The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-14

Clergyman Writes That II Is Real
Obs&acse TO Reform.
Rev William A. Watson In Pearsop,s
Magazine for August.

Magazine for August.
Prohtbitionists have simplified tn,
liquor problem at the expense 8
ruth. reason and common expert
'cnce. Instead Of suiting the remed,
TO the disease. they have tried e
make the disease conform to thcil
PREDETERMINED remedy.
The Nquor problem is one of tn.
tnost complex Of all social problems
~ does not stand out alone, simple
distinct and Isolated. an prohibition.
1sss would have us believe. 1t Is at
oncs moral. and economic. q physio-
logical. . psychological. and in It's
nnai aRaiysis. purely personal prob
lem II contains many elements and
Involves many perplexing dificultics.
When we look before the surface and
Study this problem In It's deeper as
pects we and that its roots are inex-
sricsbsy' intertwined with those of
ether social problems. SO that gen.
uins and thorough temperance re-
form must bs conducted along many
different lines
LQuor legislation must necessarily
6oFew enc Of two great policies. 1t
may aim at the abolition of the liquor
trsmc or at the regulation of the traf-
&C. These two policies are extreme
opposites st every point and In every
feature. The object of ons 10 to XIII.
that Of the other h to cure. 1t Is on
this broad question OF general policy
that the people are divided today.
No legislative system has ever been
more extensiveiy nor fairly tested
thaR that Of prohibition. During the
iast 90 yesrs It has been tried on the
Htate-wsde scale In many different
sections Of tho country and under the
most diverse social and political con-
ditions. the period OF trial ranging
xrcn three years in Nebraska to SO
sssass In Vermont. BY its record. by
what 4t has done and by what 1t has
I not done. prohibition must be judged.
on every page Of that record. from
beginning to end are written the
words 81 fpiiure. folly. farce. Nowhere
- no time In all It's history has prohi-
sbfsion accomplished a single one of
sits svswsd objects. Nowhere has Il
,prswutsd the consumption of liquor
snor Sesssned the evil Of intemperance.
--Sas,ther N . 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
q has rendered to society Is that Of
furnishing . warning example of the
supreme folly OF attempting to iegis-
late virtue into mems lives.
There could be no stronger evil
dence OF the failure Of prohibition
than the fact that seven OF the eight
states that adopted the system so years
sto have since abandoned Il and gone
back to tho policy Of license and reg
ulation. The people Of these states ad-
opted prohibition in good faith.
II prohibition really prohibited. the
tact ought to be reflected In the fg-
urss Of the United States revenue de-
p&rtmsnt. but. according to the gov
ernment reports. th. use Of alcoholic
liquors. actually increase with tn,
spread OF prohibition. In 1893. the
year the Anti-saloon League was or,
.Bsnised. tho per capita consumption
OF malt and spirituous liquors In th'
whole countryswas 1876 and 1.4s gal
Ions. respectively. In 1899. wher
only 100000 persons were living un
der prohibitoryi laws. the figures wer,
ass and LII. In 1907. when ap
prcximateIy $1,000. 900 persons wer,
living In "dry" territory. the figures
had risen to the high water mari
~ and 1.5s The report OF 100,
shows a decrease Of about 10 pe
cent In spurious liquors as com
pared with 1907. while the consump
ton of malt liquors was about tn,
same for both years. Thus we ar,
confronted with the remarkable fac
that. In 1908. when the prohibition
wave had reached enormous proper
lions and was wiping out saloons q
the rate OF 11.oe0 year. the Amer
fcan people consumed more liquo
per capita than they did I'm any pre-
vious year since 1ss3. the year 100
alone excepted.
Here is the testimony OF two 0
the prohibition leaders themselve
Rev DR. Holderby of Atlanta an ar