The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-10-10

that the habitual drunkard and pc |
riodical drinker need prohibition. |
But will it save them? Not unless you
close the drug stores and prohibit |
the use of patent medicines. Beer
contains less than four percent of al
cohol, wine from 10 to 15 percent,
while Peruna contains % per cent of
alcohol, and Hosstetter's Stomach
Bitters A per cent. Besides, if put to
the test it would be an easy matter for
man to make his own wine and cid
er and become intoxicated as often as
he desires.
Another popular fallacy is that
8 per cent of poverty is due to drink.
If that were true the drys would all
be rich and the vets would all be
poor. You have no such condition in
this community. Poverty is due to i'll
health, lack of employment, poor
wages, bad judgment, and our indus
trial and trust systems, under which
some people get so much that there
is not great deal left for the rest
of us.
Another popular prohibition falla-
cay is the idea that 80 per cent of
crime is due to drink. The criminal
records Of the world will show that
greed, jealousy, lust and revenge is
responsible for 80 percent of crime.
These records also show that rs per
cent of all criminals were abandoned
in childhood-that 70 per cent have no
trade or profession, and that rs per
cent of all crime is committed be-
tween the ages of IL and % before
the habit of drink is formed. These
records show that if you take 100000
people between the age of IL and %
and 100000 between the age of %
and 40 the older crowd. win drink
twenty times more liquor, the younger
crowd will commit twenty times
more crimes during the same period
of time.
"Prohibitionists also argue that the
drunkard is the product of the sa-
loon. He is no more the product of
the saloon than the glutton is the
product of the grocery stores. Each
lis the victim of his own folly and
weakness.
He contradicted the claim of the
dry orators that Kansas has the larg-
est per capita deposit in banks of any
state in the union. He said he could
prove by the report of the U. S.
Controller of Currency that instead
of having the largest, she has prac-
tically the smallest, that 20 states lead
Kansas in per capita deposit in banks.
He called attention to the chal-
lenge issued by the Escambia County
Protective Association to debate the
question at issue, and read the reply
of the Escambia County Prohibition
League refusing to accept the chal-
lenge. Mr.. Windle said:
"The resolution proposed for dis
cussion read:
/! Resolved that prohibition of the
manufacture, sale and use of intoxi-
eating liquors for beverage purposes,
is wrong in principle, Christian in
character, and powerless as rene
day for intemperance.'
1T will be seen that we asked the
prohibitionist to defend their propo-
sition on the highest ground possible.
We agreed to attack prohibition on
the ground that it is wrong and ask
ed them to defend it on the ground
that it is right. We charge that pro-
hibition is un-Christian, in character,
and ask its advocates to prove that it
is Christian. We deny that prohibi-
ton is a remedy for intemperance
and they refuse to defend it on the
ground that it is a cure for intemper-
ance. If our opponents cannot defend
prohibition on the ground that it is
right, in principle, Christian in char
acter, then on what grounds can they
defend it?
"They say in their reply:
That every one that is sincere
knows, or by the slightest observation
may know, that the prohibition of the
manufacture, sale and use of intoxi-
eating liquors for beverages, is right
in principle, Christian in character
and powerful as a remedy for intern
perance.'
eff they are certain of this they
should not decline to accept the chal-
!. lenge as nothing could do more to adj
vance their cause than to demonstrate
their claim in joint debate. On Mon
day night from this platform l shall
attack prohibition on the grounds
named in our challenge and defy any
man to successfully defend it, from
the standpoint of principle, theology,
or practicability"