s one wishes to live." Moreover, as
in the United States the medieval confusion between vice and crime still
subsists among a section of the population, being a part of the national
tradition, it became easy to regard the drinking of alcohol as a crime
and to make it punishable. Hence we have "Prohibition," which has
prevailed in various States of the Union and is especially associated
with Maine, where it was established in a crude form so long ago as 1846
and (except for a brief interval between 1856 and 1858) has prevailed
until to-day. The law has never been effective. It has been made more
and more stringent; the wildest excuses of arbitrary administration have
been committed; scandals have constantly occurred; officials of iron
will and determination have perished in the faith that if only they put
enough energy into the task the law might, after all, be at last
enforced. It was all in vain. It has always been easy in the cities of
Maine for those to obtain alcohol who wished to obtain it. Finally, in
1911, by a direct Referendum, the majority by which the people of Maine
are maintaining Prohibition has been brought down to 700 in a total poll
of 120,000, while all the large towns have voted for the repeal of
Prohibition by enormous majorities. The people of Maine are evidently
becoming dimly conscious that it is worse than useless to make laws
which no human power can enforce. "The result of the vote," writes Mr.
Arthur Sherwell, an English social Reformer, not himself opposed to
temperance legislation, "from every point of view, and not least from
the point of view of temperance, is eminently unsatisfactory, and it
unquestionably creates a position of great difficulty and embarrassment
for the authorities. A majority of 700 in a total poll of 120,000 is
clearly not a sufficient mandate for a drastic law which previous
experience has conclusively shown cannot be enforced successfully in the
urban districts of the State." Successful enforcement of prohibition on
a State basis would appear to be hopeless. The history of Prohibition in
Maine will for ever form an eloquent proof of the mischief which comes
when the ancient ecclesiastical failure to distinguish between the
sphere of morals and the sphere of law is perpetuated under the
conditions of modern life. The attempt to force men to render unto Caesar
the things which are God's must always end thus.

In these matters we witness in America the survival of an anci