The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-07-04
PROHIBITION IN AMERICA

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA
With bone-dry United States to-
day, even the most optimistic prohi-
bitionists seem a little dazed. Few Of
the pioneers in the temperance move
ment expected such a consummation
in this generation. Three great re-
ligions long ago began enforcement of
prohibition, Buddhism, Hinduism and
Mohammedansm China as early as
459 B. C. prohibited the sale of intox-
icants, beheading liquor Gellers. While
the English word "teetotalism" dates
from 1883, when Richard Turner, who
suffered, declared at a temperance
meeting that it must not stop short of
"te-te-total," total abstinence was
preached and practiced long before the
distilling of spirits was known, Amen
em-an, an Egyptian, in 1000 B. c. hav-
ing left record of his teachings. De-
mosthenes was an abstainer, and Rom
ulus was reputed to be. Greek and
Roman laws for time followed Pla-
to's suggestion that no one under 30
years of age should be allowed to
drink liquor.
bub dSlI lOI Win
its genealogical sense of moderation,
began in this country in the first quar-
ter of the nineteenth century. Among
the agitators were wearers of yellow
ribbons, denoting that they drank
moderately. John c. Calhoun, as sec
rotary of war, forbade the sale of
ardent spirits in the United States
Army in 1878, and 81 years later the
law against sale even of beer in CEN
teens was passed. 1t took but little
time, after the organization of the
American Temperance Union in 1886,
to transform the meaning of temper
ance to abstinence. Moral suasion
was first used. Francis Murphy be-
gan crusade in 1870 which resulted
in 100000 persons taking the
pledge. John B. Cough did similar
work. Father Theobald Mathew had
used the same methods, getting mil
lions of converts and organizing So
cieties that are still vigorous. Num-
erous temperance societies with spe-
cial aims sprang up in this country
and England, the Band of Hope Un-
ion" being one of the most celebrated.
Following the campaign for moral
suasion, various kinds of legislation
were tried. Substitution of light
wines for beer and ale, antitreating
laws, state dispcnsaries, sale of Ii
quor only on prescriptions, block,
city and county option laws, state pro-
hibition supplemented by federal aid,
and almost every conceivable form of
regulation have been tried, in this
country or elsewhere. In England at
one time only clergymen could tend
bar. Federal prohibition has been in
force in what was old Indian Terri
tory, now Eastern Oklahoma, for
generation. 1t has been recently en-
forced in the District of Columbia.
At the time of the adoption of the
federal constitution nearly everybody
had his own brandy still, the only
large distilleries being those making
rum in Massachusetts. Liquor was
part of the stipulated wages for la
borers. The first federal excise taxes
not only provoked the whiskey re-
bellion but furnished an effective
campaign cry against the Federalists,
"They have taxed the common drink
of the country" The Methodists,
Quakers and Presbyterians early took
a pronounced stand against the use
or the manufacture or sale of intox-
icants, but clergymen of some other
denominations hooted at such a po-
sition, and less than a hundred years
ago some clergymen kept whiskey
TASKS on the pulpits, from which they
took liberal draughts as often as they
felt the need of inspiration. But
since Neal BOWS Maine law the trend
has been steadily toward prohibition,
although the Prohibition party, of
which he was presidential candidate,
never won single prohibition vic
tory. The W. C. T. u, founded after
the women's whiskey war in South
ern Ohio in the early 70s, did great
work along many lines, eliminating
in 1902 with compulsory teaching in
the public schools of every state of
the bad effects of alcohol. But the
Antisaloon League, a nonpartisan, OPP
portunistic organization, pledged to
no ultimate aim but pushing every
advantage in every section of every
state and supporting every national
movement that even squinted at ma
tional prohibition, was the greatest
factor in the final result, although the
political conduct of the wholesale and
retail dealers in intoxicants and the
failure vigorously to enforce the laws
against drunkenness and the sale Of
liquor toydrunken men rendered great
aid. An interesting book could be
written on the campaign since 1872,
but at the present stage of feeling an
unbiased story would be rejected by
both sides with equal vehemence.-
Globe-Democrat.