The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-08-21
PROHIBITION
A MENACE To
WORKERS.

14lhS 81 ndhV hSSNA hAuo Eh0k1o'@a
for the cure of social ills, prohibi-
ton makes the fatal mistake Of
dealing with a symptom instead of
a cause. Intemperance in drink is
a result, in most cases of defect
i've nature whose failure is brought
out by environment; in some 1ases
of nerve shock or other overpower-
ing influence that upsets the nerv
Gus balance. The VERY caused by
the dread OF poverty which hangs
over the working people may have
such an effect on the nervous sys-
em aud the will power at times.
Shallow as the suggested plan of
Prohibition, it is characteristic of
it that it does not seek to strength
en- the individual, but rather tends
to weaken him by removing temp
tation. One of the results of this
tendency Is that criminals are cod
died to believe that they can unload
moral responsibility for crime on
the demon rum and themselves
escape blame. We are not speak
ing of the occasional criminal who
may have been driven by starva-
ton or other pressing need to uio-
late property rights aud thus get
into the clutches of the law. These
are often not defective people. But
they do do not make up the bulk of
criminals. They constitute the
fringe which increases or diminish
es in number as times are good or
bad, as the weather is mild or Sc
we're.
If a thousand inmates of the
Pennsylvania state penitentiary
sign petition in favor Of national
prohibition, as happened recently,
attributing their own fall to drink,
this is an exhibition Of the deplor-
able effect of prohibition propa-
ganda. There was a time when
even in law intoxication was con-
sidered an excuse for crime. Later
it was allowed force in extenuation
The modern tendency is to abate
nothing of the responsibility for
unlawful or immoral acts on ac-
count of intoxication.
In the face Of this progressive
tendency the anti drink fanatic
teaches, by inevitable implication
at least, that the individual is not
to blame, but the manufacturer
and dealer who sells alcoholic drink
is the criminal, and it is the drink
that really bears the responsibility.
Primitive men aud the child are
without sense of moral responsible
ty. The effect Of civilization and
the object of education is to devel-
op moral consciousness and resPon-
sibility. Tue direct effect of the
anti drinking teaching is to undo
the work of education and turn
back the development of civiliza-
ton. 1t is thus clearly and en-
phatically anti-social and reaction
ary. It is in the highest degree
aad in the most direct sense i'm
moral and demoralizing.
1t is also barbareus and pagan.
When the savage or the barbarian,
in consequence of his unwholesome
manner of living, fell i'll, he was
believed to be possessed by de
mon, and the medicine man was
called to cast out the demon.
Whure modern man sees but the
results of the patient mis-
step, at least in most cases, the
primitive mind laid il to some out
side power which man could not
resist.
This pagan or barbaric form OF
thought still survives in many in
stances. And we hear people who
claimto be Christians and 10 have
entirely from pagani,m,
spoak Of the demon rum" or tbe
drink evil They represent i. as
an uuholy force. extern and hos
tile to man, from which it is neces
sary to rescue and protect US.
Did you ever see fond mother
pick up baby which had stumbled
over chair and hurt itself, and
AXE a stick and hit the naughty