The Cairo bulletin., 1911-05-16

embezzlers; o. railways without en-
countering accidents; or cucumhers
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 fiscal institutions, no more lines
OF transportation, Id more track gar,
dens and no more cakes and alef
Perish the thought, for what has
been aid is in Bavaria can be in
Kentucky or anywhere else where
the rule of sanity and rod eration is
observed.
We think we are free people.
We agree that the world il too much
governed. Yet nowhere is individ.
ual liberty so assaled as in the
United States. The pxVhibition wave,
now happily subs!dinA was n men,
ace to free institutions. Thoughtful
people are beginning to see that
there are worse evils than the drink
evil; evils, more subversive o. the
character of nation, because more
general and pervasive, less obvious
and readable. The drunkard is ugu-
ally in evidence. He may be dealt
with. 1t is otherwise with the varr.
ing forms of personal and politic2'
corruption. Virtue is solf-resistancc
to vice, not enforced obedience tc
drastic regulation. Morality is Iela
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 exemplifed by the
Hofbrauhaus of Munich.
The common good, about which
we hear so much, like the general
welfare" clause of the constitution,
has been worked to death. The
common good" is the yeriest alb
straction. 1t is not everywhere the
same as one sees here in Bavaria 1t
has its variants. Who is to decide
what is the "common good?" Time
was when the Church, or rather its
Close corporation of ruling prelates,
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
screw. They were applied by which
ever Church party found itself in
the ascendant
After many centuries of strenuous
trial in the effort to make men good
by force of arms and tortures, both a
costly and CHASTITY failure, the self
ordained agents of God sowing the
world in blood and flame, were sent
to the rear and the doctrine of toll.
eration-the bedrock of all freedom,
of all enlightenment, of all good
government--was established meas
urably throughout Christendom, but
absolutely as the founders thought
in the United States.
This the prohibitionists would set
aside and nullify. To do so they fly
in the face Of Heaven itself Tread
ing the cloisters of the past here
in Europe, or travelling the thor
oughfares of the present at home,
know but one torch to light the
way, and that is the Spirit of the
Man Of Galilee, whose teaching from
first to last was at war with force,
appealing to the better nature and
the reason of man, not his brutal
passions and combative parts; and,
taking this for my guide, 1 cannot
help thinking the American prohi-
bitionist impious and irrcligious in
his dogmatism, and at the same time
as unwise and undiscriminating in
his worldly methods.
might as well rail at God for
bringing sin and disease and death
into the world and seek to eneom-
pass them by sumptuary legislation.
Men may be made hypocrites by law,
but never saints. Religious truth
has been the rather obscured and re-
tarded than accelerated by theologic
controversy.
Impressive agencies eliminate in
reactions. Radical puritanism in
England was succeeded by the de.
baucheries of the Restoration; and
Prohibition laws in the United States
have not only not diminished drunk
cnncss, but they have brought in
their train scandals and evils quite
as hurtful to the community at large
as drink has brought to that limited
section of the community given over
to the excessive use Of intoxicants;
that is, contempt for law, evasions Of
law, extortion and adulteration, the
corruption alike of the officials and
the drink, lawful and needful rev.
enues cxtinguiehed in favor Of law
less indulgenees; the fanatical
preacher and the grating politician
uniting to work the spy system each