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