May 5.
Discussion concerning the prohibition laws in the United States is so contentious and confusing, a8 our own cor respondence columns have recently shown, that it well to state clearly our po:
order to remove existing misunderstandings, With all wisely directed movements to promote the physical and moral welfare of mankind the "North-
China Daily News" is in hearty sympathy. Therefore it approves all efforts to eliminate drunkenness and to improve the which $0 often conduce to it.
We advocate the safeguarding of children from temptations to intemperance, and the closing of the drinking so) United States we much needed reform because these places were usually as-nodated with everything that was vile in political and social life. But when prohibitionists go much further and declare that the one and only way to suppress drunkenness is to make the consumption of even weak alcoholic beverages an offence against the law, and when they upbraid other countries for not taking the same prohibitive me join issue with thi ground that the success of prohibition has not yet been proved, and that the citizens of 4 free country should not he deprived of their individual moral freedom. As to statements concerning the efficacy or otherwise of prohibition, all that we publish are impartially drawn from American sources. It is regrettable these statements are contradictory. On one side it is alleged that prohibition has brought the millennium; on the other, there is the equal-positive' assertion that the country was never so near utter lawlessness and perdition as it is now. As the whole subject is ery complex, involving questions of politics, morals, physiology, biology and eugenics, it should be considered calmly, justly, and with an open mind.
It should be clearly understood that in what is here said the elimination of drunkenness is not the subject; the point in dispute concerns the control of harmless private acts of Individuala bythe "State Therefore our first question i has the State the right to formulate new moral principles, declaring acts to be morally or legally wrong which were never y held before, and which the citizen's own religion does not condemn. The question almost answers itself. With all respect we ask, is the average politician or the average voter in the "United States' really competent to exercise this spiritual power? Do the legislative bodies, whether Congress Washington or the State legis-tures, evoke the loyalty, reverence, and confidence of the American people? It may be contended that: the State as a purely political organization has the inherent right to enact any Inws it deems necessary, re-gardies of the rights that may be claimed by the individual. This is, or was, the German contention. The German people practically worshipped the State ami sold their souls to it. They accepted implicitly the pronouncement of one of their greatest philosophers that the State "tis the absolute power on earth; it is its own end and ob-. ject; it, is the ultimate end which has the highest right against the individual." Under this system of government the nation unquestionably became very efficient. What was the end? Having surrendered their moral freedom, the nation followed their - leaders blindly, and terrible disasters came when the leaders went astray. On the other. hand, English writers of political influence maintain that the power of the State to eon-' trol the private life of the individual should be confined within very narrow limits, as they believe that it is only' through moral freedom and the training' which it gives that a people can reach its highest political and moral development.
We can logically take our stand on cither side but we ought not to change from one side to the other according to our predilections. The Prohibitionists, consciously or not, stand for the absolute power of the State, and in doing so they condemn their ancestors who fought against the State because they held there should be no taxation without representa tion, also their Pacifist friends who had conscientious objec tions to army service. If an 'American patriot and orator of this generation, a Patrick Henry, were to' exclaim passion ately, "Give me Liberty or me Death," the Prohibition fats would reply, "No, Patrick Henry, we cannot give you liberty as we are afraid you may abuse it; you must drink water whether you like it or not. Nor shall we give you death, unless you happen to drink impure water without first boiling or filtering it." This is pater-rialism in government carried to an, extreme degree. The moderate consumption of alcohol is not per se a moral offence, and in the long run the State is best served when its citizens are morally free.
Next, as to the ideal of the Prohibitionists. What are their ultimate hopes and expectations? One of our correspondents, eloquent and enthusiastic, confidently predicts that when all Americans are total abstainers, "then in wealth, health, charac ter, power and achievement, America will show the world to what heights a self-governing people can rise when freed from the chains of alcohol." This is splendid. But there is one fallacy. It is quietly assumed that alcohol is the root of all evil, and that abstainers are shining patterns of all the virtues, Unfortunately, the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil remain even when alcohol is banished. There are nationalities at the present day which have religiously abstained from alcohol for hundreds of yet they are not at all remarkable for, their moral and political progress; indeed, it would be interesting to obtain the opinions of Greeks and Armenians concerning the moral qualities of one of the most noted of these nations as manifested during the Great. War and afterwards. Another correspondent wrote a week ago! that Prohibition is an experiment in efficiency and that as Tong as the results of the law are financially beneficial, it will not be repealed. Efficiency in what? In these days of scienti-fie burglary, efficient burglars are probably total abstainers. Is efficiency an end in itself, to be worshipped as Oriental fishermen long ago used to worship their nets? Some Americans appear to think so. An Ameri-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.