Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic.
By Neal Dow
It is a matter for great surprise among the working friends of temperance that there can be any difference of opinion, among sincere friends of the temperance movement, as to the propriety and necessity of the prohibition of the liquor traffic. In England there are many intelligent men who deny that government has the right to put it under the ban of the law. In this country it is very rare to find such a person who holds that opinion, especially since the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States have unanimously affirmed it, and the upper courts of every State where the question has arisen have done the same thing. We may dismiss, then, as of no account, the objection, from whatever source it may come, that society has no right to protect itself from the liquor traffic, which inflicts far more mischief upon the community than any other source of evil. The objection of intelligent men to the policy of prohibition is, mainly, that it does not prohibit; that prohibitory laws have been, and are, failures. I have before me now, as I write, a most respectable Republican paper, of a great city, in which the editor says, "The remedy for intemperance which many thoughtful men propose is not in prohibition, which has been a dead failure even in Maine." This is a fair specimen of the opinions entertained by the leading newspapers of the country, and by a great many leaders of public opinion, both clerical and lay. Now, if the question of prohibition were a matter of minor importance to the country, it might be pardonable in such papers and such persons to be imperfectly informed in relation to it; but seeing that it is a matter of far greater importance to nation, State, and people than any other political and social question, even more important than all other such questions combined, it seems to me not to be a proper thing to do for such papers and such persons to undertake to teach the people in relation to it without first ascertaining the facts in the case. In this country and in Europe there are many hundreds of localities where prohibition has been established for various periods, in some of them for more than a quarter of a century. In not one of these places has it in any sense been a failure; in every one of them it has been a great success; in some of them, in entirely sweeping away the liquor traffic and the evils that came from it; in all of them in greatly diminishing the traffic and reducing the volume of the poverty, pauperism, and crime originating in it. Not long ago one of the most respectable and influential papers of New York said that prohibition had been a failure wherever it had been tried, even in Maine, where it had its origin. The editor was kind enough to admit a reply from me into his columns, in which I said he was entirely mistaken in his opinion upon that matter, and I added that, of the many hundreds of localities in America and Europe where prohibition had been established many years, he could not name one where it had in any way failed. I earnestly requested him to name one such place. His reply was that it was "a matter of common notoriety that prohibition was a failure, and that was conclusive." I rejoined that common notoriety was of no authority whatever, unless founded in the facts of the case, and I denied that there was even one fact in the case to justify such an opinion. It was once a matter of common notoriety that the earth was flat and not round, and that the heavenly bodies revolved about the earth as the center of the system. There are some localities within two hours' ride of New York where prohibition has been established for many years, and the facts as to its success have as well as in many places more remote, have been often published to the world. Why, then, should intelligent men, who really wish well to their fellows, be correctly informed upon them, so as to be able intelligently and honestly to discuss the question? Men with a deep pecuniary interest in the enormous profits of the liquor traffic set these false reports afloat in the press, and somehow they procure them to be repeated as if they were true, by a great many most respectable people in church and State. I suppose unprejudiced persons will readily concede that the people of Maine, after an experience of prohibition of more than thirty years, ought to know what its results have actually been. The Republican party, the dominant party in the State, has always had prohibition in its platform, and the Democratic party has repeatedly and emphatically repudiated the policy of license. I have only four of the resolves of the State Conventions of the Republican party of Maine, and I give them here:— 1878. "Temperance among the people may be greatly promoted by wise prohibitory legislation, as well as by all of those moral agencies which have secured us beneficent results; and it is a source of congratulation that the principle of prohibition, which has always been upheld by Republicans, is now concurred in by so large a majority of the people that it is no longer a party question, the Democrats having for several years declined to contest and dispute it." 1879. "We recognize temperance as a cause which has conferred the greatest benefits on the State, and we sustain the principle of prohibition, which in its operation has so largely suppressed liquor selling and added incalculably to the sum of virtue and prosperity among the people." 1880. "Experience has demonstrated the wisdom of the policy of prohibition as an auxiliary of temperance, and as contributing to the material wealth, happiness, and prosperity of the State; and we refer with confidence and pride to an undeviating support of the same as one of the cardinal principles of the Republican party of Maine." There was no election in 1881, and no convention; but in 1882 the largest convention ever held in Maine assembled in Portland, more than 1,300 delegates being present from every county in the State, and the following resolve was unanimously adopted:— "We refer with confidence and pride to the general record of the Republican party in support of the policy of prohibiting the traffic in intoxicating liquors, the wisdom and efficiency of which legislation in promoting the moral and material interests of Maine have been demonstrated through the practical annihilation of that traffic in a large portion of the State; and we favor such legislation and such enforcement of law as will secure to every portion of our territory freedom from that traffic. We further recommend the submission to the people of a constitutional prohibitory amendment." The Legislature has now voted by 74 to 37 to submit such a proposition to the people. I am confident that intelligent men uninfluenced by interest, appetite, passion, or prejudice will accept this as conclusive of the whole matter.—Hon. Neal Dow.