The testimony is quite overwhelming: that Prohibition in government corrupts courts, encourages false oaths, intimidates legislators, causes public officials to be double-faced and mercenary; makes sneaks, liars and hypocrites out of men; increases bribery; opens the way for illegal traffic, and fosters an immoral negligence of law and order! And in addition to all this, it lessens drunkenness not a whit; but on the contrary, increases intemperance, making it more possible and perhaps more inviting to those unable to curb the appetite. What an indictment is this of prohibition; and being true, it would seem these well-established and undeniable facts concerning the results of Prohibition would serve to convince the citizen who is governed by reason and sound judgment rather than by sentiment and emotion, that Prohibition in its practical development is =a real menace to the American system of government=! Collective Tyranny in Government Left to impractical theorizing, Prohibition is harmless: allowed to enter the realm of civil government as a practical working force, it becomes dangerous, threatening not only one liberty, but all the liberties of the people. For in the principle of Prohibition lies the germ of collective tyranny from which may arise every species of intolerance and despotism--an intolerative principle as far removed from =the principle of American liberty= as heaven is from hell, and as different in every essential from the spirit of republican government--a true democracy--as the breath of the polar iceberg is different from the blaze of the equatorial sun! Could the American public see Prohibition =as it is=, and not what it seems to be:--then this un-American and un-Christian movement would speedily be relegated to the shades of oblivion, and =real and effective reform along moral, social and intellectual lines would begin=. As it is, Prohibition actually stands, like a Chinese Wall, in the pathway of =real reform=. Says Professor Munsterberg: "The evils of drink exist, and to neglect their cure would be criminal; but to rush on to the conclusion that every vineyard ought, therefore, to be devastated is unworthy the logic of a self-governing nation." The evils of gluttony also exist, and that more people die from direct and indirect causes arising from overeating than from drink will not be denied, yet who would propose a law to close the butcher shops, and prohibit the milling of fine flour and the importation of tea and coffee--higher medical and dietary authorities having decided all these latter to be injurious--in order to improve the physical condition of the people!