The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-20
QUERY TO THE CLERGY
Upon the Question of Prohibi- ton by Head of Model
 License League.

archistic, dishonesty conf1scatory and lunenforceable, T. M. Gilmore, president l of the National Model License Leagues has issued his fourth circular letter to the ministers of the United States. He says that attempts are being made l to create the impression that Ehe min isters generally are in favor Of na-s tiona1 prohibition but he denies that IChristian ministers can favor the movement fntelligentIy CT conscien- tiously. The letter follows;
 ssAs an obseIver of men and affairs you are aware eof efforts to submit an amendment to the Constitution of lthe United States so as to prohibit nationally the manufacture, sale and l transportation of alcohol except for medicinal sacranental and scientific purposes and yous know that, because Of the influence of men of your high calling upon current thought, an at tempt is being made to create the in1- pression that the movement has the l approval Of the Christian ministry. sT doubt that Christian ministers generally are in favor of q move
 nent toward national prohibition. My lreagOns are:
 ssFfrst-The a3rohibition movement is a.e political movement and the Chris titan ministers are preachers of the Gospel. not of political creeds. Second Christian ministers are ad-' vocates of temperance and prohibition l is not temperance. Temperatures is necessari1ys based on self-oontrol but proh ibition is based on eontrol by 0th-. lers, Temperance is Biblical and pro- hibition attacks the integrity of the Bible.
 ssThird- Christian ministers are in | telHgept and, therefore, cannot ap- I prove of leadership that denounces the use 0r afcofol as Immoral and de- lbasfng, and yet would sexcept, the. use of, alcohol for religious purposes:
 
 I as destr1bctive and degenerating to the I human body and at tine same time. I would ssexcept', the use of alcohol for medieinal purposes.
 .Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, prohibition leader, investigated conditions abroad and in the Literary Digest Of recent date is quoted as saving that 1t Is s.tl1e riddle of reforners the world I over, that countries with little or no l prohibition are decisively reducing the while the United States, with more iprohibition than any other country, I has never succeeded in accomplishing lsuch reduction in the nation as a l whole. except temporarily in times of 1 financial depression. .
 ..It may surprise you to know the extent of the demand for alcoholic lf- quors in this country.
 I ..5eventeen years ago the annual per capita consumption of liquors was Iabont seventeen gallons. Now the annual consumption of Hqnors is above l22 gallons for every man. woman and I child in the United States. I In other countries, it appears, nor I al suasipn in behalf of temperance land abstin er5ce has had the desired ef- 4 tfon ana leg islakion have been relied upon, with the result that, according 4 to the unimpeachab1e committee of Fifty, many innnaorahties and crimes have been deve1oped.
 # Foreign countries have shown that lternperanee and voluntary abstinence I are strong enough to make progress Iby themselves. This country has Ishown that atternpts to make people temperate or abstinent by law have been worse than useless
 The Ladies' Home Journal took up 4 the liquor question and selected Hen- Try Smith. Williams, M. D., ILL. D., to l tell why prohibition has not solved Il the liquor problem pr. Williams, a
 distinguished scholar and educator,
 probably struck the keynote when he Il jsaid. .sst < ,t Sslsfs1 v 4 4s ;
 @ro me at least it seems obvious tthat the only thing which has kept the
 prohibition movement before the peo-
 pie Of the United States Is the simple 1 fact that prohibition does not pro- I hibit sgsS 33s5 #
 <. .Prohibftion that did interdict the Il sale of liquor over large territories l would quickly sound the death knell
 Of the prohibition movement as g na- itiona1 issue.
 s.He bases this on the deeply rooted
 demand for alcoholic beverages and in
 this connection he says:
 l tssfWe cannot in a day or in de- cade convince the eight or ten million l men in the Unified States who consume
 a certain quantity of liquor each day ( fthe vast majority of them, let 1t be Conceded, never drinking to the point iof intoxfcation that they will be hap pier and better off for the foregoing sI Of their indulgence.
 {. Hence general prohibition law
 would from the outset have to deal
 with a population among whom prac- tfcal1y half of the adult males would be in rebe11ious frame of rnfnd-cr ing out in no certain terms against sonaI liberties.
 9 And that the heads of families :. aggregating probably not less than three million people would suddenly livelihood, and that properties valued
 in the aggregate at perhaps two bil- : lion dollars would as suddenly become
 worthless, and the seriousness of the . social and economic crisis that would ; be appreciated begins to reveal itseli in something like it's true propor. . tions.
 t Personally am at a loss to un- derstand how any one who has the :, !, slightest grasp ofaecononic questions can contemplate with equanfmity ths
 dnarchistic possibilities-nay certain ties-which reveal themselves througE
 the slightest use Of the imagination z in connection with these figures. ssThe evils that are produced by pro
 hibitfon are the results Of attempt; ltos force men to be good according Ito the prohibition interpretation o z I the word good whereas it is a we'll
 established principle that men canno : be made good by force. else the peni g tentfariess would release none bu a saints.
 e .One distinguished minister, Rev s Dr. E. |. Powell pastor of the Firs