Thomann On Prohibition

Editor Argus:- The following brief extract from Mr. Thomann's work on the effects of intemperance, I think, is especially pertinent to the present discussion of the local option question with with your permission, I will here lay it before your readers:
"In dealing with this question, lawmakers should bear in mind that the use of intoxicants is not a vice, but a perfectly proper enjoyment of great physical, intellectual and moral benefit to the individual, and of inestimable ethical and material advantage t' society; that the abuse of inebriating liquors is a vice, and that. while society is warranted in protecting itself against the effects of inebriety, the method of such protection should not in the least affect the liberty of action of the drinker, but should hold the drunkard responsible, not, indeed, for drinking to excess, but for such harm as he may do to others. The wise law-maker should also consider that all laws aimed at the proper use of intoxicants are unjust, because detrimental to the happiness and well-being of the majority; that they are immoral, because they create a host of law-breakers. corrupt morals, aggravate the evils of intemperance by driving the people to the use of ardent spirits, and by placing the drinker in circumstances which inevitable lead to excesses; that they are tyrannical, because they infringe upon the personal liberty of all; that they are economically pernicious, because they aim to destroy many branches of industry and agriculture, in which enormous sums of money are invested, and upon which thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers depend for a livelihood; and, finally, that they are socially dangerous, inasmuch as they do away with many opportunities for recreation and popular amusement, and thus destroy the very means by which social advancement and refinement can be effected.
"The discrimination between use and abuse, drinker and drunkard, should determine the character and scope of the laws for the regulation of the liquor traffic; for if it be perfectly honorable and legitimate to drink intoxicants, it must of necessity be honorable and legitimate to sell them; hence, it is unjust to the last degree to place the upright, law-abiding citizens, who sell distilled or fermented liquors, on the same legal footing with the proprietors of disreputable drinking places. The evil influence of disreputable resorts upon the safety and morality of society cannot be paralysed by declaring the whole traffic to be dishonorable, nor will it meet the ends of justice and the requirements of society to persecute the innocent on the pretense of restraining the guilty. Experience teaches us that such a course invariably injures the honorable dealer, while it positively benefits the guilty, and consequently aggravates the evils against which it is alleged to be directed. The fiscal policy in reference to the sale of intoxicating drinks should be so regulated as to promote temperate drinking habits and diminish drunkenness, and this, as we have shown by scores of examples, can be accomplished by favoring all the milder intoxicants, without, however, placing unreasonable restrictions upon the sale of ardent liquors. Under the operations of such laws temperance will flourish without other external aid than that, which may be expected from the influence of good examples and the power of moral suasion."