The daily progressive-miner., 1916-05-31
PROHIBITION.

is prohibition. It is entitled ..Th,
 Great Destroyer" and Is printed a
 government expense and distribute,
 by the Anti-Saloon League. who's,
 highest-paid representative in Con gress Mir, Hobson is said to be We admit that we havn't read. 1t yet
 but we will. We fancy it was sen
 us as a joke by one of the boys wht
 know that we believe and advocate Iltemperance in all things. and if ths intention was to "get riser out O
 us. it has succeeded.
 There is saying to the effect i that Consistency. is full.jeweled" ol words to that effect However that may be. we know that everybody ex poets and demands of everybody else
 consistency. We know that the peo
 pie demand it of us. and while We
 endeavor to give it (and fail at timesl
 we also demand it of others If you can't pay you can't take" is the rule
 of the game as we understand it, and as we know that among other things MT. Hobson is inconsistent up- on prohibition we are not prepared to give credit for his public talk when his public actions do not bear out that talk For instance water may be a great destroyer, as we'll as whisky or the milder beverages In fact, when MT. Hobson sank the collier Mer- ' rimac in Santiago harbor early in July of 1898. his men and himself took to the water and for a time it looked as though the water would be their great destroyer Just then the boats from the Spanish warship, Reina Mercedes picked them up and here is the testimony of one of the men. one John P Phillips:
 And. later on, when we were taken aboard the Reina Mercedes, dressed only in wet underwear,
 cut of at the knees, Hobson, as
 calm as ever, walked up to the
 commander of the Spanish yes sel, saluted him and said: I DE-
 MAND WHISKY FOR MY MEN
 who have been long exposed in the water.''
 So much for MT. Hobson and his record
 We do not hesitate to say that we are unequiyocally for temperance temperance in ALL things. Our child ren are being taught it from the crad- le, and after all, that Is where the lesson should begin. Overeating kills more people than does overwhelming therefore. temperance in eating 2 -h tea ~f.< to eat, and eat for many years before we start in to acquire the drink hab- it. If children are temperate in their eating and are taught to eat right and live right, there is little danger of them ever becoming a slave to liquor. Excesses of all kinds are a menace and should be opposed in the press and in the pulpit-for instance. they tell us from the pulpit and from the rostrum- that drink is the great est cause of insanity-that as a cause of insanity drink leads all causes. The facts in the case, however. are that, according to the United States statistics insanity is caused in regu- lar order CD sexual abuse; @ relig- ious fanatacism; (3) drink The logi- cal cure for insanity fstriking direct ly at it's source) would be f1) unsex children immediately after birth; f2l deprive them of religion lest they be- come insane; (3l drink-well, there's no use in following this line of thought, for without sex or religion what would it matter whether all the worlds men drank or not? They would certainly have a reason for drinking-be entitled to some solace.
 We are not for prohibition, for thousand good reasons First of all. 1t doesn't prohibit It never did pro hfbit and it never will You can no more legislate morals and temperance into a people than you can IegisIate into them success. Neither condition is beyond any man. Some of us just Will not be successful, and some of us are less moral than we probably should be. But, what code of laws is going to put us right and keep us that way? None that man can make. Some 37 per cent of the people of the
 dry States is urban, and about the same percentage is alleged to take a glass of beer or whisky occasion. ally or oftener. Some s per cent of the population of those States is in- terurban-the 63 per cent, not expos ed to the opportunity to get beer or whisky freely has taken it upon it. self to deny the 37 per cent the right to obtain light or strong drink If they wish to. They have done this without the consent of the 37 per cent, and as the 37 per cent had no hand in making the Mws the 37 per cent refuses to be bound by such laws. The result is ardent spirits in place of milder beverages, poorer liq- uor, illicit stills and drunkenness ac- cented in those who would not be drunkards but that their neighbor de- nies them the right to eat or drink as they feel they have the right. We 1 do not believe that we have the right to legislate away our neighbors personal rights and privileges, and We therefore do not believe that any other man has that right. Might does not make right, and never did Pro
 hibition does not prohibit, and never
 will Temperance is RIGHT, all the
 time. You can drive a horse to wa ter, but you can't make him drink you can deprive man of the oppor-
 tunity to buy drinks easily, but you
 cannot keep him from taking drink