RATIONAL LIBERTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 84, 22 November 1911, Page 5

RATIONAL LIBERTY.

(By Professor Salmond.) - Controversy being inevitable and fitted also to serve a purpose in 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 to all profit; the vision becomes blind; and antagonists, losing selfpossession, hit out wildly in the dark. Let it is hard 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, and that

their opponents are in league wibu the Prince of- Darkness. This is very 1 common in 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 of of judgment, who could stand,' before .them But they, assure ,usj plainly, .oft*--times . -by ~£ i ndfi\ect(allusions, that their ppponqnts [j are . men without hearts pr; feelings,. are blind to the miseries caused by intemperance, 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 in a brewery and are afraid of pecuniary loss, and so on. ' They cannot think it possible that 1 their opponents are animated by sincere convictions and sustained by motives as' 1 pure and; lofty as their own.'' Why, then, : -do' wo:assume an attitude of hostility to a movement which means so well? First'df all, we dread the prospect of this.‘young’nation phihging into a form of plausible, ‘emotional legislation such l as lias been tried many times and has always Tailed, and must needs fail; and ,we know how much easier it' is to get into a quagmire than it is to get out of it without damage. Personal freedom of thought, speech, action in the guidance of our home and social life is a priceless boon, purchased at a 1 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 cellars ; and we note with cbncenTthat prohibition has a passion for forbidding and 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 in normal health to be found in possession of a bottle of wine, and, for that grievous fault alone, put him in the dock with the thief. We desire to hold the laws of the land in honour, and dread the passing of such measures as will make our legislation an object of contempt to many and create in their minus 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 camps 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 in “dispensing” prescriutions, easily obtainable from certain duly qualified medical practitioners, who will regard it as a laudable virtue to use any menlls 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 as arc inevitably called forth by laws which are too repressive, arid run a tilt against common human nature and convert innocent acts into crime. We fear'the crea.tion of a moral pestilence walking in darkness, in truth worse than the destruction that wastetli 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 for children and savages. AVe fear that the success of prohibition may convert us into a nation of smug, self-satisfied Pharisees, well assured that we are a model to all mankind, in the vanguard of humanity and a holy nation and peculiar people, while at the same time wo are Laden with all the common sins of men, and distinguished oply by being sober under .compulsion. But enough for an instalment, although we have not told yet hall the tale There is no use saying that the above is a mere fa hey picture. Perhaps it is; and perhaps the picture 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 more us respectively in opposite directions - and our motives will bear comparison with

theirs, both in r<>sp’ct of tne ills wo deprecate and tlio benefits we wish to reach or to conserve." -