New-York tribune., 1907-09-12
EFyTrcky AND PROHIBITION.

Colonel NIatterson dssents from some OF the
conclusions of q recent editorial in The Tribune
which attempted to explain the rapid spread
of prohibition sentiment in the South we
Ca He'd attention To address Of the editor OF
The Louisville CourierJournal." delivered at
the Lexington fair, in which be seemed 10 at
tribute tnat growth 10 ''pharisaism and purl-
tanism" and to lament the decay in Kentucky
of old-fashioned tolerance for the ''gentemaniy
vices of the racecouTse and the sideboard
The men who made Kentucky great, Mr. Wat
terson argued. were not afraid 10 admit
bowling acquaintance with "gentlemanly vices
and would have stood aghast at the hypocrisy
and hvsteria" Of an agitation intended 10 re
create the Blue Grass Commonwealth in the
dread image of Maine and kansas.
We suggested that the prohibition movement
in the South differed radically in character
from the movement which succeeded years ago
in Maine Kansas and Iowa. The earlier agI-
tation might have been charged with intol-
erancn and even fanaticism. Its motives were
mainly moral and religious, and il sought 10
crush out the liquor habit not so much because
II was iniurious because II was sinful Inc
newer agitation, we observed. was more Th-
tional and less proscrlptive. II did not try 10
make people sober in order to fulfil any abstract
ideas of personal virtue. II did not attack
the use of LIQUOR as in itself sin, but only
as contrihutorv under certain conditions 10
crime and disorder. We thought paid
deserved compliment 10 the intelligence or the
South when we said It was Influenced to ahan-
don the old traditions Of personal freedom and
whole hearted convivlality by n larger sense
of public duty. If the sale Of liquor destroyed
the efficiency Of labor and tended TO promote
disorder and unrest between the races, then
the South showed only practical sense in en-
couraginC either local option or absolute pro
hihitIon There could he pharisasm or
/ fanaticism in Outlawing n business which
really hampered the South's industrial. political
and social development.
Colonel Watterson says are all wrong
about the motives OF the temperance agitators
in the South generally-Or at least OF those
in Kentucky. He seems TO think these last are
n set of ruthless innovators and hypOcriteS
bent not so much breaking up the liquor
traffic as on riding into office to the discomfort
of the present patriotic and useful incumbents
There are temperance reforIners who. like other
/ refOrmers in Louisville and Frankfort have
got on Colonel Watterson's nerves To these
various rcformers was due the recent upheaval
I'm the louisville municipal administration: for
at their importantly the State Court OF Appeals
declared null and svoid an election duly con
Quoted by and for the benefit of the Louisville
Democratic ring. Separating the tried and
faithful from the municipal salary list Is al
most as hideous an exhibition of pharisaism
as proposing to keep liquor away from the
negro although Colonel Watterson admits that
the latter object. If II could he accomplished by
some other means than prohibition or through
some other instrumentaltv than the prOhihi-
tionistS would be "a good thing" The fault
seems 10 he not so much with the idea with
the handlers of the idea, for these. according
TO the colonel are "the Purltans of religion
and the blackcgs of politics" We were not
disposed to think that Kentucky had been
puritanized rs we'll Reckh9mized, and
should be glad to believe that the picture was
not So black as Colonel WattersOn paints II.
We imagined that he indicted only the politi-
clans and not the people of Kentucky when he
recently declared that state to he ''the worst
Governed in the Union.