HOW TO CARRY PROHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 19787, 10 February 1928, Page 2

HOW TO CARRY PROHIBITION.

SO THE BDITOE. Sir,—One who has such unbounded faith in the power '’of the Gospel to achieve the above object will doubtless view with suspicion an ally who has no faith whatever in the proposed method, and who urges something more practical. ■ “ E.T.E.” writes of the only possible way to carry Prohibition ” as being an extensive and intensive preaching of Christianity, and confidently states that this procedure would result in the “ greatest possible vote” for that reform. A few moments’ nnbiased thought should be sufficient to convince anyone that preaching the Gospel will not and has not ever accomplished anything whatever in the way of practical reform. It may enthuse tnose who are already in the movement and who do not need conversion, but to propose Gospel preaching to the average men and women who have emphatically expressed their antagonism and indifference to religion is the acme of futility. In an age and in a country which resounds with complaints from the clergy of the wide•pread indifference to the Gospel message it seems more than ridiculous to propose that very method as a certain means to accomplish what sterner and more, practical- methods have so far failed to bring to fruition. To be efficacious the preaching of. the “ancient and only Gospel ” involves the partial or complete conversion of the community to belief in it and its message. It ! involves the .presentation of a case

toward such reforms as Prohibition, and the winemaking at Cana would be a serious stumbling block to the masses here. In short, it involves an amount of labor and sets a task to the Prohibitionist which is much harder than the carrying Of Prohibition itself, and can be likened to a person endeavoring to convey a precious package in an unwieldy out-of-gcar vehicle over a shifting sandy surface. So much for the case from a Prohibition point of view. From the viewpoint of an agnostic the prospect is even less pleasing or promising. “ E.T.E.” should carefully study reliable history, and ho would find it innocent of any record where the preaching of the Gospel has ever accomplished or even materially aided the passing of any reform or improvement in our social state. This being the case (and it is impossible for anyone to name a reform which has owed its inception and accomplishment to the Gospels or the preaching of the same), docs it not seem a trifle futile to propose now, when indifference is rampant, a method which was non-existent or futile when those same Gospels were both implicitly believed and listened to by the masses? -I am,.etc., E.W.F. February 10.