Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1902-01-09
Intemperancs In Drink and Speech.
Philadelphia Press.

Philadelphia Press.
Bishop Potter, of New York, in speak
ing before the Church Club of that city
few days ago on the question of Sunday
saloons, is reported to have remarked:
"Wherever prohibition has triumphed II
has educated race of frauds and hypo-
critics. = Prohibition is an impu-
dent fraud. 1t Is an impudent failure"
AS these utterances have been widely re-
ported and Bishop Potter has not seen fit
to disown them it can be- taken for grant
ed that the words ascribed to him are sub
stantially the ones he used.
There is an intemperauce of language as
well as of drink, and Bishop Potter can be
Justly accused of the former offense. Pro-
hibition has its enemies as we'll as its advo-
Gates. The latter claim too much for it,
and most of the former refuse to give the
credit that belongs to it. That prohibi-
ton of the liquor traffic can stop the
drinking or even the sale of intoxicants
no fairly informed man believes. That it
puts check upon such sales and removes
the saloon from the open, conspicuous
place it occupies in licensed towns and
cities to the back alley and the darkened
room is known. That the failure to en-
force prohibition produces some hypocrltes
is true. That it produces race OF them
is not true. Prohibition has been in force
in Maine for nearly fifty years. A gener-
alton and half of men have grown up
under ii. But Bishop Potter would find
no more "frauds and hypocrites" in that
State, in proportion, than he would find
in any community that licenses the liquor
traffic. He would probably find fewer.
Probably no law that was ever passed
has failed to breed some frauds and hypo-
critics. Every man who breaks or evades
those laws becomes, in so far, a hypocrite.
No law is more generally evaded than the
one relating to taxes or personal property.
1t has doubtless been productive Of more
false oaths and hypocrisy than any other
law, perhaps all other laws together. II
Bishop Potter on any Sunday should de-
nounce as hypocrites all those guilty OF
such hypocrisy he would be in danger OF
reducing his congregation to small dmen-
sions. They may be permitted in Maine
to sell sarsaparilla with IL per cent. of al
cohol in it, while they are denied the right
to sell claret with only III per cent. of al
cohol in it, but that does not prove that
prohibition is not the best method OF deal
ing with the liquor problem in that State,
any more than the fact that the fashiona'
ole gambling which is known to exist
among DIR. Potter's Pensioners proves
that there should be no law prohibiting
gambling.
There are many methods OF dealing with
the liquor problem and each Of them has
its earnest and faithful advocates. Some
prefer prohibition. Others believe that
high license or low license is the better
method. And still others advocate the
Gottumber system, which is practically
the same as the dispensary system in
force in South Carolina. All, however,
will agree that drunkenness is a curse and
that liquor drinking is one of the most
| fruitful sOurcps Of crime But which is
the best method of dealing with the prob
lem has not been finally determined. And
so long as no one remedy can be asserted
to be infallibly the best or any one is in
fallibly proved to be the worst, it may not
be charitable to praise Unexpectedly or
condemn any plan.