The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1908-03-06

SlAh bhVoO rhhO AttANG I04lSh 0AuE4 SoN
spell Of his fervid oratory picture the
evils Of inebrity and point to the Ii.
censed saloon as dire menace to
society.
conceding the indlsputable fact
that the lawless saloon is a fruitful
source of human wretchedness, let US
ponder over the proposed cure proh;..
bition.
Assume that in given community
the saloon has just been abolished
What degree OF fulfllment of the
glorious prophecies Of the prohibit.
Zionist has the community a right to
expect, judging from the experience
of other communities in recent and
more remote times? II may be taken
for granted that President Eliot. OF
Harvard University. would not ex.
press himself on such an important
question unless he had studiea the
matter thoroughly. President Eliot
says:
There has been concurrent evil of
prohibltory legislation. The efforts to
enforce it during forty years have
had some unlock editor effects on pub
lie respect for courts, judicial proceed
ing oaths and laws in general. and
for officers of the law, legislators and
public servants. The public has seen
law deGed, a whole generation of ha-
bltual law-breakers schooied in eva
sion and shamelessness,. courts incf-
fective through fluctuations OF policy.
delays, perjuries, negliGencies and 9th
err miscarriages OF justice, officers OF
the law doublefaced and mercenary
Legislators timid and lnsincere. can
didates for Office hypocritical and
trucking, and office holders unfaithful
to pledges and reasonable public ex-
pectatlon. Through an agitation
which has always had moral end,
these immoralities have been develop
ed and made conspicuous"
Abraham Lincoln expressed his
views on the subject as follows:
prohibition will work great injury
to the cause of Temperance. 1t is a
species of intemperance within itself,
for 1t goes beyond the bounds of rea-
son in that it attempts to control a
mans appetite by legislation and in
making crimes out of things that are
not crimes.
"a prohibition law strikes a blow
at the very principles on which our
government was founded"
General U. S. Grant was opposed to
prohibition and gave the following ex-
ample to Illustrate his view of The
matter:
81 know from my own experience
that when l was at West Point the
fact that tobacco in every form was
prohibited and the mere possession
of the weed severely punished, made
majority of the cadets, mysel: in
cluded. try to acquire the habit of
using It."
General Grant died Of a cancer
caused by excessive smoking. the re-
suit Of habit cultivated because of
a prohIbItory rule.
John Quincy Adams said:
"selfgoyernment is the foundation
of all our political and social institu-
lions and it is by selrgoverumcnt
alone that the law of temperate" can
be enforced. Seek not to enforce up
on your brother by legislative enact
ments that virtue which he can pos
sess only by the dictates of his own
conscience and the energy of his own
free will"
Thomas Jefferson laid down the fol-
lowing principles:
mo man has natural right to conn
nit aggression on the equal rights of
another; and this is all from which
the law ought to restrain him: every
man is under the natural duty of con-
tributing to the necessities OF society
and this is all the laws ought TO en-
force on him. When the laws have de-
c1ared and enforced all this they have
fulfilled, their functions and the idea
is quite unfounded that on entering
into society we give up any natural
right"
Jefferson Davis spoke on prohibition
in the following terms:
"our sires rejected all such preten-
sions, their system being: Govern
ment by the people for the people,
resting on natural, inalienable rights
You have already provision for local
prohibition. If it has proved the
wooden horse in which disguised
enemy to State sovereignty us the
guardian OF individual liberty was in
troduced, let it be n warning thut the
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