The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1908-03-06
THE ELY MINER-AD. March 6, 1908.
e POSITION OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
and OTHER CLERGYMEN WITH
REGARD TO PROHIBITION.
Baltimore SUM-

IN the Sun on Tuesday Cardinal Glib
ms made a statement of his position
the question of prohibition, which
clear and explicit, and not capable
being misunderstood, and the effort
show that he has occupied differ
t position must fail in having any
feet upon the public or the legisla-
ure. After declaring that "local OPP
lion should under no circumstances
apply to this CITY," the cardinal said:
when law is f1agrantly and habit
ually violated 1t brings legislation into
contempt. 1t creates spirit of decep-
ton and hyprosy and compels men to
do insidiously and by stealth what
they would otherwise do openly and
'bove board.
"All good men-good citizens-are in
avor of the virtue of temperance, and
he question has not been sufficiently
by civil action into the performance
Of good and righteous deeds.
IF we are to improve the morality Of
,ur city and make our citizens more
emperate, let the virtue of temper
nee be proclaimed in the churches.
Above all, let 1t be enforced in the
'amily that parents, both by word and
example. may inculcate in their chill
lren the temporal and spiritual bless
ings which spring from life of tenn
oerance and sobriety; and let them
impress upon their children the terri
Die consequences of drunkenness"
These are the words and sentiments
# man of great piety, of long ex-
1erience and of careful observation,
who is at the same time one of the
strongest agencies for the temperance
,ause in our city. Similar views have
,een expressed by clergymen of the
episcopal church, of the Lutheran
hurch and of the Jewish faith. 1t is
1anifestly preposterous, therefore,
or the advocates of prohibition to ex-
hit prohibition as a moral issue. The
rohibitionists, we cheerfully concede,
re excellent, sincere and conscien-
ious people, but there are Christians
nd Jews as good as they, and as
arnestly in favor of temperance as
hey are, who believe that temperance
annot be enforced or even promoted
~ prohibitory laws in a great city.
cardinal Gibbons, In the exercise of
lis ecclesiastical duties, confirms each
ear multitude of children. He ex-
cts from each one Of them a pledge
abstain from strong drink until, at
east, the age Of twenty-one years is
cached. This Is a practical temper
,nce agency Of more value than can
re estimated. These children have
not acquired the taste for drink and
hey have no difficulty in keeping the
pledge, and IL they reach the age Of
.wenty-one without drinking, the
chances are that thereafter they will
lot acquire the habit so as to lose self
control. In the Episcopal church and
every home of people who hold to
hat faith the children are taught from
their earliest infancy to keep their
oodies in temperance. soberness and
chastity" and in all the churches the
same moral principle is inculcated.
This is the true way to fight the evil
If drunkenness, and not the lawmak-
ing and denuneiation and attempting
o array church against church and
ne incessant propagation of strife.
That drunkenness Is a great vice
annot be any proof that the mere act
If using strong drink is a crime. The
use of opiates to promote sleep is a
still more dangerous practice, but no
one has argued from that fact that 1t
is crime to take dose of paregoric.
In Europe and in this country there
are millions of sincere Christians who
use wine and other alcoholic liquors
without abusing them. No one de.
nounced drunkenness more sternly
than the Savior of mankind, and yet
he used wine to such an extent that
the Pharisees of that day reproached
Him as a gluttonous man and wine
bibber. And the race of Pharisees is
not yet extinct. More than this, the
Saviour selected wine as "the outward
and visible sign" in the most sacred of
the sacraments, and commanded men
for all time to drink 1t in his memory.
His first miracle was the turning of
water into wine.
With these things in the knowledge
of all Christian men, the prohibition of
the sale of liquor as a moral issue
must be dismissed aud the subject
considered in a spirit of sobefness,
emperance and charity as an econom-
end political question and as one of
ractical wisdom and expediency. Let
de CHURCH uSdl Will luC mural SluC VI
t. Earnest ministers of the gospel
surely will be slow to admit that the
church is too feeble or tas Indifferent
to do its work, but must appeal to the
secular power for help.
The issue OF eXpediency involves
the question whether prohibition will
prohibit. 1t has never, we believe,
been tried in any city as large as Bal.
timore. But in cities where it has
been tried the evidence entirely JUST.
fies the opinion of Cardinal Gibbons
that liquor would be said here quite
as abundantiy under prohibition laws
as under we'll regulated license" If
this is true-apd we have no doubt of
it-what would be the effect of pro-
hibitions It would relieve the liquor
business of the tax of more than half
a million dollars 1t now pays; 1t would
transfer the business to lawbreakers
and to dark alleys and lure young men
to place infinitely worse than the IL
censed and regulated saloon; it would
afford the opportunity of corrupt poll
tieians to trade with the Illicit bust
ness by granting protection in return
for graft" promoting political cor