To do justice to this particular phase of the question of Prohibition--a principle so dangerous and "monstrous" that there is "no violation of liberty which it would not justify"--it is necessary to be courageous, honest, unafraid, and not "soaked to the pulp in the pseudo-puritanical, moral antiseptic bath of conventional prejudices." Here in America we have had enough of base misrepresentation, rotten hypocrisy, and sugar-coated sentimentality. What we really need now is honesty of purpose and courage of conviction, let the criticizing mob be of "the upper ten thousand or lower," it matters not. A False Principle =What Is the Real Menace of Prohibition?= It is the false =principle= from which it derives its life and being. "We are the good people," say the moral reformers: "you are the bad; therefore it is the duty of the good people to seek control of the government and to enact laws that will make you bad people good." The platform of the Prohibition Party of Ohio states it in a different way, but in essence it is the same thing: "The Prohibition Party of Ohio ... recognizing Almighty God, revealed in Jesus Christ, and accepting the law of God as the ultimate standard of right ... the referendum in all matters of legislation not distinctively moral." In this scheme of government, as it is plainly revealed, "the law of God" as it would be =interpreted= by the Prohibitionists, would be the supreme standard of all matters distinctively moral, and the initiative and referendum would be relied upon, and allowed in all matters of legislation "=not= distinctively moral." This was exactly what happened in the Dark Ages and early New England: "good people" sought and secured the control of the government, "the law of God" was made "the ultimate standard of right" as interpreted by the "good people" in power, and the "bad people" were put to the torture. As the result of just such a scheme, barbaric practices reigned in the name of law: thumb-screw and rack were brought into requisition, Calvin burned Servetus, Quakers were hanged and witches burned, Roger Williams banished, and Mary Dyer hung by the neck until she was dead,--and all because "Almighty God, revealed in Jesus Christ," was recognized in government, and "the law of God" made the ultimate standard of right. But between "Almighty God" and "the law of God" there always stood the interpreter of that law, and the bigoted, blinded, fanatical follower of Creed who mistook his creed for God, and his =will= and =opinion= for the law of God. Had God and His law been left alone, no possible harm could have resulted.