'^PEOHIBITION;" 



OR THE KELA llON OF 



goyeb:n]mji:nt to temperance 



The most important question of the hour is what is the proper function and 

 province of government. 



THE Proliibitionist holds that iutemperance is the great and 

 ci-ying ftvil of our time ; that it is the direct cause of much 

 of our taxation, and most of our crime, therefore the State 

 should interfere to suppress it. 



SUPPRESSION OF EVILS. 



Now no one dispiites the evil of intemperance, suppose we call 



it the greatest of evils. If government can or ought to suppress the 



greatest, then it should tr}^ its hand at the next in importa nee. If 



two pigs are tearing up the sward in your yard is there any i-eason 



why, while driving out the one that weighs one hundred pounds, 



you should leave the other, which counts ninety and nine ? That 



would be a discrimination only against one pound of rooting ! If 



the greatest evil can and ought to be suppressed, then the next 



gi-eatest evil can and ought to be supi)ressed. The Living Issue 



says, "There was consumed last year in the United States 3, 212,- 



000,000 cigars. This twin brother of the drink curse will demand 



the same methods now advocated by the Prohibitionists. The pi-in- 



ciple will be settled as to alcohol, and then may be easily extended 



to include all such useless and destructive agents.'' The Living 



Issue is both logical and consistent, and the Christian Statesman 



ah-eadv reports a law, in Kansas, to the eflect that no dealer shall 



sell tobacco to a person under sixteen years of age. The 'old man' 



will now have to go and get it himself, which serves him right ! 



