New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1915-02-06

tempt of legislating men into
temperance and moderation by
classifying natural product
among the virulent polson>
against which society must be
protected by prohibitory leglsla-
ton. Such paternalistic meas
ures must be condemned, not so
much as an infringement upon
freedom-for personal liberty
must necessarily be restricted
wherever the interests Of human
ity impose restraint-but as a
! lowering Of the standards of
moral manhood which must be-
trusted in matters of excess, to
rely upon the inward, individual!
restraints Of the moral will.
ut is significant that the move
ment which, aims at suppressing
drunkenness by cutting off sup
plies from all classes, that this
movement characterizes itself
very fifty, by the vague terms of
prohibition. You cannot rear
your child's character into the
strength of many resistance by
merely forbidding the things, call
them candy, sport, theater, which
threaten to wreck his health or
career, if mode1 ately INDUCED
in. You must build ZIP that hui
man soul from within not shackle
it from without. Moral educa-
ton, of nations as of men, must
be positive in method, not mega
tive; the loaded revolver, the
deadly poison I am willing to
remove altogether; from the ordi-
nary temptation / prefer not to
hide my child; he must be steeled
to resist it, to spurn it, even when
l shall be with him no more as a j!
warning guide.
The Jews Temperance.
"What has been the secret of
the Jews temperance through all
the generations Did his relig-
ion forbid strong drink, as does
Mohammedanism, often ineffec-
tually9 Did parents guard the
unripe child against the taste of |
fermented beverages. as if it were
crime. indeed, to let the child-lip
touch the cup? 1t was the posi- !
tive training Of moderation, the
reverent regard for Gods handl-
work, the chaste and God-fearing
life which controls the lower ap-
petites, the mind filled with high
er thought the heart overlooking
with affection for it's dear ones,
the soul attuned to aspirations for
the nobler values of life, it was
these hallowing voices of life
prevailing home-sweetening faith
that had the power to exercise the
unhallowed demons Of beastly ex-
cess, of ungodlike establishment.
We seek in vain, and to the de-
plorable detriment of all the in
terests of higher progress, for any
legal mechanism, for any forcibly
imposed shortcuts to the moral
uplift Of our people. Not the
law, not the school. not even |
public opinion with it's powerful
prestige can ever arm the moral I
will, the individual character
with the effective discipline that
will steady men into rational I'M
wavering self-guidance. Until our
homes shall be effective moral
agents, until the principle of up
right and manly conduct, the
sense of Gods presence in curl
lives, the realization of our re-
sponsibility to present and future
until all these shall have been
firmly rooted, by competent and
conscientious parents into recep-
tive child-souls, until we realize
the solemnity, the paramount
value Of these duties, we shall be
cropping in the dark. snatchingI
after will-of-the-wasps of error,
instead of facing the everlasting
demands of Gods own law.
ut is for us manfully to pro-
test against seductive error.
periodically to submit to the de-
cision of majority, to uphold un-
falteringly in our own live that
which ancestral teaching, which