ble and wicked?

A heathen emperor when appealed to for a tax on opium as a source of
revenue said: "I will not consent to raise the revenue of my country
upon the vices of its people." Yet this Christian republic, claiming
the noblest civilization of the earth, is found turning the dogs of
appetite and avarice loose upon the home life of the republic that
gold may clink in its treasury. The politician's excuse for this
compromise with earth's greatest destroyer is, it can never be
prohibited and therefore regulation and revenue is the best policy.

I can well remember when the same was said of slavery. With billions
of dollars invested in slaves, with a united South behind it and the
North divided, it could never be abolished. At that time the prospect
for the overthrow of slavery was far less than the prospect of
national prohibition today. I own I was among those who said "slavery
cannot be destroyed." Now I am one of the reconstructed. I'm like the
pig I used to read of, "When I lived I lived in clover, and when I
died I died all over."

During the Civil War Union soldiers arrested several of my neighbors
and took them to a northern prison. My southern blood was aroused. I
said: "Let a Yankee soldier come to take me and he will never take
another Kentuckian." Then my mother was alarmed. She knew how brave
her boy was. A few days later I met a squad of Yankee cavalry on the
road near our home. They said "Halt!" and I halted. They said
"Surrender!" I did so, and mother did not hear of any blood being
shed.

Again a half-drunk Union soldier rode up to our gate and said: "Who
lives here?" When I answered, he asked: "Can your mother get supper
for fourteen soldiers in thirty minutes?" "No, sir, she cannot," I
replied. Drawing a pistol, the mouth of which looked like a cannon's
mouth to me, he said: "Maybe you have changed your mind." I had, and
that supper was ready with several minutes to spare. We can, and we
_will_ stop the liquor business. I am amazed, however, to find so many
intelligent men of the North advocating the same policy on this liquor
problem the South adopted on the slavery question, which cost her so
severely. I find the same effect revenue in slaves had upon the
consciences of the tax-payers of the South, high-license revenue from
saloons is having upon the consciences of tax-payers in the North.

In the early days of slavery, when wealth in the institution was very
limited, the conscience of the