The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-09-15
VIII Prohibitien Prohibit.


In answering this question, Will
Prohibition Prohibit?, we must give
attention not only to the experiences
OF the past in other states, counties,
and cities, where 1T has been given
a fair trial, but also we must con-
slider the sentiment of the times. This
important change in public opinion on
economic, civic and civil questions
has taken place within the last few
years and We must give full value to
the experience of past failures.
Laws Prohibit, But Do Not Prevent,
Murder, Theft, Arson, etc.
The laws on our statute books are
enforced more or less perfectly as
they are more or less approved and
supported by the people. But the most
popular of these laws of which men
almost unanimously approve are fire.
quently broken, as, for instance, the
laws against larceny, arson, murder,
bigamy and the carrying of concealed
weapons, etc.
Concealed Weapons.
The laws against the sale of intox-
icating liquors can and will be en-
forced as perfectly as any of those
tons, and no further If we take as
an example the laws against the car
rying of concealed weapons in COM
munity where individuals had been
permitted to carry them at pleasure,
and even where the licensed mer-
chant under keen and expensive COM
petition had urged their merits as a
tonic, their necessity to preserve
health, and the pleasure of carrying
pistol, and undertake to put this
law into effect on a given date
Does any sane man believe that
each and every pistol toter'' VIII lay
his gun on the shelf and not carry
/ it again? Hardly
And yet the advocates of the wet
/ side of this controversy express them
selves as expecting this very thing,
and this in the face of lawless sa-
loon element that boasts of its ability
to so frequently and fagrantly vio-
late the law that this county, in self
defense, will admit 1t is whipped and
return to the open saloons at the very
first opportunity-two years hence.
Is not this conspicuous example
of the lawless minority threatening
the lawful and law-abiding majority ?
Should not all abiding citizens. be
they wet or dry, take alarm at such
threats of lawlessness and anarchy
and rise in their might anc manhood
and stamp such sentiment out OF
our community at once, decidedly and
forever? Good citizenship demands
that this be done.
Readjustments to new and radical
conditions take time. It Is absurd to
think that no whiskey will be sold
| after prohibition goes into erect, but
its sale will be so handicapped and
dangerous under the laws of Florida
that this illicit sale will gradually die
| out.
How About Mormonism7
Again, take. the case or organized
! b.gamy in this country as represented
! by the Mormon church. How many
years were required to suppress this
great evil in the face of strong pub
1 lie sentiment against it, and with the
! power of congress and the United
I States government behind it? Yet we
all see that plural marriages in that
| organization in this country are a
thing of the past.
To say that prohibition does not
prohibit is to say that the majority
does not only not rule, but are law
breakers themselves in that they fail
to enforce the will of the people.
1t is to say that the people cannot
enforce the laws they themselves
make
1t is to say that the failures and sue
cesses of past efforts have no values
as a guide for the future in handling
! this question. How many thousand
of the brilliant achievements of the
present day, in invention, in research
and discovery, have been the result
| of the dismal failures of first efforts
1t is to say that we will not and Go