Evening journal., 1911-06-09

snake ranches without raising pol
son. F" One might as well say that
we cannot run banks without raising
embezzlers; or railways without en-,
countering accidents; or cucumbers
and cabbage without the risk Of
cholera morbus, the thief, the wreck,
the bellyache, like the drunkard, be-
ing the exception Shall we have no
more fscnl institutions, no more lines
Of transportation, no more truck gar
dens and no more cakes and alei
Perish the thought, for what has
been and is in Bavaria can be in
Kentucky or anywhere else where
the rule of sanity and moderation is
observed.
We think we are a free people.
We agree that the world is too much
governed. Yet nowhere is individ-
ual liberty 90 assailed as in the
United States. The prohibition wave,
now happily subsiding, was a men
ace to free institutions. Thoughtful
people are beginning to see that
there are worse evils than the drink
evil; 'evils more subversive Of the
character Of a nation, -eeause more
general and pervasive, less obvious
and reschsble. The drunkard is usu-
ally in evidence. He may be dealt
with. II is otherwise with the vary
ing forms of personal and political
corruption. Virtue Is self-resistsnce
to vice, not enforced obedience TO
drastic regulation. Morality is rela-
tive. That may be moral in one
country which is immoral in another
country. Circumstances alter cases.
Time and place must be regarded.
This is strictly eremplihed by tho
Hofbrauhaus Of Munich.
The common good, +" sbout which
we hear SO much, like the general
welfare clause of the constitution,
has been worked 10 death. This
"common good lis the veriest alb
straction. Il is not everywhere the
same as one sees here in Bavaria. II
has its variants. Who is to decide
what is the "common Roodf" Time
was when the Church, or rather ita
close corporation Of ruling prelatea
alone decided. The "common good
was their belief, or pretended be
lief, in prescribed religious dogma.
The common good embraced GER
tain customs, manners and clothing
decreed by canon law as orthodox.
The penalties assessed against the
| delinquent varied from hanging to
burning, from the rack TO the thumb.
t screw. They were applied by which
Q ever Church party found itself in
o the ascendant.
4 After many centuries of strenuous
+. trial in the effort to make men good
Q by force of arms and tortures, both q
costly and a ghastly failure, the self.
o ordained agents of God sowing the
- world in blood and fame, were sent
IS to the rear and the doctrine of toll
eration--ths bedrock Of all freedom,
y of all enlightenment, Of all good
1t government-was established meas
If urably throughout christendom, but
re absolutely as the founders thought
Is in the United States
N This the prohibitionists would sci
ID aside and hullify. To do so they hy
d in the face Of Heaven itself. Tread.
C. ing the cloisters of the past here
% in Europe, or travelling the thor
l. oughfares of the present at homo,
Ie know but one torch to light the
n way, and that is the Spirit Of the
10 Man of Galilee, whose teaching from
e. first to last was at war with force
RS appealing to the better nature and
is the reason Of man, not his brutal
in passions and combative parts; and,
ls taking this for my guide, cannot
% help thinking the American prohi
st bitionist impious and irreligious in
II his dogmatism, and at the same tims
ao as unwise and undiscriminating in
in his worldly methods.
a. I might as well rail at God foi
T. bringing sin and disease and death
e. into the world and seek to encom
lg pass them by sumptuary legislation
be Men may be made hypocrites by law
Id but never saints. Religious truth
IT, has been the rather obscured and re
n tarded than accelerated by theolopi,
al controversy.
re Repressive agencies eliminate n
nc reactions. Radical puritanism il
a England was succeeded by the de
nd baucheries of the Restoration; an,
ie- Prohibition laws in the United State
have not only not diminished drunk
re enness, but they have brought il
ly their train scandals and evils quit,
be as hurtful TO the community at largl
nd as drink has brought to that Unite,
vn section of the community given owe
is to the excessive use Of intoxicants
er that is, contempt for law, evasions o.
ix law, extortion and adulteration, tn
in corruption alike of the officials an,
is the drink, lawful and needful rev
IF enues extinguished in favor Of law
se less indulgences; the fanatica
Is. preacher and the grating politician
nd uniting to work the spy system eaeI
nd for his own ends, but against th'
he mass and body Of society. H.W.
- T..