Left to impractical theorizing, Prohibition is harmless: allowed to enter the realm of civil government as a practical working force, it becomes dangerous, threatening not only one liberty, but all the liberties of the people. For in the principle of Prohibition lies the germ of collective tyranny from which may arise every species of intolerance and despotism—an intolerative principle as far removed from the principle of American liberty as heaven is from hell, and as different in every essential from the spirit of republican government—a true democracy—as the breath of the polar iceberg is different from the blaze of the equatorial sun!

Could the American public see Prohibition as it is, and not what it seems to be:—then this un-American and un-Christian movement would speedily be relegated to the shades of oblivion, and real and effective reform along moral, social and intellectual lines would begin. As it is, Prohibition actually stands, like a Chinese Wall, in the pathway of real reform.

Says Professor Munsterberg:

“The evils of drink exist, and to neglect their cure would be criminal; but to rush on to the conclusion that every vineyard ought, therefore, to be devastated is unworthy the logic of a self-governing nation.”

The evils of gluttony also exist, and that more people die from direct and indirect causes arising from overeating than from drink will not be denied, yet who would propose a law to close the butcher shops, and prohibit the milling of fine flour and the importation of tea and coffee—higher medical and dietary authorities having decided all these latter to be injurious—in order to improve the physical condition of the people!

Compulsory Prohibition, according to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., “only leads to drinking in worse forms than under the old system.” Count Tolstoi, in speaking of the Prohibition movement in America expressed the belief that “the people in America seem to be tending in a wholly wrong direction in this matter.” Justin McCarthy, M.P., alludes to Prohibition in the United States as a “gross and ludicrous imposture.” President Andrew D. White refers to the theory and practice as regards the drink problem as “pernicious.” Sir William Treloar, former Lord Mayor of London, calls these restrictive measures “ridiculous.” Bishop Hall, of Vermont, asserts that “Prohibition drives underground the mischief which it seeks to cure.”

Thousands of good, well-informed citizens of this country, high in public and social life, many of these leaders in religious sentiment and thought, are united in the belief that Prohibition begins at the wrong end of the matter, and they renounce it as not only weak, inefficient and impractical, but destructive to the American ideals. The art of self-control, public and scientific education, an understanding of hygienic and healthful living, proper social and economic development and surroundings: in these lie the true solution of the problem of intemperance; and not at all in sumptuary laws and prohibitory legislation, simply because these latter “put the cart before the horse,” strike at effects and not at causes.