The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-09-13


ciples of legislation. Like DEGREES to
regulate religious creeds, or forms OF
worship, they provoke resistance
where they are designed to force ODE
dience. Temperance, like other virtues,
Is not produced by legislation, but by
the influence of education, morality
and religion.
Prohibition repudiates the right of
personal freedom, though self-govern-
ment is the foundation of all our po-
litical and social institutions. 1t is
by self-government alone that the law
of>temperance can be enforced We
should not seek TO enforce upon an
other by legislative enactments, that
virtue which he may possess only by
the dictates of his own conscience and
the energy Of his own free will
The laws under which men are pun
ishable can have no moral value I'M
less the appeal can also be made to
the conscience of men. A well regu-
lated system of license, by which
revenue is brought into the treasury,
coupled with severe penalties for
Illicit sales. provides the most eff
hcient check upon the abuse of the
liquor traffic Laws that attempt TO
fOist sumptuary regulations become
and impossible of execu-
ton, and in those communities where
they have been enacted, they have
aggravated the evil, where intended
to prevent, or have fallen into con-
tempt and uselessness. The Holy
Scripture and the history of the
church are, alike without warrant for
prohibition.
In regarding civilization from its
earliest history down to the present
hour, where can a people be found of
strength and progress who could not
be trusted to regulate their personal
daily habits? Prohibition has been
enacted in Massachusetts,, thoroughly
tried, and repealed by its sponsors as
a confessed failure. Before the evils
OF intemperance can be Suppressed by
legislative enactments, natural laws
must be repealed. AS long as the soil
produces fruit and grain ardent spirits
will be manufactured and used as
beverage. The attempt to regulate
the appetite of people cannot be sue
cessful and the sooner any commun-
ity realizes that fact the better for It
To destroy individual liberty and
moral responsibility, which prohibi-
ton seeks to do, would be to eradi-
cate one evil by the substitution of
another. The abuse, and not the use
of stimulsnts, it must be confessed, is
the evil to be remedied and l do not
believe that sumptuary laws ever had
any effect to stop abuses. If any,
thing has been proved by a third OF |
century of prohibition. it is that it !
dpes not prohibit drunkenness. 1t
prevents the regulation of the Hquon |
traffic and the collection of revenue.
but it does not prevent the excessive |
and demoralfzing use of liquor in open |
and eXultant violation of law
Prohibition makes more drunkards. |
and wherever it succeeds in securing
coercive legislation against liquors, it |
sweNs the tide of inebriety London, |
Chicago and New York, which are |
without prohibition, have respectively |
only seven, thirteen and twenty-three |
drunkards per thousand. while Port
land, Me-, the classic prohibition city.
has forty-two.
In conclusion, 1 affirm, that to my
mind, the physician who would
seriously advocate decapitation as a
cure for headache would be no more
a monstrosity than is the fanatic that
seriously advocates prohibition as a
cure for drunkenness.
C.. U. PORTER.