The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-09-07
DOUBTS REPORT Of
/ GAINS Of THE ENEMY
REV. DIR. MACLACHLAN BELIEVES
VIRGINIA WILL FOLLOW Ex-
AMPLE OF SISTER STATES.
ALL MUST CO TO POLLS
STRONG SERMON ON PROHIBITION
AND Personal LIBERTY AT
sEvENTH-sTREET CHRIS
TTAN CHURCH.
ALL MUST CO TO POLLS

prohibition and PERSONAL Liberty
was the subject of strong sermon by
Rev. II. d. c. MacLachlan, at Seventh
Street Christian church, last night His
text was from Galatians 5;13. Mr..
Maclachlan said:
Having been absent from the State
for the last six weeks l have been, TO
mylregret. unable to bear my share OF
the burden in the great battle against
the saloon. which is now nearing its
close. l feel, therefore. that not only
as minister of the gospel, but as a
citizen, too. of this great Common
wealth, / must redeem the time In the
few weeks that remain before the
monster Of licensed crime and de-
bauchery receives-as 1t surely win
receive, on the 22nd day of this month
Its death blow.
There Is one advantage of coming
into a fight OF this sort late in the day,
and that Is. that the enemy has all
ready developed all his strength and
one need not waste ammunition on
lines OF defense that have been
abandoned
There was a time when we had to
convince the people that the liquor
traffic was y bad thing in itself--that
1t was the fruitful parent of poverty.
disease and crime--a DESTROYER Of the
home and a debaucher of public life;
and that therefore, the people had
the right not only To regulate. bat to
abolish. IL they could. the traffic IN
definite localities. That was In the Id
local opion days and some OF you re-
member how hard 1t was to get even
that amount OF prohibition on the
statute books. But that battle has
been won--that phase Of the contro-
versy Is gone forever. Even the liquor
people themselves being witness, local
option Is the soundest of sound doc
trines. No one--unless 1t be few
ill-advised orators at the meeting held
in the Academy of Music few months
ago--ventures to maintain that even
moderate drinking Is good and
necessary thing. No one now -ia US
defends the saloon as the poor ma ms
club" and all that sort of drfvel. No
one who values his moral reputation
dares to repeat openly at least the OLD
time-honored argument about the
money loss will prohibit and bring.
Even church members used To use
that argument but now II they DO,
they fake care that 1t isn't in the
presence Of their minister.
Friends OF Saloon.
rs the saloon. then, without a
friend? If you think so you are vast
IN iAC
of those who profit by It's existence.
Beaten from cover to cover they have
fallen back on two last lines of de-
Tense which they call respectively
personal liberty and local seif-goyern-
! ment. There Is no denying the clever
ness OF this 1t seems to constitute
them champions OF two very sacred
principles. 1t gives almost virtuous
air to the grogshops as who should
say: We are the defenders of 1ib-
erty. We are the true heirs of Magma
Charta and the Bill OF Rights. We
are the true Interpreters of democra
tic doctrine. We are the first ditch
of the poor ignorant people who are
being enslaved by the preachers and
the Anti-Saloon league and the w. I
L A."
Personal liberty! You know the
argument Every man has right to
drink Intoxicating liquors if he wants
to. 1t may not be a wise thing to dc
certainly in excess-but it Is his
privilege. and any law that denies him
that is an interference With his per-
sonal liberty. Further more-so the
argument runs-the liquor traffic is
as legitimate as any other and it Is
unwarrantabie tyranny for the State
to put the ban of it's disapproyai upon
It, Regulate 1t by all means. We
brewers and distillers quite approve
OF that. We disapprove as much as
YOU do the barrelhouse and doggery
| We want the saloonkaeper who re-
| tails our products to keep with the
law. and to show our honesty in the
matter we have prepared mode
! license law which we have done our
best to get adopted by several States
| But all that is one thing. and prohi-
bition is another. II is the privilege
of every man guaranteed to him by
the spirit II not the letter of the con-
stitution to take his dram when and
| where he wants to. and II you Inter
fere with that right you are digging al
the foundation of the most inalienabse
right OF the citizen--the right of per-
sonal liberty-and opening the food
gates TO an avalanche of sumptuary
laws which win bring back the days
of the blue laws of New England
Personal Liberty.
Now personal liberty is very
sacred and precious thing. For IL
our fathers fought on many bloody
field To secure 1t the democracy oil
the world has been grooming and
Travelling in pain even until now
without 1t life would not be worth
the living for any high-souled man
and when II is attacked 1t Is un-
! questionably the duty OF every self
respecting citizen to rally to its de-
Tense But true personal liberty is a
very different thing from the carica-
ture Of it which our opponents have
blazed on their banner. Liberty Ii
t not license. 1t Is seH-restraift; and
the people who have self-restrain'
enough to deny themselves the luxury
of the liquor traffic for. the sake OF
the larger efIiciency and moral rein
forcement which Its abolition would
most certainly bring-should stop
talking about liberty till they learn
what II means.
For what is liberty. The growth
OF liberty always and everywhere has
been marked hy parallel growth OF
restrictions laid by society on itself
for the good of the whole. Primitive
man Ia an .ndividualist--a deyotee OF
the personal liberty to lie, murder,
rob and rape: civilized man Is col
lectivist---su to. restrictions OF
his personal liberties in the interest,"
Of the larger freedom which can only
come from within. You remember
Kipling's verse:
"The heather In his blindness bows
down to wood and stone.
He don't obey no orders unless they
Is his own.
The heather In his blindness must end
-