Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong DrinkArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Religion
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Temperance
That the State has a clear right to prohibit the sale of intoxicating
drinks, because this sale not only hurts all other interests, but
destroys the health and degrades the morals of the people, has been
fully shown.
The question next to be considered is, Can prohibitory laws be enforced?
and if so, will they remove from the people the curse of drunkenness?
CAN PROHIBITORY LAWS BE ENFORCED?
As to the complete enforcement of any salutory law, that depends mainly
on the public sentiment regarding it, and on the organized strength of
its opposers. If the common sentiment of the people were in favor of
every man's liberty to steal whatever he could lay his hands on, it
would be found very difficult to convict a rogue, no matter how clearly
expressed the law against stealing. A single thief in the jury-box could
defeat the ends of justice. A hundred loop-holes for escape can always
be found in the provisions of a law with which the majority of the
people are not in sympathy. Indeed, it often happens that such
loop-holes are provided by the law-makers themselves; and this is
especially true in too many of the laws made for the suppression of the
liquor trade.
Is this an argument against the enactment of laws to protect the people
from great wrongs--especially the weaker and more helpless ones? To the
half-hearted, the indifferent and the pusillanimous--yes! But with
brave, true men, who have at heart the best interests of humanity, this
can only intensify opposition to wrong, and give strength for new
efforts to destroy its power. These have an undying faith in the
ultimate victory of good over evil, and mean, so far as they are
concerned, that the battle shall continue until that victory is won.
Judge Pitman has eloquently expressed this sentiment in the closing
pages of his recent work, to which we have more than once referred.
Speaking of those who distrust the practicability of securing such
legislation as will effectually destroy the liquor trade, he says: "They
are appalled at the power of the traffic. They see that it has uncounted
wealth at its command; that it is organized and unscrupulous; that it
has the support of fierce appetite behind it and the alliance of every
evil lust; that it is able to bribe or intimidate the great political
parties. All this is true; but still it is not to be the final victor.
It has all the elemental moral forces of the human race against it, and
though their working be slow, and their rate of progress dependent on
human energy and fidelity, the ultimate result is as certain as the
action of the law of gravity in the material universe. Wealth may be
against us; rank may affect to despise us; but the light whose dawn
makes a new morning in the world, rarely shines from palace or crown,
but from the manger and the cross. Before the aroused consciences of the
people, wielding the indomitable will of a State, the destroyers of soul
and body shall go down forever."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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