Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-07-07
INEFFECTIVE PROHIBITION

From St Louis Missouri comes the informa- tion that, although more than eighty counties Tn that state are nominally dry" and the Sunday closing law is being vigorously en- forced, yet, the beer consumption for the month of June was greater than it has been during any month since the office of beer inspector was created eight years ago. The wholesaler has cause for rejoicing, also in the fact that the people of the so-called "dry'' counties are buy ing larger quantities of beer in the barrel and of spirits by the case, whereas, under the retail system, smaller quantities were purchased in separate drinks. To add to the strangeness of these statistics the receipts of the beer inspec- tors office for given period of time are in ex- cess even of what they were in the year of the Worlds Fair at St. Louis.
 The revelation made by St Louis statistics is significant in at least two ways. In the first place, it indicates grave defect in the kind of prohibition that is now being adopted in many states, and, secondly, it impresses upon us the ever-prevaing wilfulness of the human being It is not at all probable that, in this human perversty, the real defect of the anti-drinl methods in vogue, has its origin Whether we like to admit such puerile truth or not we are all children in a greater or lesser degree If somedangerOus plaything is wrested from our grasp, we either become at once fighting mad or form an immediate resolution to obtain that which is forbidden. It is even doubtful in many instances, whether we often awake to the desirability of a certain thing until some ambi- tious reformer starts a hue and cry to abolish 1t. The loveliest maiden will hew her way drought twenty-foot wall to wed the widest rake of the countryside, provided only that enough parental opposition can be stirred up. A problem novel referred to in whispers by the elite and barred from the publicity of the lit- rary table may most often be found in the priv, jest nook of the den or boudoir. Even the fool reformer may tread an easy path to certain kind of fame if the multitude will simply give him enough opposition to render him cOnspc- nous. Many minor evil never seriously threatened the destiny of the human race until some curious and over-fastidious nincompoop dragged it out of the secluson of centuries and called the attention of the masses to its dsad- vantages. Whereupon, humanity, sheep-like precipitately sought the hole in the fence that barred them from perdition.
 As to the evils of erceSSirc drinking, there is only one side to the argument. But remove the word excessive and half the wind is knocked out of the prohibitionst's sails. It would hardly be exaggerating to say that his militant ship of reform is left rudderless, but with enough un- controlled power to bring it to speedy grief on the nearest shoa of public opinion. Excess of anything is most deplorabe, and we venture to say there is nothing under the sun that may not become fragrant evil through abuse. The most simple diversion or phenomena of our daily lives the very institutions of which the exis- tence of man on this mundane spheroid de pends might easily become means of destrac ton and in isolated cases, they do become so Some individuals with perverted taste or an abnormal turn of nature. seizes occasionally upon the admittedly useful and necessary fnnc-