Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1910-06-04

people of Kentucky, the effort to force
upon any one of the leading cities or
towns of the State the same local pro
visions and police regulations which
apply readily and are easily main.
tanned in the average country neigh
borhood is an exact reproduction ON a
minute scale of the reconstruction
experiment which wrought havoc on
a gigantic scale. 81 >yN.s' a
We have seen how Prohibition
works in Maine. We are seeing how
II works in Georgia. We shall see
how 1t works in Tennessee and Ala.
bama. For while, I dare say, 1t will
keep whisky from the negro--at least.
make II harder for, the negro to get
II. But II will not abate. for nowhere
has II abated. the drink habit among
the whites. Instead Of lawful regula-
ton, 1t will beget unlawful evasion.
For plain intoxicants II will substi-
tute poisoned intoxicants. Smuggling,
extortion and adulteration will become
there as elsewhere-accepted agen-
cies. In place of the saloon, which.
as we know II. is an indefensible
quantity, but may be regulated, II we
see at, and the sale of drink under
and above.board under statutory en-.
actment, we shall have the various
forms of outlawry and hypocrisy which
laws. repugnant to the habits, senti.
ments and opinions OF great bodies of
the people, always provoke.
In the long run, this is not the worst
of 1t. Beyond and above these things
the establishment In any community
of a policy resting upon disputed
code Of public morality and individual
conduct. and looking for Its support
to inflamer appeals to religious feel.
ing, generates not only pharasaism but
tyranny. 1t arouses passion and pro
notes collision by assailing what free
men regards as private property and
personal rights: and. by bringing the
Church and State nearer together, II
not reuniting them, II inevitably cor
rupts the fountains of justice and law
by eliminating reason and enthroning
emotion. We know at what cost slav'
cry was abolished. Upon the ruins
Of slavery have arisen other, new and
direful evils, The attempt even to
seem to abolish the use of alcoholic
beverages In Kentucky must begin by
extlnguishing many hundreds OF mil.
lions OF dollars of property and rev.
enue. The property was honestly &C.
quired. It is lawfully possessed. Di.
rectiy 1t employs and sustains at least
a hundred thousand more; indirectly
n hundred thousand more. 1t brings
to the State many millions of dollars
of foreign money which enters the
general reservoir and makes for the
prosperity OF the people at large
Annihilate these millions Of property
income and revenue. as the Anti-Sa
loon League proposes to do, and what
do we gain In lieu OF them ? I'm
mensely increased taxation, to start
with. and. after that. precisely what
they have gained In Maine. for every
saloon that pays taxes, a speak-easy
that pays none; for every dollar OF
revenue and income cut off from the
people and the public treasury, a dol
lar of tribute to the smuggling ex
press company, or the contraband
road-agent; for every man who sells
a drink. an outlaw; for every man who
takes drink, a liar and lawbreaker;
the political preacher and the rascally
politician in alliance, the one to dis
pose of corner lots in Heaven accord
ing to his ignorance or his veniality
the other to roll his eyes sanctimon'
iously In the direction Of Heaven, to
hold office and to control the clan
destine disposition of drink-just as
they have done in the State OF Maine
for nearly sixty years.
He who calls the peoples attention
to circumstances and considerations
which cannot be denied is at once de-
nounced as friend Of whisky and the
rumseller; as an enemy Of religion
and temperance; II not a drunkard
outright, as a hired man Of the dis
tiiIeries, breweries and saloons. II
is of piece with the rejoinder OF the
Southern radical in the old slavery
debates that, II you were in favor oil
freedom, you wanted to marry mig
ger, Sentimental extremism has no
other answer when confronted with
the inexorable facts of exDerience and