The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1909-04-08
Prohibition Injurious to Business.


That prohibition does not operate
to increase the volume of business
and does not add to the material
prosperity of the people is evidenced
by the report of the controller of the
currency for 1907. AS shown by that
report, the average per capita bank
deposits in the state of Maine was
$254.57, which was the lowest Of all
of the New England states; in Kan
sas it was $126.30, as against $192.14
in Nebraska, and in North Dakota it
was $12S69 as against $150.64 in
South Dakota
(See report of the controller CT the
currency for 1909
1t is not necessary for us to con-
suit records or look for proofs be-
yond our own observation and exper-
fence to enable us to reach a correct
conclusion upon the question of pro-
hibition. / ask each of you to take a
census, in your own minds, of all of
your aCquaintances and determine to
your own satisfaction what percent
age of the number of all those you
know have become lost to self-con-
troll by the immoderate or excessive
use of intoXicants. Is that percent
age not infinitesimally small? Is it
in 100000 as reported by the CEN
sus department? And even though
it might be l in 100, is it right that
we should attempt to regulate the
personal conduct and prescribe the
| diet and drinks of the SO merely be-
| cause one cannot control his appe-
| tite? An appetite that may have
come to him by inheritance from an
ancestor through the well defined
channel of heredity? Is that the sort
of personal liberty that was guaran,
teed to us by the fundamental law
And when our prohibition friends
have succeeded in depriving us oi
those beverages which we occasion
| ally enjoy, if we please, even without
harm to ourselves or to society, and
they look for new worlds to conquer
will not dyspepsia invite them, in the
interest of humanity, to organize 6
crusade to prohibit the use of those
articles of diet which are caluculated
to induce indigestion and add to the
mortality rate to which dyspepsia is
already a liberal contributor? Ther
the hard boiled egg will meet its
doom, even though our prohibition
friends shall inoculate the hens witt
the virus of prohibition to prevent
them from laying, or kill the roosters
before they have grown their tai
feathers.
The recent publication of contribu
tions from the very able and i'm
partial pens of such men as Randolph
Churchill, who has made himself ;
student of the liquor problem in Hol
land, Switzerland and Germany anC
. other European provinces; Mr.. Hol
man Day, who writes to Harperi
Weekly of Names Mockery Of Pro
hibition;" the utterances of such emf
nent church prelates as Cardina
Gibbons, DR.. Lyman Abbott and on
own beloved and eminently respected
, Archbishop Messmer, with the man,
: other equally celebrated moralists ant
religious teachers of this day, Ough
to have great weight with the unde
cided upon the question of prohibi
, tion.
When you say to the men of thi
! nation that they cannot do thos
. things which in their hearts the!
know they may do without injury t
r the rights of others, you are maxim
, direct appeal to their CombatiVenes
: and summOning them to resistance
: They will not submit to unjust an
6 unwarranted interference with thei
personal prerogatives. This wave c
o sentiment that spread across the col
tinent will recede when those carrie
on it's crest are brought face to fac
with the stern fact that it is onl
sentiment; that deficits in Tevenu
r must be made good from direct taxes
@ that substantial and objectionable il
n jury is being wrought to propert
h rights; that prohibition, in its pra'
q tical application, has always bee
!. and always will be an abject failur,
q and above and beyond all, that it
g an infraction of the most sacre
| ~ nf he oft