p. 375 | BEGINNING TO SEE IT by C. P. B.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

BEGINNING TO SEE IT.

By C. P. B.

WE are glad that the California Prohibitionist is beginning to see the inconsistency of prohibiting liquor selling on Sunday and permitting it on other days. The following paragraph from that paper, of June 6, will explain our meaning:—

"Cardinal Gibbons says he is opposed to prohibition because it does not prohibit. High license with 'moral sanction' he regards as the most efficient way of diminishing the drinking vice. He would, however, prohibit the sale of liquors entirely on Sunday, and would have that law 'rigidly enforced.' We would like to hear the Cardinal explain two things: First, what 'moral sanction' means as applied to high license, and second, why a law which can be rigidly enforced on Sunday cannot be as rigidly enforced every other day in the week."

The Prohibitionist has evidently got things a little mixed. What Cardinal Gibbons said was: "I regard high license with moral suasion as the most efficient way of diminishing the drinking vice." Of course we cannot agree with the Cardinal in this, for it has been demonstrated repeatedly that high license does not diminish drinking. It gives a few the monopoly of the business, that is all. At least this has been the case in a number of States where high license has been tried. Liquor dealers themselves are almost if not quite unanimous in testifying that high license does not reduce the consumption of intoxicating liquors.

Our contemporary is quite right, however, in demanding to know "why a law which can be rigidly enforced on Sunday cannot be as rigidly enforced every other day in the week." To single out Sunday and specify that liquor shall not be sold upon that day, is simply to imply that it is proper and right to sell it on other days. We do not see how any Prohibitionist can consistently advocate Sunday prohibition, any more than he can advocate high license. The two measures are off one piece; they both legalize liquor selling under certain conditions, and by giving it the sanction of law, make it respectable in the eyes of the great mass of the people. If liquor selling is a legitimate business it ought in all respects to be placed on an equality with other branches of legitimate business; if it is not legitimate it ought to be prohibited on all days. We believe that it should be prohibited. C. P. B.