New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1916-01-15
ANOTHER PROHIBITION
PUNCTu .ri.
Editor Enterprise:

We are again being RECALLED
with gabftst rendered by the
Barrett branch of the active Lou
isiana Anti-Saloon League.
The bill Of fare announced 10
famous features, not ordinarll,
known to the common chef dc
cuisine. But the chief piece de
resistance. Major Smith, heralded
with such intensive publicity as a
national fieure and forcibIe and
convincing orator, almost resem-
bles the la bel on a package a
Well-known National fod er, y
and a decciving Substitute of a
saWdust food. In submitting
shadow for substance. mirage
for a real painting his cleverness
became histrionic. scductively re
fined but cruelty misleading. De-
cnpying a morally false position
his philosophy is painfully ster-
ilized. His former connection
with the Model License League
rather nertralizes the fire Of his
sincerity and links him with the
insisting suspicion that his con-
version and jealous militancv are
bread by a desire for exploitation
and capitalization of the desertion
through services now rendered to
the Anti-Saloon League. The
talk seems to run to money and
not to men. The reform means
common politics not moral poll
Healthy moving pictures repeat
ing the regular prohibition formu-
las with a stately cadence and an
agreeable polish don't agree to
supply prohibition geography to
promote their health or to furnish
classical OratOry to commemorate
dangerous spirits and Satanic ec-
centricities Numberless pulpit
failures and political derelicts are
now enlisted in a national army of
calamity howlers. In a spirit Of
humility and disinterestedness
they have assumed the burden of
the new cult and commenced the
work Of reformation and redemp-
ton. Bv framing it in the i'm
penetrable darkness of smolder-
ing misery and poverty they pro-
duce a picture of perfect illusion,
a picture that will energize the
credulity of the simple votary. 1t
is the stage picture Of the trick
performer, the sleight Of hand
man and the spiritualist. The cir
cult riding preacher has evolved
into a prohibitionist, because in
the double role he is better soul
hunter and saver in the bowling
forest than the head-hunter in
darkest Africa.
What is prohibition? Is it a
psychological state of mind, a new
national malady, a wave Of pass
ing dementia? Os is it the sim
mering, mufiied unrest of relig-
ious inertia; a religious hysteria,
a letting down Of the bars of
church conventionalities or an in
ton against the civil au-
thorities and restraints of demo-
cratic government? The discov-
cry of this new disease and the
necessity for it's strangulation is a |
of the erratic hand and
mind that are together guiding
he contradictory church life of |
he nation. = |
! How tastes and habits can be
netamorphosed by legislation no
statesman has yet discover ed.
low races and nations can be
emperamentally amalagamated
10 political or religious alchemist
las yet attempted. The Latin re-
nalns Latin with his peculiar ma
lonal spirit. with his peculiar ma
iOnal spirit. with his inherited ap-
'etites that are a part Of his his
orv and development.
You may teach the Latin Anglo
saxon ways. or Teutonic patience;
e may speak fluent English and
terary German. but you can new
+ suppress the vivacity, the man
'estation of emotions. the express
ION of JOY and sorrow, those ;
lbtle attributes that are char :
cterlstics of the Latin. that are I
[ the Latin race. 1t is racial !
nd not political. You can sur {
Dund the Anglo-Saxon with ev- 7
" phase Of the mercurial volatil-
y Of Latin life; you may stuff $
IN with the elusive spirit of the c
and the heroism Of its /
but you will never al S