The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-11
PROHIBITION AND CONSCIENCE.


| garding it as the name of distinct fac
| ulty The intensely dutiful man says: My
| reason tells me your doctrine is sound, but
| my conscience warns me TO beware of such
| counsel" In a case like this the chancss
| are that the man is naturally intelligent
| but is handicapped by some form of fear
| or traditional prejudice If he were just a
! degree brighter he would observe that his
declaration involves an absurdity. For
! while admitting the reasonabeness of the
| proposition he assumes That the thing ne
| calls conscience" rises superior to evidence
+, and detects enough wrong in it to sound
some incoherent and indeiinable note of
| alarm.
| Formerly this nondescript faculty. CON
! science" was considered much safer guide
| than reason 1t was described in general
/ way as the moral sense" One lexicogra-
| pher says, 1T has been regarded as the
| simple intuition or immediate perception of
right and wrong This implies that it did
| not depend on evidence or any process of
reasoning. 1t had a very irrational and
foolhardy way of jumping at conclusions
1t found something rotten in Denmark,
| without the aid of either the sense of
smell or vision. When this subtle intuition
once asserted itself it assumed the presence
| of both the carcass and the buzzard, and if
1
| either the next assumption was that they
were thereabouts, but, "by some devilish
| cantrip sleight," still concealed
The modern philosopher and jurist have
| both taken the matter of conscience under
| ADJUSTMENT. They are seldom swayed by
| it. Indeed. most people have come to re-
| gard it as either a superstition or SUBJ
| terfuge In either case it is unreliable, if
| not positively dangerous. For example,
| me to vote for prohibition" the rational
| diagnosis is that his reasoning faculties are
| clouded by some inherited and apocryphal
| precept. This is the charitable view;
| though it might be as reasonable
| to proceed upon the supposition that the
| man had had ois pgointed ambitions-or, per-
haps has some new ambitions better adapted
| to this field of usefulness than any other
In the first case it is announced that his
| conscience is working under hallucina-
ton; in the other event. he is supposed
| to have utilized the designation as bland
| and respectable fraud.
Let us next get at the term ..prohibi-
1 tion,' and trace its bearings. In that way
we may observe it's true relations to CON
science"-so called. To prohibit the sale
of an article is equivalent to destroying
| it Therefore, prohibition means annihila-
ton. Liquor is deemed an inherently evil
| substance, and as such, producer or
cause of sin, misery and disaster There
fore, it should perish--should be rendered
innocuous, defunct and "spirtless'' by leg
islation. If it be objected that such prohi-
bition would be sumptuary and inmical
to personal liberty the repy is that rob-
berry, murder. arson. adultery and other
| crimes are prohibited" But they are not
No crime is or can be prohibited in the
| same sense IN which this term is applied
| to the manufacture and sale of ntoxicat-
ing beverages. To prohibit the manufac-
ture and sale of liquor is TO annihIate it
| 1t is assuming intoxicating beverages to
pc cause of evil per Sc, and de-
stroying It by LEGISLATION The Canada
| Neither is theft, arson, fornication nor
adultery. The only way to prohibit the
The only way to prohibit murder would
De to ferret out the slayer. before the fact
prohibit theft Would be to remove the he
coveted article absolutely beyond the reach
on she VAN ani to or o6 hs thief The
mind you, the real prohibitionist has not
personal reformation. He would out-Herod
Herod, He would eliminate the principle of
alcohp, from "a an c0 He would ac-
and distillers, because she ferments juices
and makes. hard cider without the aid OF
art. LII he had been present when the Lord
was preparing Eden for the first wedding
reception he would have taken out his jack
1t is my settled conviction based on
observation and experienced that the only
question is to legally forbid its abuses and
attach suitable penalty, then institute a
by teaching our children to let It aI alone.
be S to the end of s0i time; ana BECAUSE Mi
use it, Alcohol is not intrinsically danger,
abused. And the same may be Said OF
love, poetry, politics, religion, law medi-
money, diplomacy and the habit of eating
Thoughtless men and women have turned
oTe nto nfo poetry into dogsere
an excuse for burning ugly women, Law
into a means of enriching criminal law.
stale bread and rain water firearms andd
edged tools into playthings for children and
..censciences. novels into T II su ans
.Kreutzer Sonatas,' money into a means OF
restaurants into gilded hog-pens. and dipio.
macy into trick of raising low cunning
to the level of classic art.
| The majority of the present generation O,
men are sober and virtuous i'm spite of tbs
presence of whisky, wine, morphine and
women Prohibition laws are asked for
then, for the sole benefit of the class who
are confessedly unable to be decent withou,
constant and rigorous legal restraint 1t is
moreover susceptible of proof that sobriet,
is steadily on the increase despite the enor.
nous growth of the saloon industry
1t is freely conceded that the prohibition
sentiment may be humane in motive and
| altruistic in purpose. The feeling that
prompts ii in many may be profoundIy
| sympathetic and benevolent But ALI these
noble emotions and impulses are mislirected
unless devoted to the single purpose oi
raising standard of decency and seIf-re.
spect which will eventually make the saloon
business dull. disreputable and unprofit a Bile
There is a beautiful and perfect allegory
| in Genesis. faultlessy representing mans
relations to nature and law. 1t saws the
Creator planted in Eden the Tree of Knavrl.
edge and forbid our first parents to eat OF
its fruit. attaching to this command a
| penalty. He also planted in the soil of the
earth the seeds of many noxious plants
and deposited in the rocks variety OF
| poisonous minerals. Had He been a pro.
hieitonist He would have left the tree
out of Eden and the poisons out of the
fields and quarries The modern temper
ance fanatic wants TO improve upon God
methods. He wants a law to annhjlats
things that liable TO abuse. The spiri
of this law If carried out would obliterats
every human pleasure, because the very
highest and purest of them are capable O.
incorporation and abuse The principl.
of prohibition is wrong and can never pre-
vail on this earth The end will be reached
by another and better way The who
can be ruined by drink is only half man
| and you couldn't make him whole If yol
dug up every vineyard and dynamited ever,
1 saloon in the world, j. G. O.
| f,dfo lie Ma