The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-06-30
ARTICLE SEVEN
Let's Jail Everybody

NNE of the saddest results Of
~ prohibition is that it has trans
formed the kindly, helpful and hui
worker into A zealot of persecution.
Once the moral and spiritual forces
of this country were employed TO
save souls, and rescue the perish
ing" now we send them to jail.
I have not heard Of an old-fash-
Toned temperance lecture since the
Volstead act was passed. The whole
spirit of the times has changed No
longer is the evil of intemperance
portrayed as sin against individ-
ual character, crime against self
restraint, a debauchery of morals,
to be dealt with by church, school
and home. Instead, there are only
demands for harsher penalties and
enforcement of the law.
Indeed, the very word moral" has
become suspect and all too fire.
quently is viewed with ironical
skepticism, If not with contempt. 1t
is regarded as the cloak of hypocrisy
VI bll6 illdoh VI pei oCCubNOAl.
At the Democratic national con-
vention in Houston, year ago, I
stated in a newspaper interview that
have said many times before and
since, that prohibition should be
left to the moral forces" Of the ma
ton. The phrase Immediately was
seized upon to mean the Anti
Saloon league, the Ku-Klux Khan
and the Methodist Board of Prohi-
bition and Public Morals, in spite of
the fact that in season or out, and
long before the true nature of their
activities became generally apparent,
1 had denounced them.
BY curious perversion Of the
value of plain and simple words,
these intolerant and intolerable
agencies now have, in the minds
of many people, monopoly of what
was once, and should be still, the
exclusive province Of the school, the
church and the home.
CONSIDER the word temper
~ ance." In this day of jazz and
whoopee, what an outmoded and
old-fashioned flavor it has. 1t re-
calls the days of the temperance
tract, the White Ribbon League,
ard the pledge. Then, temperance
forces were all engaged in saving
the drunkard.
Yet were they such bad old days?
The violator of the moral code was
not treated as a criminal. The
amen corner was reserved for the
repentant sinner. Today, the spot
kept swept and garnished for him
is prison cell.
Perhaps some still remember old
John B. Cough, the famous tenn
perance preacher, who was re-
Sponsible for much of the early
establishment of local option. He
accomplished a great deal of good
in the world. Unfortunately, he
was afflicted with an appetite for
drink. He was tempted and he did
fall. Occasionally he had to be
salvaged from the gutter.
OF course, he was a laW-violator,
for getting drunk was illegal then,
as now. But he was not looked upon
as a criminal. His frailtieS were
considered with compassion and I'M
Outstanding. He was helped back on
his feet and returned to usefulness
in the community. Every time he
was reclaimed he came back to the
conflict against intemperance with
greater zeal.
Were he alive today he would be
branded by the reformer as "a dam
gerous individual of vicious instincts
and of criminal mind" The Vol
stead act would put him behind the
bars where the Anti-Saloon League
reformers say he belongs.
=
IF today's inhuman laws had been
i in force through the ages, how
many of the wisest and the best