RATIONAL LIBERTY AND TRUE TEMPERANCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12587, 18 October 1911, Page 3

RATIONAL LIBERTY AND TRUE TEMPERANCE.

SHORT PAPERS IN DEFENCE OF THE REASONABLE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL LIBERTY AS AGAINST PROHIBITON. By Professor Salmond (Mental and Moral Philosophy, Otago University).

Controversy being inevitable, and fit ted also to servo a purpose m the ascertainment of truth, it is a pity that disputants become angry and begin to impute vile motives and evil hearts to each other. There is then an end of all pro fit ; the vision becomes blind ; and antagonists, losing self-possession, hit out wildly m the dark. Yet it is haid to avoid this. Indeed, most men dislike the balanced fairness that makes the atmosphere feel cold and relaxes the fighting muscles. But if mutual imputation of evil motives is trying, it is still more trying when one side assumes that all nobility of sentiment is on their side, andthatf their opponents are m league with the Prince of Darkness. This is very common m the prohibition controversy. Prohibitionists are certain that they are inspired by the purest and loftiest sentiments, as. indeed they often are ; and, were purity of sentiment a guarantee for soundness of judgment, who could stand before them? But they assure us, sometimes quite .plainly, ofttimes by indirect allusions, that their opponents are men without hearts or feelings, are blind to the miseries caused by intemperanpe, have no proper enthusiasm of humanity, have no moral zeal, assume their attitude of hostility because they have a secret passion for drink and will not sacrifice an. animal appetite to a higher end, have shares m a brewery and are afraid of pecuniary loss, and so on. They cannot thin^i it possible that their opponents are animated by. sincere convictions and sustained by motives as pure and lofty as their own. Why, then, do we assume an attitude of hostility to a movement which means so well?

First of all, we dread the prospect of this young nation plunging into a form of plausible, emotional legislation, such as has been tried many times and has always failed, and must needs fail; aoid we know how much easier it is to get out of it without damage. Personal freedom of thought, speech, action m the guidance of our home and social life is a priceless boon, purchased at a great cost of tears and blood, and we find it threatened by a harsh legislation which, to be successfully carried out, must involve a power to enter our home and search our sideboards and our oellars ; and we note with concern that prohibition has a passion for forbidding rind restricting, following up every success by further demands for fresh restrictions to make the previous efficient. We protest against a statute that will make it a crime for any man m normal health to be found m -possession of a bpttle oi wine, and, for that grievous fault alone, put him m the dock -with a thief. We desire to hold the laws of the land m honor, and dread' the passing of such measures as will make our an object of contempt to many and create m their minds an attitude of defiance ; and such must be the issue of the imposition of harsh restrictions which, receive no support from the moral conscience. We do not wish to see the country divided into two hostile camp© scowling defiance at each other, the one with the severe frown of Puritanic rigour, the other with the indignant glare of souls smarting under a wanton wrong. We cherish sincere alarm at the prospect of "drug stores" at every street corner, much occupied m "dispensing" prescriptions, easily obtainable from certain duly-qualified medical practitioners, . who will regard it as a laudable virtue to use any means to evade or outwit absurd and unjust laws. We do not wish to see the country flooded with falsehood, perjury, moral cowardice, and duplicity, such aa arfe inevitably called forth by laws which are too repressive, and run a tilt against common human nature and convert innocent acts into «rimel «..We fear the creation of a moral pestilerice walking iv Htericuess, m truth -worse thanthe * destruction that wasteth -at. noonday. We shrink with becoming " 'dislike from the introduction of a regime that will inflict a- feeling of humiliation on the greater part of the manhood of the land by bringing, them under a moral tutelage fit'only ,?or children and savages. We fear that the success. of prohibition may ,convert, ,us into a nation of smug, self-satisfied Pharisees, Svell assured that we are a model to all mankind, m the vanguard of humanity, a holy nation and peculiar people, while at the same time we are laden with all the common sins of menj and distinguished only by being sober under compulsion. But enough for- an instalment, although we have not told yet half . the tale. There is no use saying that the above is a mere fancy picture. Perhaps it is ; and perhaps the drawn of the millennium to follow prohibition is also a fancy picture. That is not the point at present. Their convictions and ours alike create certain motives which move us respectively in* opposite directions ; and our motives will bear comparison with theirs, both m respect of the ills we deprecate and the* benefits we wish to reach or to conserve.***