in crime and ruin so longi Has
it not been the duty of all officials from
the President of the United States down
TO Ward Constable to eXterminate the
hydra-headed monster? But they fail
ing TO do so, why have the peop1e-the
sovereign people of this country SO long
stood silently, and seen their own chill
dren devoured by this greedy monster,
that spares neither age nor sex, but
swallows down everything remorse-
lcssly.
/ quote below from "a Lecture on the
Fg lerhood Of God and the Brother
hood of Man in Government" by Dr.. L.
ID. Smith, of Paducah, KY, who publish
es paper called "Kentucky Liberalist,"
which everybody would do well to take
and read for $l00 q year, if they want
information on the all-important sub
ject of political Reform. He is working
hard for National Prohibition. He
says:
ave maintain that if said traffic is
here by any inie.a:ent right, its existence
is not q proper suDJ0Stdfor discussion /;
but If here without such right, it is an
intruder; and if an intruder, somebody
is responsible for the intrusion, and for
the royal reception the intruder has re-
ceiyed at the hands of 0Hf gOreTnnlent
And whatever may have been the di-
Yersity of opinions as to its right to be
here in the past, the Y. s. Supreme
court has settled tie question, and set
tied it right; because, in the interests
of humanity. Recognizing public OPP
inion and the best interests of the peo-
pie as the proper foundation of law in
civil government, the Court says: "By
the general concurrence of opinion of
every civilized and christian community
there are few sources of crime and
misery to society equal to the dram
shop" And that furthermore "the sta
tistics of every State" sustains the cor
rectness of this concurrent opinion; and
because of these facts the Court further
and efGphatically says: "IHerc is no
Inherent right IN a citizen to sell intoTt-
eating liquors by retail. IT is not q 41ri-
gitegee Of q citizen Of the United states."
See Crawley VS.. Christensen U. S. Re-
port vol. 137 p. go Nov. 10th, 1890.
The Court further says that the exist
ence, or pcrpetuation of these saloons
sis a matter of legislative will only"
Here then we have 100000 of these dram
shops in the United States 0mttamed by
our Court Of last resort under our COM
mon law, which law is based upon the
law of God and the law of humanity
and yet perpetuated and protected by
our Federal Congress and State Legisla-
lions, and all this too in the face of an |
other decision of the U. S. Supreme
Court, which says that: "7ao legislature |
can bargain array the public health, or
the public morals. The people them
selves can not do it. (Have no more
right than to commit suicide) much less
their servants. Government is organ
lied with view to their protection, and /
can not dinest Itself Of TIE Poacer to pro,
eide for them the needed protection"
See Stone VS.. Miss, U. 5. Reports.
Hence we discover that the licensed sa-
loon is here not only aCithOut any sane
tioR of our common or higher law, but |
an direct conflict 0tth the Fundamental
principles Of government promulgated by
oar Court of last resort"
If yellow fever was prevailing in |
Central America, and the Governor did |
not promptly quarantine against the |
infected ports, he would be ceRsWred
from one end of the State to the other
for not prohibiting reckless parties
from importing and selling here goods |
poison in them. And none would be
louder in their complaints and denun-
Citations, than the whiskey men, who
are importing and selling alcoholic Ii
quors En0acR to contain pOiSoNS, which |
are infinitely more dangerous and are
destroying far more lives, and causing
far more suffering, and crime, and waste |
of property, and ruin generally, than all
the epidemics and wars and famines |
put together. But, when the suffering
people, who see and know these things
the fathers and mothers, whose sons are |
I,ns 1Nxrf rxyixro Il
daughters, whose husbands, fathers and
brothers are being destroyed by them,
complain of those worst of all evils, and |
ask to have them Prohibited by law,
and have the country saved from the
dreadful Generalization and utter ruin |
being caused by them, the whiskey men |
cry out, that would be "restricting per-
sonal liberty" and Infringing indiyi-
dual rights p If the people have the |
right to put stop to the introduction |
and spread of the one poison, they have
equally the right to stop the importation
and sale of others. And as whiskey is SO
much more dangerous, and does do so
much more harm than epidemics, great
er and better are the reasons for Prohi-
biting 1t, than quarantining against
epidemics.
Let the whiskey men invest their
capital in some beneficial instead of in
furious business, if they don't want |
their apersonal liberty" and individual
rights" so-called, restrained by the peo-
pie, who are being injured by their use-
less, wasteful, demoraliZing and des-
tructive business, which costs so much
in vice and crime, misery and money!
Alcoholic beverages are not only un-
necessary, but positively injurious to
health of body and mind, purity of
of heart and life, prosperity and happi-
ness There are ($1 ,000,000,0O0) one billion
of dollars wasted in the United States