The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1872-03-28


AS the temperance movement is exciting
considerable attention throughout the country
on account of the chief spirits of the cause
having determined to carry temperance into
politics, we reprint the following excellent ar
ticle from the pen of Theodore Tilton of the
Golden Age. The Good Templars in Oregon
have expressed their intention of making de-
votion to the cause of temperance test or
qualification for office; and the members of
the same order in Walla Walla county, w. t.,
have also resolved to support no one for Office
who is not in favor of total abstinence. They
say they will not vote for any man for any
Office who will not pledge himself in favor of a
prohibtory law. In Oregon, the faithful in
the cause have also added a woman suffrage
plank to their platform; and as we understand
Templar Order in Idaho have been endeavor-
lug to shape matters as to WELD the Order as
political engine, in the future, in this Terri
tory, in the hope of procuring the passage of u
prohibtory law by the Legislature, we COM
mend careful perusal and consideration of
the following article from one of the most de-
voted friends of the cause of temperance in
our country; one who does not permit his zeal
to outrun his discretion, but who takes plain.
common-sense view of the subject:
The best use to make of wine is not to drink
d. .,af1
based upon observation of the ruin wrought
by the drinking customs Of society, we see no
hope of practical prevention by legislative pro-
hibiton Wherever tried thus far, prohibtory
liquor-lawS have been failure. If they could
be n success, if they could cure the hideous
evil at which they are aimed, ii they could ac-
tually enact total abstinence, we would stamp
them indeIibly upon every statute book in the
country But the experiment has been suffi-
ciently tried, both in Maine and elsewhere. to
warrant US in abandoning prohibition, and to
seek "a more excellent way"
Perhaps the w.makers of Illinois have
found it. At all events, they have enacted n
statute which promises gain to the temper
ance cause. 1t is license law OF great strln-
eency, requiring parties who wish to sell liquor,
10 obtain license. to give bonds sufficient to
satisfy all claims for damages, aud to refuse to
sell tO minors and drunken persons On the
other hand, the law enables parents, husbands
wives, and children to sue the liquor-dealer tor
selling in violation of law. and to recover dam
ages Tor his crime against the welfare of their
families. Ii reasonably we-eXecuted, this law
will frequently present the spectacle OF the
drunkard's wife summonng her husbands
poisoner before a tribunal of iastice and pun
lshment. In every such case, the court should
execute Judgment as with a whip OF small
cords. .
Great hopes are entertained of this measure
We share them-but not in an over r,sangulne
degree. Wine is "mocker," and it nocks
legislation. LegIslate as we may, we cannot
make our laws rs strong as our liquors. The
remedy (if there is one) Is to be found, not so
much in strengthening the laws. as in weaken
ing the liquors. To this end, if men 'CiH per-
sist "in putting an enemy into their mouths TO
steal away their brains" we favor the growth
and use of the lighter wines. That is to say,
we do not recommend any wines ut all for
their own sake; we repeat that the best use
oven for the lghtest wines is to divorce them
forever from human lips; but between strong
drinks and light wines-there is all the differ
ence between drunkenness and sobrlety. be-
tween crime and order, between vice and vir-
tue. Light wines do not degrade men TO the
gutter; they do not turn men into brutes; they
do not set the blood on fire of hell. But strong
drinks-whisky, rum, gin, brandy-go stagger-
ing up and down our streets like so many as
sassins of society; they are wild beasts that
prey upon mankind; they are pirates against
the human soul ss
1t seems to us, therefore, that the progress
of temperance in this country is in future to
be practically based on two expedients. One
is a stringent license law, giving the drunkard's
wife chance to throttle and mulct her hus-
bands enemy; and the other is the cultivation
of the grape, and the consequent introduction
of those more innocent wines that mitigate the
fiery heats which men now rashy kindle III
their blood to the risk of their lives.
DRowNED.-The Dalles Mountdineer of