The Irish standard., 1908-07-18
PROHIBITION IN THE SOUTH.

IN Which Governor Patterson prevailed
over ex-senator Carmack, prohibition
in the South received its first setback
Carmack made his fight on the issue
of state wide prohibition. The cam
paign was carried on with a great deal
OF bitterness. Women and children
paraded the streets and gathered abou:
the polls. All sorts Of sensational ban
ners were made use of. AS usually
happens when inpract:cable rafcrmers
attempt to run things, religion and
politics were confused. False issues
were created. Everyone who failed to
see the wisdom of prohibition was con-
sidered absolutely bad.
1t looks as though prohibition in the
South was going the road Of prohibi-
tiop in New England. not because tho
Southern people are not ready for
reasonable and practicable regulation
OF the liquor traffic, but because those
who are loudest in proclaiming pro-
h:bition are ruled by sort Of hysteria.
Those live who can remember the ex-
rerience of New England with tenn
perance and pharisaism. They can re-
member how religious intolerance
lived and prospered. Prohibition in
Now England failed because Of the
people who advocated it-because its
chief promoters We're hypocrites and
law breakers, engaged In the profitable
pursuits of smuggling and selling
adulterated liquors. New England
had it's dishonest politicians who used
the temperance question for their own
selfish ends. New England had more
than its share of intolerant, pharisaical
preachers, who seized upon the for
eigner's opposition to prohibition as
reason for depriving that foreigner of
the rights Of citizenship. and Of pro-
scribing his religion
The Courier journal, an opponent of
the Southern prohibition movement,
states the case as follows:
OAu III luSdS ol SHuICI
and State. come down from the days
of witch batting and the old paternal-
istic plan of sumptuary religion. ex-
posed and extinguished by Jefferson
in the South, were invoked to dupe tho
weak and prejudiced and sentimental,
while sanctimonious fanaticism and
rank political corruption went hand in
hand to lord 1t over the people. in the
name of God and morality.
"What kind Of government should
We have If such influences as these
came to be common in our political
life? The spectacle of excited women
and children. parading the streets and
gathered about the polls. is both pitt
able and ghastly. II such agencies
fell within ready reach of the manipu-
lators Of elections. the Church would
soon become the school of emotional
insanity. feeding the ranks of political
corruption. One artful. contriving
hysteria would follow another. Our
women and children. under the spell
Of song and prayer. would become the
easy prey Of the fanatic and the de-
signing. and instead of a government
Of law, laid both in justice and in COM
mon sense. we should have a success
sion of crusades and a despotisn, of
politicians and preachers, upon the
surface responsive to the caprices Of
infiamed sentiment, but beneath dom
mated by tyranny and craft. Every
movement to defeat US. therefore,
whether through sumptuary laws or
other mock religious agencies. drag
eing our women and children through
a mire Of politics, under the pretense
Of Christianity. is device Of the
Devil, masquerading as an apostle Of
temperance. precisely as in days gone
by he masqueraded as an apostle Of
the Almighty, burning heretics and
hanging witches in the name of
Christi
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