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


clple, but it is obvious that the appli-
cation Of this principle must be con-
fined within reasonable limits. If a
majority has right to say to minor
ity: You shall not drink beer, another
majority has the right to say to an
other minority: You shall not drink
tea. Now, if the people in any state
or town should take it into their heads
to enact law prohibiting the use of
| tea, what a fearful howl would 90 I'D
from the camp of the W. C. T. u, and
what an unenviable job the officers
would have in attempting to enforce
such law! "What, deprive us of
our right to serve tea at our mothers
meetings and parlor sociables! Why,
it's an outraged ''Oh, but, good
ladies, we, the majority, made up as
you know of the better element, have
thoroughly investigated this matter,
| and we have found that tea is very
injurious. In fact, it s poison. Look
| at the thousands of women that have
gone down to tea-topers graves! Look
at the army of innocent little children
that have been left motherless,' etc.,
| etc. AS matter of fact, many expert
enced physicians believe that tea and
coffee cause quite as much trouble in
the world as alcohol The "temper-
there is wide difference between beer
and tea Of course there is, and
that is just why SO many people pre-
| fer the beer. But there is no differ
ence between the right to drink the
one and the right to drink the other.
Everywhere and always, outside of Is
| lam, while drunkenness has been con-
demned, the moderate use Of alcoholic
beverages has been common custom
and has been regarded as the inherent
right Of the individual.
The use of alcoholic liquors is and
has always been considered not only
legitimate as a beverage, but it is
consecrated and hallowed in the most
solemn and weighty rite of the Chris
tian church. Now you cannot, by a
mere law, eradicate sentiment and
destroy an institution that has stood
for ages, and that is so deeply rooted
in our whole social life. Prohibition
condemns the conscience, the judgment
and the social habits of countless gen.
erations of the most highly civilized,
progressive and moral peoples. More
over, prohibition passes condemnation
on a great branch Of industry that has
been recognized throughout all ages as
of the most venerable and honored re-
| ligious orders of the Christian church
have been and are today engaged. Pro-
hibition necessarily fails because it
makes no discrimination between use
and abuse. 1t arbitrarily makes a
legal crime of an act which is neither
wrong in itself nor contrary to the
rights and interests of society. Be-
cause two or three men use liquor to
excess, prohibition would compel hun
dred temperate men to follow the rule
of total abstinence. One man is lame,
and therefore all his neighbors must
use crutches.
Again, prohibition has failed because
it is wholly negative and destructive.
You cannot remove an effect until you
remove the cause. You cannot abolish
the liquor traffic until you abolish the
source Of the traffic 1t is not the liquor
traffic that creates the demand for
liquor; it is the demand for liquor that
creates the traffic. And just so long
as the demand continues, just so long
will the supply of liquor be forthcom-
ing in one way or another. The attempt
to abolish the liquor traffic by a pro-
hibitory law is as futile as would be
the attempt to dry up river by build
| ing a DAM Prohibitionists seem to
imagine that they are dealing only
with the comparatively few liquor deal
ers; whereas they are dealing with the
vast multitude of men that are deter
mined to use. liquor. They tell us that
the saloon is a curse. WE'LL be that
as it may, the practical question is,
what blessing does prohibition furnish
as substitute? Absolutely none, I'M
less it be the w. G. T. u. mother s
meeting and the weekly prayer meet
ing. These institutions, excellent as
they are in their place, are hardly
adapted to satisfy the social needs of
the masses. Students of social science,
men who have spent years in observ-
ing and studying the saloon and the
saloon constituency, whatever views
| they may hold as to the character of
| this institution as it now exists, agree
unanimously on the following three
propositions:
1. That the saloon fills legitimate