Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1867-11-15

Ar0oAOtssOn q Failure!
The success Of the Democracy in
carrying a few license States, like
New York and New Jersey. has ON
b"ldencd them to renew their attacks
upon the s;roneho'as Of t.mperanco.
'" the hope of creating a sentiment,
opposed to ~rrohihi,ion and in favor of
license laws, or their equivalent. free
whisky. A deviIish cause Of course
makes use Of dcvilish means 70 &c.
comrlish its purposes. Hence the
cry that prohibition il a failure
wherever tried. The "lamp of cx-
r~criencc" aifnrds the cira. cat light
upon this subject, and We have only
TO examine the record to discover that
not only is prohibition not . failure.
but that with effective machinery to
secure their observance, prohibi.
tory laws become unusually Of.
fective. The lies of the Dc.
mocracy become ridiculous when
their ~nakedness is made manifest bv
such reports as that of Joshua Nye.
Esq, Chief of the State Constabulary
Of Maine. Mr.. Nye states tina. two
years ago there were $500 bars in
Maine, while q there are only about
500 places in the State where liquor
can be procured, and no open bars
whatever. Not ~nne-tenth as much
liquor is now sold in the State as in
1865. Drunkenness is almos. IN
known. Even those classes Of the
population which formerly made
whisky almost rs much a part of their
creed as bread, find it impossible to
obtain their coveted beverage and are
rapidly becoming useful citizens. The
advantages Of prohibition are seen on
every hand, in the greater prosperity
Of those formerly addicted to drink
ing, and in the universal prevalence
cf"law and order" All these glori-
results have been attained through
a stringent prohibitors law and =
State Constabnlary Of a Chief and
twenty-five men. Here, then, are the
glorious facts which display the black
ness of the Democratic lie which pro-
nounces prohibition q failure. In our
" State we have a prohibi,ory law
only IN name, We call it~prohibi,ory
for convenience in nomenclature. 1t
does pretend to prohibit the sale a. q
beverage Of strong liquors, but at the
same time it opens a direc, method Of
evasion by legalizing the sale of beer
and native wine. 1, is the screen of
weak liquors covering the strong
which makes the enforcement Of the
law difficult We would not belittle
the blessings Of even our imperfect
law. for its moral influence is certain
y far superior to that of license laws,
bat we need inst such a law a. il now
proving such q blessing to Maine. We
need q law which makes no compro-
mise with King Alcohol and the devil.
but which prohibits the sale, as a bev-
erage, Of all Intoxicating liquors. We
need also appointed officers whose es-
pecis! business should be to ferret out
and briag to punishment all violators
OF the law. In Massachusetts,, where
the success Of this systeia has been
Only less decided than in Maine. not
only have the expenses Of the Con-
~stabulary been met by the 6ncs i'm
posed, but the surplus fines have ex-
cecdcd 100000. Doubtless all the
expenses Of . constabulary in our own
State wonld be fully met by the fnes
secured from violators Of the Law.
There could then be no financial OBJ
to o constabulary system.
Conservatism is cntirely out Of place
in dealing with Alcohol. Its whole
spirit is that of the devil, and must be
treated accordingly iftreated success
fully. We are confident the puD..:.e
sentiment Of Buchanan County will
strongly uphold our mcusbcrs Of the
next General Assembly in favoring
any law whose effect shall I've to drive
drinking saloons OFT Of our State. We
congratulate the people Of the county
that w. G. Donnan and r. C. Wilcox
are Favorable to radical temperance
kgislation.