Temperance vs. Prohibition
Everett, William
TEMPERANCE VS. PROHIBITION By WILLIAM EVERETT MY OWN observation for the last half-century, as regards the relative advantages of temperance and total abstinence, has been somewhat narrow...
...PROHIBITION By WILLIAM EVERETT MY OWN observation for the last half-century, as regards the relative advantages of temperance and total abstinence, has been somewhat narrow and restricted, but perhaps this very limitation has made it more thorough as far as it went, as "in the narrow circle of the watch-maker's eye...
...An Irishman came here right from the old country, an honest working-man possessed of the true Irish humor, but too much addicted to drink...
...As regards the final outcome between wet and dry, the future is exceedingly obscure...
...for the followers of the crowd are so apt to go from one extreme to the other...
...These families may loosely be divided into three groups...
...On the other hand there are many who look with disfavor on the present condition of things, yet fear that worse still might follow in the wake of too pronounced a change...
...Climbing up laboriously by means of whiffle tree, britchen and crupper, he remarked to my father "Arrah thin, I'm a leetle asthrraddle...
...for the families which I have known best have been here that length of time, and their family history down to the last detail, is still—as it always has been—common property of the neighborhood...
...How often we read that the children of a hard drinker are certain to be degenerate...
...and those who have always practised temperance in the use of wine, cider and various liquors, at times verging on intemperance...
...Now I do not believe for a moment that it was drink which gave them the power to go ahead, but I do firmly believe that the man who lacks the power to face temptation and hold it firmly in check, but must needs run away from it, also lacks, in most cases, the power to achieve what is commonly termed success...
...In spite of this habit he earned enough to buy land and build a house on it...
...yet since they have received the greatest publicity, let us now look on the other side...
...I am going to hazard three guesses as follows: (1) That by calling out the entire force of law and government control, the manufacture and sale of all alcohol beverages will be stopped...
...I have named a half-century as the period of my observation, but I might almost as well make it three centuries...
...I could name plenty of old families hereabout that tip the scales the other way, but I must avoid too obvious personalities and I am only going to risk the description of one family of later comers...
...2) That the actual impossibility of enforcing the law, will in time be brought home to the people of the country at large, and the law in question will be repealed...
...Of course our families have intermarried more or less as one generation followed another, but, contrary to a theory which appears to have become somewhat popular of late, local observation points out very clearly that inheritance goes down only on the male side...
...History, I think, fails to record any conflict wherein the two sides were quite so evenly matched, as far as numbers go at least...
...The drink was stronger thin myself that time...
...Those few which have run down because of overindulgence in drink by the men...
...Such cases unquestionably occur...
...3) That the law will stand forever just as it is now, as have the old "blue laws" of a past generation, and like those will be completely forgotten by most of us and our descendants...
...It is from this last group—almost without exception—that have sprung the men who have gone ahead and made a name for themselves in law, medicine, education, art, literature and the affairs of town, state and government...
...Some signs point one way and some the other...
...One summer evening as he reined up the two-horse milk wagon in front of our barn, he pitched headforemost down between the horses...
...His son— likewise addicted to drink—was honest and industrious between his sprees, and married the daughter of a local family who had also been hard drinkers for several generations, yet their sons and daughters live here now, healthy, sober and industrious, with children of their own who promise well for the future...
...Physical and mental characteristics of grandfather, greatgrandfather and great-great-grandfather keep cropping up, clear cut and unmistakable, but I have never known or heard mentioned an instance of daughter or son showing any of the strongly marked traits or physical characteristics of the grandmother or great-grandmother, though these women of a past generation were possessed of strong, earnest personalities and exerted an influence equal to that of the men in affairs generally...
...If the drys were really so sure of being in the majority, would they not be foremost in calling for a counting up which would so greatly strengthen their cause...
...in which case the great multitudes who now vote dry without practising self-control on their own part, including bootleggers and moonshiners and all who prosper because of that law, will come over to the wet side in a body, and, demanding a referendum, tip the balance in favor of repeal...
...It would naturally appear safe to assume that the side which felt surest of a majority would be the one most likely to call for a count of heads, and it is the wets who call for a referendum while the drys oppose it...
...Sons and daughters alike are apt to bear closer resemblance to their mother than to their father, but this inheritance on the female side seems to come to an end, and in classifying our local families into these three groups I have depended wholly upon the family surname...
...those which, owing to a tendency in that direction, have sworn off entirely for a generation or two and not only practised total abstinence, but endeavored to force it upon everyone else...
...Just what the final outcome will be, who can say...
Vol. 12 • June 1930 • No. 6
