Prohibition Fallacies. (PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT).

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 14, 1 July 1899, Page 3

Prohibition Fallacies. (PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT).

Man fears the lion's kingly tiead ; Man feais the tigei's fangs of terror : But man himself is most to diead When mad with hocial error.

For the information of readers of this column, we print the following. — '- A despatch trom Portland, Maine, announcing the death of Hon. 0. W. Goddard gives the following brief account of the life of the deceased :—: — " He was one of the foremost citizens of Portland, as he was of his native State, and had held many prominent offices of trust during his career. He was born Dec. 29, 1825, was graduated from Bowdoin College at the head of his class in 1844 and from the Harvard Law School tvo yeais later. Ho began the practice of law at Auburn, being the fir.st attorney in Andioscoggin County, and in 1858 was elected to a seat in the State Senate, of which he was made President in 1859. Under Lincoln he represented the country at Constantinople as Con&ul-General from 1861 to 1865, and on his return re-opened his law practice at Portland. He was Judge of the Cumberland County Superior Court from 1868 to 1871, was Postmaster of Portland from 1871 to ISB4, Sole Commissioner for the revision of the Maine Statutes, 1881-1883 and had been Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the Maine Medical School since 1872. Clutha is not forgotten ; it will be referred to later on.

The following is an extract from a publication entitled MISTAKES OF PIIOHIBITIONISTS, Wiitten by John Muclie, N.Y., 1889. As is well known, the vote on the Constitutional Amendments took place in Septeinbei, 1884, at the same time that the election of the Governor of the State of Maine was held, being about two months previous to the Presidential contest. It is well known, also, that the election of the Governor on that occasion possessed a deep interest for both of the great political paities, because of the influence their then meassure of strength was expected to have on the ensuing Presidential election, and therefore each party wanted to secure for their candidate the support of the Prohibitionists. Much to the chagrin of ttie political Prohibitionists, their General supported Mr Blame lor the Prebidencv, instead of the Prohibi tionist candidate, Mr. St. John ; and shortly after that election, in order to quiet the murnaurings of his co workers at what he had done, he naively published over his own signature, as if he were merely relating a ei editable instance of diplomatic smartness, a statement to the effect that he had made a secret agreement with the leaders of the Republican Party, by which they were to support the Amendment and he was to support Mr Blame, and that he had in this way secured a strong vote. Hence that vote cannot be relied on to prove the success of Prohibition ; on the contrary, the only lesson it teaches is that after moie than thirty years' expenence by the citizens of Maine of the benefits which Piohibition is claimed to confer, the originators and supporters of that law were afraid to leave the' question to a test vote of those citizens on its own merits, and resorted to the dark ways of political intrigue to secure a majority vote, although intrigue necessitated the glaring inconsistency of a broiiking away bj them from the Presidential candidate who was brought out and supported by the Prohibition party throughout the rest of the Union. A much batter test took place at the Gubernatorial contest in Maine, during,. September, 1885, when the Prohibition candidate, after the most strenuous efforts of his party, did, not receive one-fortieth part as .many votes as were given to the Republican and Democratic candidates.

* PrM&n systems m AusSiaaa are very much the same, says Colonel Hume, as they are here, only the chokeys there Are bigger.' ,