The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1909-08-26


through other agencies. In undertake
ing temperance reform work along any
line. we must learn to be patient, ana
to be modest in our expectations. we
must bear in mind that temperance
reform is very largely matter OF
moral and social evolution.
Liquor legislation must necessarily
follow one of two general policies. 1t
NAV aim at the abolition Of the liquor
traffic, or at the regulation OF the
traffic. These two policies are extreme
opposites at every point and IN every
feature The object Of one is to XIII,
that of the other is to cure. 1t IS on
this broad question of general policy
that the people are divided today.
No legislative system has ever been
more extensively nor fairly tested than
that of prohibition. During the last
sixty years it has been tried on the
statewide scale in many different Sec
tions of the country and under the most
diverse social and political conditions,
the periods of trial ranging from three
wears in Nebraska to ffty-three years
in Vermont. By it's record, by what
it has done and by what it has not
DONE prohibition must be judged. On
every page of that record, from begin
ming to end, are written the words fail
ure, folly, farce. Nowhere and at no
time, in all it's history, has prohibi-
ton accomplished a single one OF its
avowed objects. Nowhere has it abol-
ished the liquor traffic; nowhere has it
prevented the consumption of liquor
nor lessened the evil of intemperance.
Neither as a statewide system nor
under local option has prohibition ever
made the slightest contribution toward
the solution Of the liquor problem. The
one solitary service that it has rem
dered to society is that Of furnishing
warning example of the supreme folly
Of attempting to legislate virtue into
men s lives.
There could be no stronger evidence
of the failure Of prohibition than the
fact that seven of the eight states that
adopted the system fifty years ago,
have since abandoned it and gone back
to the policy of license and regulation.
The people of these states adopted pro-
hibition in good faith. They honestly,
and earnestly desired to wipe out in
temperance. They realized that intem
perance was directly or Indirectly the
cause of much crime, poverty and dis
ease; that it was a financial burden
on the state; and that it was a
hindrance to material prosperity and
to moral progress. They thought it
was better policy to abolish than to
license and regulate traffic that
seemed to them to be the root and
source Of this evil. Now, to claim that
prohibition was even measurably sue
cessful in these states, that it accom-
plished even little good, is to insult
the intelligence of the people of New
England. No sensible person can be-
lieve that these seven states would
have deliberately repudiated system
that they had adopted in high hopes
and with high moral purpose, if they
had found that that system was MAX
ing for sobriety, prosperity and good
citizenship.
In view of the fact that it is always
easier to secure the enactment than the
repeal Of laws Of a reputed moral pur-
pose, the reputation of prohibition by
these states is all the more significant.
The only conclusion consistent with
reason and common sense is that the
people, after years of bitter expert
ence, found that they had built on false
hopes, and that conditions were not
only no better but far worse under pro-
hibition than they had been under the
license system. It is also very sig
! nificant that the states that were swept
off their feet by the prohibition wave
~AAoJ y oe~Ao oSoj d1C tuOS0 states
that are being least affected by the
present agitation. And even Maine,
which is the only one of these states
that has retained prohibition all these
years, is actually showing unmistak-
able signs of genuine repentance. It
is conceded on all sides that decisive
verdict against prohibition would have
been rendered at the last state cleo
ton in Maine, when resubmission was
prominent issue, if it had not been
for the fact that it was a presidential
year. Prohibition is generally least
popular where it is best known.
If prohibition really prohibited, the
fact ought to be reflected in the figures
OF the United States revenue depart.
ment. But, according to the govern
ment reports, the use of alcoholic
liquors actually increases with the
spread of prohibition. In 1893. the
year the Anti-Saloon league was organ.
lied, the per capita consumnt;on ~