Omaha daily bee., 1882-11-14

flying before the committee appointed
to uncove their frauds.
PROHIBITION AND THE ELEC-
TIONs.
We shall hear less of prohibition al
a political issue. Tuesdays elections
have settled forever the question, and
popular opinion has asserted itself sc
strongly at the polls that the issue Of
sumptuary legislation is not likely ever
again to be dragged into the arena Of
party politics. Temperance will CON
tinue to be agitated, and very properly.
The propriety of high license laws
for taxing the traffic in liquor will still
be canvassed and their ~advisability
as party measures in legislatures may
be discussed, but the tyranny Of the
prohibition movement has received
it's death blow in the same election
which overthrow the tyranny of politi.
cal bosses. A glance over the field ia
only necessary to show how complete
and circumstantial the verdict was.
The prohibition issue entered into the
political struggle either directly
or indirectly in six . states. In
Ohio and Indiana the republi.
can party was credited with
favoring this invasion of personal lib.
erty. In neither vas a ~prohibitory
law directly voted upon. In conse-
quencs the attack of the opponents of
prohibition was directed to the repub.
lican candidates with the result OF
alternating enough republican votes to
have cost the party the day If no other
influence had been at work. In Ne
braska fully 5000 republican votes
changed on the same account, and In
Wisconsin the loss Of three congress-
men was the result of like causes
But Iowa and Kansas are the monu-
mental examplesof the results Of party
trifing with the prohibition mania.
If any two states could have been
considered safely republican, they
were the ones. But, unfortunately
for republicanism, the party openly
identified itself with the prohibitions
lists. In both states a p%rohibitory
amendment was secured by republi-
can assistance, and voters on Novem-
Der 9TH expressed at the polls their
opinion of the measure and Its opera
ton. In Iowa a republican majority
of 10000 was cut down to $1,000, and
three members of congress were lost,
in a state where the average republi-
can majority in each district had been
5000. The reaction was 80 universal,
30 marked and so emphatic that there
can be no mistaking its meaning.
And Kansas, bleeding Kansas, whose
republicanism was deemed as solid and
unfinching as the Rock of Ages
which two years ago
a republican governor
BY a majority of 60,0s0 votes,
and went headlong into the prohibi.
ton net which he cast for the party
Kansas, the state of st. John, de-
feated the arch apostle of prohibition
ism by a rousing majority, and to
show just what that defeat meant,
elected the remainder of the republi-
can state ticket.
The people have pronounced their
verdict, and party managers will not
mistake its significance. The order
OF the universe cannot be overturned
by statutory enactment. Imprac-
legislation in the end
defeats itself, and the tyr
amy of undue and un-
necessary restraint is sooner or Ia.
ter repudiated by the people. Ne
braska has dealt with the temperance
question in q sensible and straightfor.
ward manner. It has i'm posed q high
license upon liquorselling, and thrown
the business into responsible hands.
1t has provided for its schools and
compelled the liquor dealers directly
and the liquor drinkers indirectly, to
contribute towards the maintenance
of her system of education. BY SO
much 1t has lightened the burden of
taxation. While prohibition means
free whisky, as has been proved in
every instance where the law has
gone In effect, q well enforced license
law means the repression of the worst
evils connected with the traffic. And
1t Is the appreciation of this fact
which made itself apparent in the late
elections, and which will prevent in
u wi state any further dalliance on
the part of republicsnism with the
prohibition bait.
ALTHOUGH the new congress will
not meet until a year from the coming
December, the scramble among demo-
cratic politicians for the speakership
has already begun. Among the can-
didstes already mentioned are Randall
of Pennsylvania, Morrison of Illinois,