The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-24
THE VICIoUsLY INTEMPER ATE.


no known remedy for those unfortunate
persons who hate and abuse all who fail
TO agree with them. In the dark past,
when such Incorporate men as Mr.. Wool
Icy had power, they resorted to the sword,
the burning stake, the dungeon. the star
chamber and the tortures of the Inquisi
ton, not so much TO convert men to their
views as to wreak vengeance upon them
for believing otherwise. If the world had
not grown every way better the past three
hundred years Mr.. Woolley would have led
those Christian people who exhorted,
prayed and sung on the street corners on
Sunday, attracting the reverent attention
of all who listened, in scourging burning
and otherwise giving the ungodly fore
taste of the torture which it is the delight
of the Woolleys to believe they will suffer
during eternity.
Many intelligent people have regarded
prohibition as a remedy for the evil of in
temperance; some intelligent people so be-
lieve now. There are not now nearly so
many of them as ten years ago, because
they have been considering the subject.
The thoroughly Incorporate natures like
Mr. Woolley do not consider; they cannot
reflect. Intense vindctiveness has con-
stunned their reasoning and reflective pow
ers They are only powerful in epithet,
which does not harm
Most temperance men who have candidly
studied prohibition have sorrowfully come
to the conclusion that it is impracticable;
that as society is now constituted, and will
be constituted until convinced otherwise
it is impossible to enforce prohibition over
whole State and that the only use which
can be made of it is in local option, some
form of which exists in many of the
States. Take Maine. Prohibition has been
in the laws nearly forty years and in the
Constitution nearly thirteen years, yet the
prohibitory law is a dead letter in all the
larger towns, none of which have $4,000 in
habitants. Why? Because popular senti-
ment is against the enforcement of a law
which sends man to Jail thirty days and
fines him 500 for selling glass of beer.
Mr. Woolley referred to Iowa, one of the
most intelligent States in the Union. 1t
is of no consequence that he hurled cpl
tfrets at the people of Iowa. They have
| usually openly ignored in all the larger
towns. Periodical attempts were made to
enforce the law but at the next election
officers making such attempts were defeat
ed, and the free, unbrdled grogshop fol-
lowed Often officers were bribed and IA
vorites were permitted to SELL The result
was disregard of law, corruption and de-
moralization. Having tried the experiment
fully, Iowa has set prohibition aside. And
Kansas? 1t has prohibition in it's Constitu-
ton and on its statute books. The result?
Leavenworth has more grogshops and
dives in proportion to population than any
city in the country, after numberless eff
forts to enforce the law. Topeka is a dry
city now because, in his spite, the Gov
ernor has directed the Police Commission
ers to enforce the law. 1t will be excess
sively dry for a season, while Leaven-
worth, fifty miles distant, will swim in in
toxicants Thousands of drug stores sell
on prescriptions which any one can make
and the express companies carry into Kan
sas from Kansas City, Mo-, thousands of
packages of liquors every week. This is
because public opinion does not sustain the
law. 1t will not be enforced until public
opinion demands it or sustains the enforce
ment.
And yet intemperance was never such a
stigma upon a man, in the opinion Of soci-
ETY., as it is to-day. In all the great en-
pigments the drunkard or the man of in
temperate habits has no place. In several
States, during the past year, officers of the
National Guard have been dismissed in
disgrace for drunkenness on duty. Twenty
years ago it would not have been expected
Men who appear tipsy on public occasions
are hustled out of sight now, where
few years ago, it would not have been
thought Of, while trades in which, a quar-
tel of a century ago, a large number of
the men were hard drinkers, now look with
dsfavor upon drunkenness. Thousands of
visitors were IN town on Sunday, yet it is
doubtful if there were a score of men
among them under the influence of liquor
Twenty-Five years ago such excursions
of intoxicated men. Thus, because a high
err sentiment demands sobriety, and be-
cause the avenues of employment are
closed to the Incorporate, real temperance
is gaining ground year by year. The mass
of people realize this fact, and for that
reason pay less and less attention to per-
sons who preach prohibition at so much
per speech. payable before delivery.
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