tainly entitled to credence from the fearless, independent character 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 presented 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 explained, 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 village 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 exclusively 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 questions, and Homer and Herodotus declared that "prohibitory laws would save men from becoming beasts." If the author will turn to his copy of Rollin'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
