The Seattle Republican. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1???-1915, 1909-02-19

York, which are without prohibition,
have respectively only Z, 10 and 20
drunkards per 1000, while Portland,
Maine, the classic prohibition state, has
| A."
REV. LYMAN ABBOTT:
"This" (prohibition) was not the
method of Jesus He lived in an age
of total abstinence societies and did not
join them He emphasized the distinc-
ton between his method and that of
John the Baptist, by saying that John
came neither eating or drinking; the
son of man came eating and drinking.
He condemned drunkenness, but never
in single instance lifted up his voice
in condemnation of drinking. On the
contrary, He commenced His public min
| istry by making, as a miracle, wine in
considerable quantity, and of fine quail
| ity, and this apparently only to add to
the joyous festivities of wedding. He
apparently used wine customarily, If
not habitually and before all the world;
and He left as legacy and example for
His followers a sacred use of wine in
the most solemn service of His church"
REVEREND GEO. ELIOT COOLEY:
(Before the Methodist Conference at
Lyndville April 20, 1901)
Good men and sincere men can and
do differ honestly in respect to the re-
suits of this law. I stand unqualifedly
on the ground that temperance is prin-
ciple of life to which all individuals are
amenable. We are coming to see that 1t
is impossible to bring in the kingdom
of God by legislation; yet as earnest
men we are anxious to determine upon
the best method of dealing with the
intemperance evil. May it not be pos
sible that, in the effort to prevent this
evil of intemperance by a State pro-
hibitory law, we are fostering greater
and more insidious evils? Respects for
the courts has been undermined by the
wholesale disregard for law. Confidence
in judicial processes has been destroyed
by so many miscarriages of justice the
oath has been invalidated and perjury
promoted by the effort to enforce a law
which many feel under no obligation to
observe.
1.-THE condition of things thus brought
about ought to be appalling to the teach
er of morals, and the advocates of law
and order. Who is not aware of the
great injury done to organized society
by these persistent and insidious efforts
to subvert the law? 1t tends to make
officials two-faced, legislators timid and
insincere, candidates for office dissimu-
lating, and when elected, unfaithful and
hypocritical. The effect of this law has
been to rear a class of men who shame
lessly pay fines and brides and hush
money in order to evade it's operation,
and another class which will just as
shamelessly accept this corrupted
money.
'I take issue emphatically and sin
cerely with those who would maintain
and enforce a state prohibitory law.
"Few persons L suppose, with any
knowledge of it's actual working, will
deny that the law as it exists, is in
vested with an amount of hypocrisy on
the part of the buyers, sellers and off,
Gals. May not this hypocrisy, being
deeper and more wide spreading evil,
be a greater evil than the intemperance
which it is sought to check?
"Once more; our existing prohibitory
law I consider foolish and mischievous,
because it is largely an attempt on the
part of one set ofNpeople to legislate
for another set of people l recognize
to the full the evils Of intemperance,
but can not think that the practical
experience of Vermont, New Hampshire
or Maine, is in favor of a state prohib-
itory law"
DIR. LEONARD WELLINGTON:
II bear my solemn testimony, and say
that though I have seen frequent at
tempts, I never knew of any good to
come from such legislation. I have seen
men exasperated by it, but never re-
formed. So it has ever been, and so
it will ever be, until nature itself is
changed I was in Connecticut when
attempts were made to enforce such a
law. I saw hypocrisy, power, passion,
hautiness, Indignation force, resistance
to commands, threats, cursing; but
saw no promotion of meekness among
Christians or repentance among sinners.
The contest was long and the fruits
were bitter. Long did it take to teach
the sober part Of the community
simple truth"
DIR. HOWARD CROSBY:
6Probihition throws wide omen tho