nds of those who meant that it should be complete and accurate. One
fact elicited was, that the proportion of native-born citizens to the
whole number engaged in the business was less than one-sixth. Another
was, that over six thousand of these dram-sellers belonged to the
criminal class, and had suffered imprisonment, some for extended terms
in the State prison. And another was, that nearly four thousand of the
drinking-places which had been established under the fostering care of
State license laws were houses of ill-fame as well! Comment is
unnecessary.

We cannot lessen the evil nor abate the curse of drunkenness so long as
we license a traffic, which, from its essential hostility to all the
best interests of society, naturally falls into the hands of our worst
citizens, who persistently violate every salutory and restrictive
feature in the laws which give their trade a recognized existence.

What then? Is there any remedy short of Prohibition? We believe not.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PROHIBITION.

It has taken nearly half a century to convince the people that only in
total abstinence lies any hope of cure for the drunkard. When this
doctrine was first announced, its advocates met with opposition,
ridicule and even insult. Now it has almost universal acceptance. The
effort to hold an inebriate's appetite in check by any restriction that
included license, has, in all cases, proved so signal a failure, that
the "letting down," or "tapering off" process has been wholly abandoned
in inebriate asylums. There is no hope, as we have said, but in complete
abstinence.

NO REMEDY BUT PROHIBITION.

Is there any other means of cure for national drunkenness? The remedy of
license has been found as valueless for the whole people as restriction
for the individual. Appetite, when once depraved, becomes, in the
individual, lawless, exacting and unscrupulous; not hesitating to
trample on duty, justice, humanity and every public and private virtue.
It will keep no faith; it will hold to no pledge, however solemnly
taken. It must be wholly denied or it will be wholly master.

As in the individual, so in the nation, State or community. Appetite
loses nothing by aggregation; nor are the laws of its action changed. If
not denied by prohibition in the State, as by total abstinence in the
individual, it will continue to entail upon the people loss and ruin and
unutterable woes. License, restrictive permission, tax, all will be va