Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1903-01-30
RRAT JANUARY 30 1903
PROHIBITORY LAW UNJUST.
AND CONDUCIVE TO NO REAL GOOD BUT
RATHER OF EVIL TENDENCY.
A Review of These Tendencies From the Be-
ginning Of the World-Prohibitive DEGREES
Being Tyrannical Only Arouse Defiance and
Incite to Law Breaking.


Incite to Law Breaking.
In dealing with this question 1t
should be borne in mind that the use
of iptoxicants is not vice, but per-
fectly proper enjoyment of great phys
ical. intellectual and moral benefit to
the individual, and of inestimable
ethical and material advantage to So
cietv: that the abuse of inebriatlng
liquors is vice, and that while society
is warranted in protecting ltseli
against the effects of inebriety, the
method of such protection should not
in the least affect the liberty of action
of the drinker, but should hold the
drunkard responsible for such harm as
he may do to others.
1t should be considered that all laws
aimed against the proper use of intoXl-
cants are unjust, because detrimental
to the happiness and well-being OF the
majority; that they are immoral, be-
cause they create a host of law break
ers: that they are tyrannical. because
they infringe upon the personal liberty
of all: that they are economically per
nicious, because they aim to destroy
many branches of industry and agri-
culture, in which enormous sums of
money are invested and upon which
thousands of skilled and unskilled la
borers depend for livelihood and,
finally, that they are socially danger
Gus, inasmuch as they do away with
MANY opportunities for recreation and
popular amusement, and thus destroy
The very means by which social ad-
iNn of
fected.
There is not an age, however far re
moved from our time, when intemper-
ance was not complained of as an evil
with more or less grave consequences
and to prove, Furthermore, that restrlc-
tive laws, although as old nearly as
mankind, have failed to attain their
end. There is not sumptuary law
proposed in modern times for which
prototype cannot be found IN the
worlds history; not one measure, ad-
vocated either by prohibitionlsts or
temperance apostles, that has not been
put in execution before. And still IN
temperance prevails tod day, as 1t dld
in the old time when Noah got drunk,
Among all such laws none have failed
more signally than those of prohihi-
tory character, whether they related
TO the use Of fruit, drink, or OF tobac-
co. They either proved totally abor-
tive, or led to vices incomparably more
pernicious than those which they were
intended to cradiGK,t. The seYcrest
punishment, even the death penalty,
failed to deter man from following
that mysterious instinct which rem
dered the Creators prohibition fail
ure. The DEGREES Of the most absolute
despots of modern or ancient times,
did not stop the use of tobacco, al
though mutilation of the body, life
long Imprisonment and even death
were the punishmentS meted out TO Of
Tenders.
Prohibition only proved successful
when il assumed the form of rellg-
ious tenet. as in the case of Mabomet ;
decree, and then it gave rise to evils
compared with which drunkenness
seems almost like a virtue. The fun
damental condition of the success of
prohibition would be complete met
amorphosis of mans moral and physl-
cal constitution. Prohibition pre-
supposes an unnatural condition OF
man, and is, therefore, an imposslbll-
ity. The history of the past demon
strates this: the events of the present
bear il out. Notwithstanding all that
has been said and written to the con
trary. it is a matter of positive Official
record, that prohibition does not, IN
our time prohibit in any sense. IN
der no circumstances has the liquor
traffic ever. in any instance, been abGl-
ished as the law ordains. The only
sure and inevitable result has been,
and is. that the secret traffic becomes
all the more obnoxious, all the more
dangerous to the security and moral
ity of society, in proportion as the
mode of executing the laws grows more
tyrannical, more subyerslve OF those
principles of personal liberty over
which every citizen naturally watches
with the greatest solicitude. The IN
/ Justice of the law frequently produces
that spirit of defiance, which manl-
tests itself at all hazards. 1t does not
happily, stop the use of stlmulants,
but it unfortunately encourages the
abuse of them: it corrupts the drinker
whom no human or divine law can
deter from indulging his appetite. and
creates contempt for the law in all.
A man who votes for prohibition
without himself being an abstainer,
makes himself guilty of falsehood,
lust as he who votes for it from CON
viction is guilty of tyrannical purpose,
as far as the personal liberty of his
neighbor is concerned. Thus false.
hood and tyranny are the parents OF
prohibition.
Under the proposed law, placing the
/ LIQUOR traffic under rational restrlc-
tions. thousands of the lowest grog-
geries will be swept away, and 1t VIII
/ be thus again demonstrated that pro
] hibition. far from sitting the craving
/ for strong drink and destroying oppor-
tunities for gratifying that craving,
calls forth more drinking places than
/ the wants of reasonably regulated com
munities would justify under ordinary
circumstances. All the pernicious re
suits of prohibition are in full bloom
in Vermont. Fermented beverages are
little used. but distilled liquors OF
the worst quality find ready sale ev-
erywhere, and perhaps account Tor
much pauperism and insanity. The
rich and well to- do are not greatly In
convenienced by prohibition. but if II
infringed upon their personal rights as
il does upon those of the poor, whom
il compels to become the customer OF
low dives, doubtless there would be a
verv energetic antipathy to prohibi
tion among that class. Prohib.
On page ii Of Brattleboro's fourth
annual town report, issued in 1861. II
is reported that the town agency lost
e1-J A foot npta saws that Ftbe loss