person agrees, by remaining a member of society, that he will contribute his talents, his industry, his economy to the support of the nation.

The nation has the right to the best exercise of all the talents of its citizens.

With what consistency can contributions be asked, when the capacity to render support has been destroyed by the tolerance of a business permitted only by statute? What are alcoholic beverages?

All drinks composed wholly or partially of alcohol. What is alcohol? An irritant narcotic poison, that is produced by decay and decomposition. Taken into the human stomach, it poisons the flesh, brutalizes the mind, degrades the sensibilities, and, sooner or later, destroys life. Gently it insinuates itself under the guise of pleasure, stimulant, relief from care, till too late the victim realizes he is no longer a man, but a slave. To what? An appetite that unconsciously carries him through life, every day increasing its power, while he becomes more helpless.

Soon the ties of affection that make home an Eden yield to the craving for drink. This motive for action and discharge of duty destroyed, the wretchedness, misery, calamity of want transforms the once producer of wealth, the noble man, the honest citizen, into a pauper, a drone, a burden on society. Want, stimulated by drink, sees the results of another's toil, and, unmindful of right or law, crime becomes his companion.

All the time his physical nature is being destroyed: health gives place to disease; impure blood courses with its freightage of death through his veins; and at last-a drunkard's grave, a ruined family! Appetite transmitted to bring forth like fruit in succeeding generations! Worse than all, a hell in which to pass the ages of eternity.

And this is a brief but truthful statement of alcohol and its work.

Can this, then, be a proper source of public revenue? Let facts and reason reply.

Can the nation br State tolerate an evil for the revenue to be produced therefrom? If yea, then license theft. The

thieves of this country would pour into the treasury of nation, States, and counties many fold more dollars than alcohol.

Let the burglar have legal sanction for his exploi and the national debt would be reduced infinitely n. rapidly than during the past years. Let prostitution dignified with official toleration, and no other tax need ever be asked.

But is the use of alcoholic beverages an evil? England, over three hundred years ago, by statute ⚫declared that no man engaged in the traffic in ardent spirits should fill any executive position. Why? Because the traffic was so degrading, so destructive of the true elements of manhood, so injurious to moral perceptions, that the man who dealt in intoxicants could not be trusted. In America, the retail traffic in intoxicants has always been by permission of statute law. The common law of the land shook the viper off its hand, and will not, does not, countenance the traffic.

And if the traffic has in England and America been hedged about and burdened with disabilities such as no other calling has been subjected to, why this, if the use of intoxicants has not been and is not regarded as evil?

And the very argument used by opponents of prohibition, viz., the traffic and use must be regulated and controlled, is an indictment against alcohol. Why must the strong hand of national power appoint storekeepers and gaugers to watch the distiller like he were a felon, if his is not an evil vocation? Why not place men to measure the corn and wheat of the miller, or require daily inspection of the shops of the carpenter, the shoemaker, the tailor? Why, but for the reason patent to all: the traffic so demoralizes men they cannot be trusted. And if the traffic and manufacture are so considered by Government, surely it must be because alcoholic drinks are evil, and that continually.

We are not left to this kind of testimony. Hear Science: "We are of opinion that the use of alcoholic liquor as a beverage is productive of a large amount of physical dis

ease; that it entails diseased appetites upon offspring; and that it is the cause of a large percentage of the crime and pauperism of our cities and country." Signed by Dr. Edward Delafield, and over 200 physicians of New York.

"As an article of daily use, alcoholic liquors produce the most deplorable consequences. Besides the moral degradation which they cause, their habitual use gives rise to dyspepsia, hypochondrisis, visceral obstructions, dropsy, paralysis; and not unfrequently mania." U. S. Dispensatory, published forty years ago, and still held as good authority.

Hear the Judiciary:

"From an early period in civilization in all countries the unrestricted sale of such drinks has been regarded as pernicious. Hence, as it is believed, in the code of laws in every civilized state it has at all times been regulated and put under restraint. In this respect, it has formed an exception to other legislative business, and it is believed to have resulted from humane feelings, and to suppress immorality, vice, crime, and disorder, and the other miseries that follow in its train. This restraint is not the peculiar growth of any particular political faith, or of any creed or sect, but seems to be a desire implanted in our nature to protect our race and kind from such evils. And it is implanted in the police power of the State, and may be exercised as the law-maker shall deem for the best interests of society. Its pernicious tendency would fully authorize its exercise, even to its ABSOLUTE prohibition as an article of sale." Supreme Court of Illinois, City of Chicago v. Franz Schuecherr.

"The effect of the entire legislation upon the liquortraffic has been not to encourage persons to embark in the business, but to hedge it about with restrictions and qualifications, and overshadow it with fines and penalties. The whole course of legislation on this subject prevents any presumption being indulged that this traffic, like other employments, adds to the wealth of the nation or to the convenience of the public. The presumption is thus declared,

in almost express terms, to be that the traffic is injurious. to the public interests, and hence the rule protecting other employments does not apply to this one, and therefore it cannot be said to be within the rule." Supreme Court of Indiana, Harrison et al. v. Lockhart.

"It is not necessary to array the appalling statistics of misery, pauperism, and crime which have their origin in the use and abuse of ardent spirits.

"The police power, which is exclusively in the State, is competent to the correction of these great evils, and all measures of restraint or prohibition necessary to effect that purpose are within the scope of that authority, and if a loss of revenue should accrue to the United States from a diminished consumption of ardent spirits, she will be a gainer a thousandfold in the HEALTH, WEALTH, and HAPPINESS of the PEOPLE." U. S. Supreme Court, Justice Grier, 5 Howard, fol. 532.

Hear modern History as to the effect of the use of ardent spirits on crime.

In the International Congress for the Prevention and Repression of Crime, held in London, July 3 to 13, 1872, this question, among others, was asked by the United States Commissioner, viz.:

What, in your opinion, are the principal causes of crime in your country?"

To which the following answers were furnished, officicially, by the Governments of the respective countries named, and are here given, taking the countries in alphabetical order:

AUSTRIA.

'As principal causes of crime in Austria may be named, besides dislike to work and the desire for luxuries and license in the country, want of education, as well as the poverty so closely allied to ignorance." Report, page 20.

BELGIUM.

"The principal causes of crime are in the army, want of occupation, and the system of substitution. In civil life they are the oblivion of religious and moral principles,

ignorance of duty, want of a business, the creation of factitious wants, drunkenness, libertinism, thoughtlessness, distaste of work, and idleness." Page 37.

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DENMARK.

"The most frequent crime is the violation of the right of property. More than 70 per cent. of our convicts are sentenced for theft. The cause of these crimes is rarely undeserved distress, but most frequently idleness, desire for unlawful or lawful pleasures, and habits of drinking. These vices generally result from or are associated with a neglected education." Page 41.

FRANCE.

"The absolute terms of this question render a categorical reply impossible; but there is reason to believe that in France, as in many other countries, the insufficiency of moral education, the general defect of intellectual culture, and the want of any industrial calling not opposing to the appetites and instincts a barrier sufficiently strong, leave an open road to crimes and misdemeanors." Page 90.

BAVARIA.

"Rough manners and customs. In some parts of Bavaria it is still the custom of the peasants to carry long, stiletto-like knives when visiting public-houses and dancing-places, and thus on Sundays and holidays the smallest cause often leads them to inflict on each other severe injuries." Page 111.

PRUSSIA.

"In proportion to the whole number of crimes, there are few cases in which crime arises from poverty or misery. Generally, it springs from a completely neglected education, dislike of work, drunkenness, or, rather, a lust after. immoderate and ruinous luxury and debauchery." Page 127.

MEXICO.

"Among the most general causes of crime in our coun