The Newtown bee., 1905-01-20
C. q. M. TAKES AHAND.
IN THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN o. o.
 W. AND REFORMER.

IN THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN o. o.
 W. AND REFORMER.
 The little exchange of compliments between Rev o. o. Wright and Re former to a controversy which is about as old as history and yet always new as the day on which the subject is dis cuSSed. The recent publication re- fer to curiously illustrates the fact that the wider mans contact is with weak and diseased men and women, the broader is his humanity and the less he is apt to set inflexible standards for others to live up to. Who of us can fail of one sort of admiration for an aScetic, however unwise his choice of an object of denial may be, but who of us does not admire as truly great CT man he who is temperate in all things? For when an aScetic, after deciding that a certain course must be denied himself, makes an attempt to force all others to his own pet denial, does he not thereby become as intem- perate in his denial as the most de- graded SOt in town is in his indulgence? Permit me, however, to make few suggestions from a standpoint which is neither that of the shepherd whose duties are largely in the cares of his flock nor the aScetic who would deny to others by legal enactment that which he judges wrong for himself.
 AS a lawyer l have my attention called over and over again to the queS tiOn of laws and their enforcement, whether by the State against crimi- nal, or by one individual in his at- tempt to force another to deal justly with him. In this country laws are nothing but the specialization of pub lie sentiment, and if the crystals are nodded by artificial pressure outside, they will drop apart like dry salt when the pressure is removed. If the laws of nature are followed in forming the crystals of law they will stand like the the material from which they are built.
 Legislation by State prohibiting the sale of liquor within it's bounda- rieS is artificial in that it is never SUD- ported by an undivided or even an Over- | whelming public sentiment, and per hapS the best proof of this is the ire quency of it's breaking down where ever it is tried. Local option, it is true, has in some instances enforced prohibitive act, but that is because cryStalliZed law is formed by the nat ural and not the artificial method. l think 1 am correct in saying that there is not town in a prohibition State where anyone who wants to buy liquor cannot buy it. It may be, and often is, difficult to buy it for medicine, but it will be easy to get it as beverage. The right word in the right place to show that the prospective purchaser is not seeking evidence of violation but is really after the drink, will produce hnt Ho " I q soda fountain and being thirsty asked the clerk to "make it wet" merely in- tending to get less frOth and more SO- da. l thought the flavor was very poor, but did not realize till was go- ing out that had accidently used the lingo phrase for brandy. I know, also, of one town in a prohibition State where the man who wants "hard" drink goes into the hardware store and calls for 'galvanized tacks" if he wants whiskey, or 'brown shoe pegs" if he necessary is to know the lingo to Ob- tain what you want, but if stranger in the grip of a sudden collie needed whiskey for medicine and had not the lingo he could die before getting it.
 It is an old saw that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make
 him drink. So there are many well , meaning persons who may be led up tc
 fact but who cannot be made to ac'
 cept it. (The reason for refusal being
 the same in both caSes.) The fact is as simple and as natural and as whole
 some as the water, namely, that pro , hibition does not prohibit. Since it ii
 the fact that general prohibitive statute does not prevent liquor selling
 is a license law, where the State re , covers from liquor sellers portion o1
 the damage they cause the State, not . better than a prohibitive law under
 which the sale continues and the law: . are laughed at? The liquor is sold ir
 both cases, in one under State super v vision, in the other by the license o l pect of the prohibitive law is it's in
 fiuences on our boys who learn that { l law may be on the statute bCOxS ant
 have no effect except to increase th' v profits of law breakers. Is thlS not in
 tinitely worse than to have law, les n ideally perfect, which is respected ant
 enforced? Liquor, it is true, send - many votarieS to jail for minor offen
 ses and causes much misery among r. what should be our homes, but cal
 anyone trace the majO criminals wh D are there because, they have broker
 one law after another until they hay n learned that there is personal profit il
 law breaking? Liquor makes misery n badly enforced laws make hardened
 criminals. It is safe to say that neg k lected laws, or half enforced laws O
 minor subjects have been the school n ing of ninety nine out of a hundred o r. our major criminals in stheir inditfel
 ence to murder and crimes of violence n The temptation of the first drink c
 liquor to further indulgence canno n compare to the vicious and insidiou
 temptation to personal profit tha n every boy meets many times in tn
 year. "Yes, it is against the law, bu T. the law is not enforced" All of Ou
 statutory nonsense where there is n a. strong public opinion or inherent reg
 son to enforce the statutes as the