The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-04
PROHIBITION A FAILURE.

The Advertiser though reSlee'ii.S
+h.t tho visiting Prohibition1sts shouiu
have seen fit to attack the chai az
and work of Francis Murphs' 10 A
io,,s that they should be given every
obance 70 afford this City anu liiese
islands complete object lessons eoUu
themselves and their metnoos'
have ALWAYS held that Pronipltloh ooo
not and cannot prohibit save IN sliiaii
,-,,raI communities where every Iiah 10
bis neighbor's Waterman ana WheIe NO.
oven a Whit of tobacco can De ufaw Il
without public cognizance; anu we NC
l;eve that it is impossible, IN such
seanort as this, to either make OF en-
force any sumptuary laws WhalsoeNei'
Now if the visiting Prohlbluonlsts Can
nrove otherwise so far as HaWali 10
concerned, the Advertiser wants tneil
to have the chance. The time Is ripe
for the Legislature, which can pass
apv LIQUOR bill or anti-l1quor Dill the'
pleases it, is about to meet; alreaoy the
community has been aroused ABOUT
temperance; the churches are open 70
the reformers and owing to the Climate
outside. winter meetings are practica-
BILE: saloons ,hereN are few ana their
character is we'll known. There never
was a fairer field for Prohibitionlsts 10
,,orL in than this one-at least not from
their point of view. Now let US see
what the visiting leaders Will 40
with it9
:asJf predictions areyin order We venture
70 saw that the net results of the WORK
Of these people, no matter now ioiis
they NAV labor and talk, will be repre-
scented by a cipher. They may, indeed
make some money; most of the Ianaties
of the Kansas school have thrifty SOUS
and lose no chance to line their pockets
-b,it they will close no saloons, stop no
drinking, convert no rum-seliers anu
change no laws. The liquor problem
has been worked out here along I'M Is
of high license, by wise ana palieh'
men-men who go to church ana rear
their families in moral atmosphere
Our laws have made this the most or
Derby and well-managed of all cosmo-
politan seaports; and those laws VIII
not be lightly changed to suit the the
cries of some money-grabblng scoiu
fresh from the abuse of Mckinney as
the "rum-seller of the Philippines, Oh
the crude notions of man self-1mport-
ed from a California Anti-Saloor
League, which has probably never
closed the door OIL d ''Ai''i
in that bottle-infested State.
These predictions are based upon TIT
facts that the Hawaiian Islands are in
habited by mixed races which Will no
submit to any sumptuary law; tina
the party controlling the Legislature Il
of a sort that could not be argued int
passing such a law; that the white resi-
dents if united, could not enact sucl
al
very small fraction of them would car
to try the experiment. Under such cir
cumstances it is a sheer waste of tim
to start a Prohibition crusade in Ha
wall: that is to say, waste of tim
for everybody but the lecturer with
collection box. Look back on the Hal
lenback venture and say II TINS
not so?
Moral suasion'' is the policy whic
brings results here. as the Murph
movement shows. Mr.. Murphy cause
many men to stop drinking voluntar;,
and that is the only way they ever wi
stop. His way is the Gospel wa!
Christ and his apostles did not foun
Christianity on the ruins of heathe
temple and Jewish synagogue. He an
they did not ask for laws shutting u
those places of alien worship; but me
were induced to turn their backs o
them and come to hear the claims {
the new and higher faith. How di
Luther's Reformation succeed? b
shutting up Roman Catholic churcht
and abolishing the Pope? Not so.
was by opening Protestant church'
and inviting men to worship in ther
1t is along these lines that Franc
Murphy has done his mighty work; it
by taking contrary ones that the Pr
hibitionists have made so many FOOLS
plumbers and brought themselves
that vindictive state of mind which
a confession of the failure of the
work