226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tainly entitled to credence from the fearless, independent char- 

 acter of the replies. Turning to the Brewers' Journal and the 

 Wine and Spirit Circular, which are supposed to represent those 

 opposed to all prohibitory laws, the statements which are pre- 

 sented are of such a startling character, showing the failure of 

 such laws, as to create doubt of their accuracy. The evidence in 

 both of these journals and their reports is so intensely partisan 

 and extreme as statements of alleged facts as to appear unfair 

 and doubtful. 



The census reports of 1880 and 1890 show a marked decrease 

 of crime, pauperism, drunkenness, and arrests in all the States 

 where prohibition is in force. No matter how these facts are ex- 

 plained, they do not support the statement that prohibition is a 

 distinguished failure. 



The author continues : " These laws never had any adequate 

 or logical reason for existing at all. They have had their origin 

 always and without exception in sparsely settled communities, 

 where personal liberty was so absolute that it became irksome, 

 where liquor was almost unknown, and its use a curiosity, and 

 where the only knowledge of the horrors of intoxication the vil- 

 lage possessed was derived from itinerant temperance orators, 

 who dilated upon the terrible consequences of the rum habit to a 

 roomful of tearful old women, none of whom knew the taste of 

 liquor stronger than green tea." 



The first sentence of this quotation must be accepted exclu- 

 sively on faith, for there are no reasons for supposing that the 

 long lists of philosophers, reformers, and leaders who have urged 

 prohibitory laws were stupid, illogical, and unable to realize and 

 reason on a certain line of facts. The rest of the paragraph 

 ignores all early history of the origin of prohibitory legislation. 

 The author has overlooked the fact that prohibitionary laws were 

 enacted in Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Rome long centuries ago ; 

 also that Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle discussed these ques- 

 tions, and Homer and Herodotus declared that " prohibitory laws 

 would save men from becoming beasts." If the author will turn 

 to his copy of RoUin's Ancient History, Montesquieu's Spirit of 

 Laws, and Whewell's Platonic Dialogues, and his Morality and 

 Polity, he will find his assertions out of harmony with the facts. 



Along in this connection he asserts that the New England 

 Puritan " no more thought of prohibiting the drinking of liquor 

 than the preaching eight or ten hour sermons." Here again the 

 facts of history are ignored. Laws were passed in Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, and Rhode Island, as early as 1610, prohibiting the 

 sale of liquor to Indians, negroes, and mulatto slaves, and earlier 

 than this innkeepers were prohibited from selling spirits after 

 nine o'clock at night, and on Sunday, or to drunken men. The 



