1904), through which the strong grow stronger and find a freedom that makes life worth living. . . . It remains as heretofore and will be the law of the life of man to the last ages, that those who cannot stand the strain and pressure of moral requirements will perish."
Legislation, he averred, has little effect on morals or character. Rum, brandy, whisky, for example, always will exist. They belong to the domain of human knowledge. To try to suppress the knowledge is absurd. "All that can be done rationally is to teach, or try to teach, the error of misuse of them (May 2, 1909). Restraint of sale is well. Still, however, there must be left some quantity of choice in the use of them even in the abuse of them. This is absolute. It gives the reason why prohibition never can be enforced." Indians of Oregon, before whites came to the country, knew nothing of alcoholic liquors. "But had they the virtue of 'temperance?' Not at all. Though they never got drunk, temperance was a virtue they did not know. . . . Those who think that by prohibiting liquor they can make men temperate are as absurd as those who suppose that they can make men honest by never trusting them with anything they can steal. Moral strength is created only by allowing liberty of choice between right and wrong; by marking the difference between right use of a thing and actual abuse of it. All other miseries in the world are insignificant as compared with those that attend abuse of the sexual function. But does the genuine reformer endeavor to abolish the sexual relation? Rather does he not insist that one of the chief duties of life is to refrain from abuse of it?" (September 2, 1889.)
Often the critics of Mr. Scott urged that since the law forbids theft and murder, makes their acts crimes and punishes them with severity, the law can also forbid liquor selling, make it a crime, and enforce penalties for its violation. Mr. Scott replied that murder and theft are crimes per se and so regarded the world over; but liquor selling is sanctioned by public opinion because men recognize a proper and sober use of liquors. Reform of vice, in the Editor's view, rests with those who have
