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.

Under this scheme of religious and moral government, Jews, agnostics, and non-Christian elements, and even Christians that do not acquiesce in the scheme, have no recognition; and under the administration of the moral reform element would have no place in the country, except on sufferance! And just what would happen to people who repudiated a church-and-state system of government like this! Let us see:

The Prohibitionist invariably argues that “the God of the Bible” authorizes Prohibition in civil government; it is religious, and a Bible doctrine, he contends, and therefore should receive recognition not only by the people, but by the government as well; and all who cannot, whether from conscientious scruples or other reasons, agree with them, are opponents of “the God of the Bible,” of true religion, and of government. Very frequently the charge of “anarchist” is hurled against those who cannot agree with them, and ofttimes the most unscrupulous and un-Christian methods are resorted to, to crush out all opposition. And what the opponents of Prohibition might expect, if Prohibition ever reaches the zenith of political power, may be determined from a statement by Rev. E. B. Graham, in a speech made at York, Neb. He said:

“We might add, in all justice, if the opponents of the Bible do not like our government and its Christian features, let them go to some wild and desolate land, and in the name of the devil and for the sake of the devil, subdue it, and set up a government of their own on infidel and atheistic ideas; and then if they can stand it, stay there till they die.”

The foregoing, at least, shows some of the Christian features (?) of the program of the Reform party. The program winds up with the banishment of the minority to some wild and desolate land where they may remain until they die! The trouble is, if liberty-loving citizens of the United States, jealous of their rights and constitutional guaranties and determined to preserve them even to the point of quitting their beloved country, should go to some wild and desolate land, and set up a government where they could enjoy religious and personal freedom, it would not satisfy the Prohibition moral-reform forces. All past history shows that they would follow to the wild and desolate land, and destroy, if possible, every vestige of such government as was opposed to their narrow and intolerant ideas!