The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-07
BISHOP POTTER ON PRoHIBI-
 TON.

What are the extreme prohibitionists going to do with Bishop Potter? Hear this expression from a recent address by him:
 Wherever it (prohibition) has triumphed 1t has educated race of frauds and hypocrites. In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont today by actual statistics the consumption of certain preparations Is larger than anywhere else in the coun- try. One of these is sarsaparilla which has IT per cent. of alcohol, another Is a compound with 27 per cent. of alco- hol another Is a bitters with 6l per cent. of alcohol. A good claret has 10 per cent. of alcohol and great multitudes of people who are sworn Prohibitionists are the consumers of these things. We are going to persist in this policy, to securely close all the front doors on Sum day and open the back door; we are going to nurse a race of hypocrites, to furnish an opportunity to a party to eX- act a bonus and to close the door to the manly and Christian method of dealing with intemperance. Prohibition Is an impudent fraud and an impudent fail- ure.
 The Bishop only says in very plain words what many people think who can- not be looked on as enemies or opponents of temperance. What he says of the conditions where prohibitory laws are supposed to be in force is borne out by the records, and he might have added much more if he had been so disposed. He might have put in Kansas as a hor- rid example and not missed the mark, hA oil all nf tra xhnk State is notorious.
 The Bishop punctures another fad which was much exploited by the famous John B. Cough ,and which has been adhered to by all other prohibitionists. That is the habit of speaking of every drunkard as a victim or a martyr. All the blame is laid on those who make and sell strong drinks. while the man who makes a beast of himself is held up to sympathy as If 1t were the custom of the liquor dealers to hold their customers and pour the stuff down their threats. There is little truth and less reason in such arguments. There comes a time perhaps, in the life of confirmed sot when he is to be pitied. because he has reached a point where he has no power to control his appetite and is drunkard because he cannot help it, but intelligent, sensible men who start on the downward road to a drunkard's grave do so of their own free wills. They are not in any sense martyrs and they are not victims of anybody but themselves.
 It is a fact, shown by statistics. that the use of intoxicants is diminishing, but prohibitory laws are nol -.'tled to the credit of it. As men become moro highly civilized and educated they are more inclined to look with dlsfavor on the man who drinks to excess The drinking bouts and contests of bibulous endurance which were once common and fashionable among the very best people of society are no longer popular or tolerable. That there is too much in temperance is true enough and il is un- fortunately true that there are excesses among the best people but such pra ctices are no longer looked on as something to be proud of or to be excused.
 1t Is possible to teach and practice temperance, to show its beauty and desi- rability, and 1t Is a great and good work in any one to point out the dangers and evils of intemperance, and to lead others to shun 1t. but there is a right way to do it. That way is not by holding up the drunkard as martyr, or by branding all who make and deal in liquor as criminals nor by condeInning all who take an occasional drink as thereby placing themselves without the