The Democratic advocate., 1909-07-23
DANGER OF sUMPTUARY LAWS.
Instead of Lawful Regulation, They
Beget Unlawful Evasion.

We have seen how prohibition
works in Maine. We are seeing how
it works in Georgia. We shall see
how it works in Tennessee and Ala
bama. For awhile, dare say, it will
keep whisky from the negro-at least,
make it harder for the negro to ger
it. But it will not abate, for nowhere
has it abated the drink habit among
the whites. Instead of lawful regu-
lation, it will beget unlawful evasion.
For plain intoxicants it will substi-
tute poisoned intoxicants. Snug
Cling, extortion and adulteration will
become-there as elsewhere-accept-
ed agencies. In place of the saloon,
which, as we know it, is an indefen-
sible quantity, but may be regulated,
if we see fit, and the sale of drink
open and above board under statutory
enactment, we shall have the various
forms of outlawTy and hypocrisy
which laws, repugnant to the habits,
sentiments and opinions of great
bodies of the people always provoke.
In the long run this is not the worst
of it. Beyond and above these things,
the establishment in any community
of a policy resting upon disputed
code of public morality and individu-
al conduct, and looking for it's sup
port to inf1amed appeals to religious
feeling, generates not only pharasaism
but tyranny. 1t arouses passion and
promotes collision by assailing what
free men regard as private property
and personal rights, and, by bringing
the church and the state nearer to-
gether, if not reuniting them, it in
eyitabIy corrupts the fountains of JUS
tice and law by eliminating reason
and enthroning emotion. We know
at what cost slavery was abolished.
Upon the ruins of slavery have arisen
other new and direful evils. The at
tempt even to seem to abolish the use
of alcoholic beverages in Kentucky
must begin by extinguishing many
hundreds of millions of dollars of
property and revenue. The property
was honestly acquired. 1t is lawfully
possessed. Directly it employs and
sustains at least 100000 people; in
directly 100000 more. 1t brings to
the State many millions Of dollars Of
foreign money which enters the gen.
eral reservoir and makes for the pros
perity of the people at large. Annih1-
late these millions of property, income
and revenue, as the Anti-Saloon
League proposes to do, and what do
we gain in lieu of them? Immensely
increased taxation, to start with, and,
after that, precisely what they have
gained in Maine-for every saloon
that pays taxes, speakeasy that pays
none; for every dollar of revenue and
income cut off from the people and
the public treasury, a dollar Of tr1b-
ute to the smuggling express company
or the contraband road agent; for
every man who sells drink, an out
law; for every man who takes a
drink, a liar and 1awbreaker; the po-
Iitical preacher and the raScally poll
tician in alliance, the one to dispose
of corner lots in Heaven according to
his ignorance or his venality, the
other to roll his eyes sanctimoniously
In the direction of Heaven, to hold
office and to control the clandestine
disposition of drink-Just as they have
done in the State of Maine for nearly
go years.
He who calls the peoples attention
to circumstances and considerations
which cannot be denied is at once de-
nounced as a friend of whisky and the
as an enemy of religion
and temperance; if not a drunkard
outright, as a hired man of the dis
tilleries, breweries and saloons. 1t
is of a piece with the rejoinder of the
Southern radical in the old slavery
debates that, if you were in favor OF
freedom, you wanted to marry mig
ger. Sentimental extremism has no
other answer when confronted with
the inexorable facts of experience
and the inevitable deductions of logic.
Each civil district in a county
should be it's own judge. Each pre-
cinct in a city should be it's own
Judge. The hotels and clubs, like the
private dwellings, should be their own
judges. If a man wants to take a
drink, let him take 1t like a man,
and not like a sneak. If drink is to
be sold, as it is bound to be, no mat
ter what statutes are leveled against
it, let'it pay taxes to the States, coun-
ty and city, not contribute to the sup
port of a clerico-political alliance. de-
irving it's power from fraud, outlawry
and the spy system.-Henry Waiter
son, in Louisville Courier-Journal.