The evening times., 1899-03-11
PROHIBITION HELD
| UP TO RIDICULE
Bishop Potter Makes al AS.
sault Upon Its DeyOtees.
Likans Them Unto the Pharisees
and Sadducees.
Vigorous Ideas Expressed in a Let
ter to the Rev. DR.. Lyman
Abbott.

New York, March 11--Bishop Henry c.
Potter, who not long ago caused considera-
BILE discussion by referring to the saloon as
the Poor Mans Club has aroused the
prohibitionists by calling them hypocrites
and by likening them to the Scribes and
Pharisees of old.
1t was in response to a request for his
views on the saloon evil sent to him by
the Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott, editor of ''The
Outlook" that Bishop Potter uttered his
conviction that the prohibitionists were all
wrong. The letter follows, in part:
sit is the old situation-as old as the
religion of Jesus Christ-with the Scribes
and Pharisees ON the one hand, the Saddu-
Gees on the other, and, over against them,
the truth.
No more perfect reproduction of the
! first named has appeared in our day than
| the prohibitionists. ct id omne genus, AFRO
| giant, denunciatory, Ignorant, unscrupulous
and untruthful; holding one meagre frag
| ment of the truth to their eyes, and deny
| ing great and fundamental facts in human
nature, in their foolish and futile endeaN II
| to remedy the perversion of human in
! stincts by eXtirpating them, true children
OF the medieval systems of monastic asceti-
cism which they would fain substitute for
| the freedom OF a regenerated manhood
! The grotesque hypocrisy of the prohi-
! bition system, from Maine to Kansas, is a
sufficient commentary upon their theories
Meantime the endeayors of wiser men and
women TO better the condition-the homes
the domestic life, the recreations-of their
| less favored brethren go untouched oil
| these, fit SUCCESSORS of those TO whom Je-
| sus said, Woe unto you. Scribes and
| Pharisees, hypocrites. for ye bind heavy
burdens upon mems shoulders, and grlev-
| Gus TO the bone and ye yourselves will moi
touch them with the tips of your fingers!
| And over against them. as Of old, are
the modern Sadducees, critical, Indifferent
apathetic. The dissensons OF those whC
are not agreed as to the problems of intem.
perance and its cure are entertaining anC
amusing TO these-and no more
| Yet let me not do them injustice. What
| have said has its considerable and inspir-
| ing qualifications. and men of wealth anG
| intelligence who had originally dismissed
| the saloon question and all that IL in
| wolves as equally hopeless and insoluble
have in recent years. and in some conspic-
uous instances which | need not recall
grappled with the larger problems OF The
housing and bettering OF wage earners II
all the various aspects in which those yari
Gus problems present themselves; and have
done noble and generous things along th'
line OF wiser and more DfolnefIy COnSlu
Grafton for their fellow-men.
But the whole movement is as yet il
its infancy. and waits for guidance. en-
lightenment, and, above all, coordination
As yet we have been but fumbling witt
social problems, whether in this country o.
elsewhere, unable or unwilling. apparently
to recognize that the radical changes in ou
industrial and social conditions which hay,
come 10 pass during this century have
brought with them demands upon wealth
experience. scientific sympathy, and self
sacrifice which the favored classes are al
yet but slow to recognize. The perma
nenCe however, of our present social struc
ture will depend upon their recognition
and of the appreciation of this fact / an
glad TO see that there is daily increasin!
evidence.
''Of course in this larger aspect Of
vast question the saloon is a mere incident
Its causes, its phases. its relation 10 III
home life, as well as the individual life o
communities; the evils that feed it, tn
miseries that support it-a whole host o
questions such as these wait for a con
sideration which as yet they have hardl,
had.
Meantime it may be well to relieve tn
minds of fanatical and hysterical peopl
by saving that there is no one cure 70
so vast a mischief as the saloon stands for
and generally, that, in dealing with hu
manity and its perverted instincts and ap
petites. the divinest teacher that the worl
| has had would seem to have taught US
law OF transformation, as that for the re
generation, whether of society or of tn
evil instincts OF individuals-not extiTpa
J