Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-07-20
County Option
The open Door 70 Prohibition
and the Folly OF the step
Pointed Out By W. =. Bryant


To the Editor OF The Bee.-ln my
last letter l strove TO impress upon the
minds OF your readers the stupendous folly
/ Of trying prohibition in this state. Now,
wish them to bear constantly in mind and
do not forget 1t, county option is the open
door to prohibition. In this letter / shall
argue against any attempt to enforce the
moral law by an act of parliament Any
thing of that kind is against the genius
Of our institutions.
Our government is not and should not
be paternal. But before l proceed to this
part Of the argument, l wish to say that
there is nothing immoral in the moderate
use of beer wine, or even whisky and
brandy Whether it injuries a man to
drink any OF these In small doses, do
not know. We have the Englishman. Car
penter, on one side in favor of total ABB
stinence. We have the German, Liebig,
on the other for moderate drinking. Then
we have dater the American professor,
Atwater, taking the side of Liebig. Human
knowledge is so multfarious that we COM
mon people can not know everything. We
must take the word OF specialists Now,
when two specialists disagree, who is go
ing to decide? But grant that Carpenter
Is right, Is It proper to regulate any mans
diet? Why not require him to eat graham
bread; TO abstain from confectionery; to
take a bath every day; to attend church
every Sunday ito get up at certain hour?
This is paternalsm. England had It In
the days Of william, the Conquorer. When
the curfew rang all people had to cover
their fires and retire. Rome had 1t when
her censors we're empowered to regulate
the apparel, the food and the expenditures
loH Har ka
Inquisition-and God save the mark!
PaternaIIAm In Operation.
About two miles south of Lincoln we
have nearly four hundred men living under
that form of government, Do you wish
to put the whole state under the aegis
OF paternalism? But you say that prohi-
bition only touches the commerce Of liquor
and does not interfere with its use. II
1 drive a post in the ground fifteen feet
from a water tank and chain a man by
the leg to that post with a ten-foot chain
and then tell him to drink all he wants
from that tank, am or am not prohb-
ting cold water? II we prohibit the man
ufacture of liquor in this state. It's sale here
and its importation into the state, how in
the name Of all that is mysterious, are peo-
pie going to drink It? Paternalsm did very
medieval England But 1t is contrary to
the genius of American institutions.
1t may be said In reply that we already
have laws against the violation Of the first
day of the week. and laws against the use
OF profanity, and laws against intoxica-
ton, and laws against gambling, and laws
against many other things, all of which
amount to the regulation of private morals.
The law against the dissertation of the first
daV of the weak in nOlica regulation
enacted because the state recognizes that
a large majority of the people consider
Sunday as a sacred day and the state
simply insists that they shall not be dis
turbed in its observance. The law against
profanity is not passed to enforce the OBJ
servance of the first commandment, or the
secopd-as Protestants style it--but, to pre-
vent a mans making himself offensive to
people who would be shocked and outraged
by his conduct when he is not exercising
any God-given right. The law against
, gambling is passed because the practice
is demoralzing to the community Vol
: taire said every gambler is, has been, or
, some time will be a robber."
Greek Term for Wine.
] l had almost forgotten-and they are
heartily worthy of nouce-the half-baked
D exhorters who, like Shapespeare's devil,
.
people will tell you that the wine at Cana
5 of Galilee was boiled cider or some Other
g Intoxicating slop. Every Greek scholar
knows that the word "oinosn used in the
a Gospel means fermented wine. and never
S could mean anything else. The fundamen-
tai root of the word expresses fermenta-
\ ton. Greek is not and never has been a
e dead language, from Homer to the present
e day. II Plato or Demosthenes should rise
: from the dead they could read an Athenian
/, daily newspaper and understand IT, |
[ have in my office Lord Byron's poems
r translated into modern Greek. We will take
e the line from Don Juan: Fiji high the
: bowl with Sarnian wine" The word there
: used in Oinos. Take another passage In
q the same poem. 1t is where Lambro, the
4 Greek pirate returns to his island home
Il and finds his daughter Haidee. married
I without his consent, and his servants en-
gagged in a riotous banquet, eating UP his
mutton and drinking up his wine. He
} comes across a group and on making some
inquiries is answered by a drunken glut-
ton who holds up a glass of wine over his
b shoulder and remarks, Talking is dry
work, have no time to spare" The word
oinos is here used-the same word used by
the Gospel writer in describing the mira
It Gle at Cana of GalIlee. Jesus Christ says
y of himself: The Son OF Man came eating
J. and drinking and they say. Behold a wine
g bibler.'"
e But shall waste no more time, paper
. or ink on this Biblical argument, Prohibit
It ton is not a religious. II Is not even q
4 moral question. 1t is purely economic and
J political But more anon.
= WILBUR f. BRYANT,
II Harrington. Neh.
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