SHOULD PROHIBITORY LAWS BE ABOLISHED? 225 



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SHOULD PROHIBITORY LAWS BE ABOLISHED? 



BY T. D. CEOTHEES, M. D. 



R. APPLETON MORGAN, in the March number of The 



Popular Science Monthly, affirms that all prohibitory liquor 

 laws should be abolished. Naturally, the reader inquires for what 

 reasons and upon what evidence, and expects to find a grouping 

 of facts that will at least give some support to these claims. If, 

 on the contrary, the author assumes that the reader will credu- 

 lously accept his confident statements as facts, it is to be supposed 

 that such statements will be in accord with common observation, 

 historical facts, and experience ; if they fail in this, and are not 

 sustained by any general examination, it is safe to conclude that 

 the purpose of the paper is not to present the truth, and the author 

 is a partisan, having some other object to accomplish not appar- 

 ent in his writings. 



The magnitude and intensely practical character of the ques- 

 tion of prohibitory laws seem to demand some examination of the 

 author's assertions. He begins with this : " The absolute, un- 

 qualified, and distinguished failure of all laws for the abolish- 

 ment of the traffic in liquors is speedily convincing even the 

 most sanguine prohibitionists of the expediency of wiping them 

 from every statute book in the land/' 



In the failure to refer to authority for this statement the 

 reader must examine for himself. Political records in yearly 

 volumes, and histories of political reform, give no evidence or 

 names of sanguine or other prohibitionists who are convinced of 

 the failure of such laws. 



Governors of States where prohibition laws are in force have 

 without exception declared in their favor. Some have suggested 

 modifications and changes from the present form, but all have 

 affirmed their great value in securing better observance of law 

 and order. 



In 1889 a canvass was made of the opinions of judges, Congress- 

 men, mayors of cities, superintendents of schools, journalists, 

 manufacturers, postmasters, and others in the State of Maine, 

 asking their opinion of the practical value of the existing pro- 

 hibitory laws. In one hundred and forty replies only seven ex- 

 pressed any doubt, the others were confident and enthusiastic. 

 Similar canvasses made in Vermont, Rhode Island, Kansas, Iowa, 

 and in States where prohibition had been tried, brought out the 

 same unanimous replies from equally eminent men, who were not 

 in any way identified with the party of prohibition. 



These and other systematic inquiries have been published in 

 the New York Voice, a leading prohibition paper, and are cer- 



VOL. XLT. 18 



